The National Basketball Association has reportedly finalized media rights contracts that will maintain The Walt Disney Company’s ESPN as a media rights partner and add Comcast’s NBC and Amazon’s Prime Video as new league partners. These 11-year agreements will be worth a collective $76 billion, according to a new report from Andrew Marchand of The Athletic, citing executives with direct knowledge of these deals. Warner Bros. Discovery, which had broadcast the NBA under properties it currently owns since 1984, could try and use contract language to match a deal. The company is reportedly expected to target Amazon’s package should it decide to go through with the effort.
The NBA Board of Governors will meet on Tuesday in Las Vegas, Nev., although it is unknown if the entity will be approving the agreements at this time. That step of the process, however, is expected to be a formality. Under these new television deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon’s Prime Video, which begin with the 2025-26 season, there would reportedly be national telecasts of NBA regular season games nearly seven days a week, according to sources cited in the report. The report states that NBC will alternate showing conference finals with Amazon’s Prime Video, while ESPN will present a conference final and the NBA Finals every season in the new media rights deal.
ESPN/ABC will remain the exclusive home of the NBA Finals and will reportedly pay $2.6 billion per season for its entire media rights package. ESPN and the NBA did not reach an agreement before the end of its exclusive negotiating window, according to the report, since ESPN did not move off its position of forsaking any part of the NBA Finals. The network will broadcast fewer regular season games, moving from 100 to somewhere in the range of 80. Amid the NFL season, these games will be broadcast on Wednesdays and Sundays, with Saturday night contests being within the ABC window. After the NFL on ESPN concludes for the season, ESPN will also broadcast games on Friday nights.
NBC is expected to present select NBA games on Sunday after the conclusion of Sunday Night Football and on Tuesdays during the season as well. Peacock, NBCUniversal’s OTT streaming service, is reportedly expected to have exclusive NBA game telecasts on Mondays. The company is reportedly paying $2.5 billion per season and will broadcast NBA games for the first time since 2002.
Amazon’s Prime Video is reportedly expected to present select NBA games on Thursday nights following the conclusion of its Thursday Night Football season. Throughout the entirety of the regular season, the streaming platform is said to be broadcasting games on Friday nights and Saturdays. The streaming company is reportedly slated to pay $1.8 billion per season for its package of media rights, which will also include the In-Season Tournament. The company is expected to add two to three play-by-play announcers and is said to be interested in hiring Ian Eagle, who currently calls sports for TNT Sports, Westwood One, CBS Sports and YES Network.
The NBA is entering the final season of its nine-year media rights deal with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC) and TNT Sports worth $2.6 billion per year. Next year could be the final season of Inside the NBA, the TNT Sports award-winning studio program, although the network could reportedly produce the show in some form without games, according to Marchand.
Charles Barkley announced that he will be retiring from television following next season no matter what happens after previously giving his candid assessment on the NBA media rights negotiations. The report divulges that all three NBA media rightsholders are expected to pursue him or could try and bring the entire Inside the NBA cast to its platform, which also includes host Ernie Johnson and analysts Shaquille O’Neal and Kenny “The Jet” Smith.
