A new media rights deal for the National Basketball Association (NBA) is nearing the finish line and could be a slam dunk for fans and the new partners.
Here’s a look at the latest.
What Happened: A new NBA deal is expected to be 11 years in length and total $76 billion from three partners, following up a nine-year deal set to expire at the end of the 2024-2025 season.
The new NBA deal will see The Walt Disney Company DIS, Amazon.com Inc AMZN and Comcast Corporation CMCSA as the winners, replacing an old deal from Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery WBD.
Under the new deal, NBA fans could have access to nationally televised games all seven days of the week after the NFL season ends, as reported by The Athletic.
Comcast will air games on NBC on Tuesdays and will air games on Sunday after the NFL season ends following up its “Sunday Night Football” coverage. The company will also stream exclusive games on Peacock on Monday, along with streaming all its NBC games on the streaming platform.
Amazon will stream games on its Prime Video platform on Fridays and Saturdays and also on Thursdays after its “Thursday Night Football” game coverage ends during the NFL season.
Disney will air games on ESPN on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays with coverage on ABC on Saturdays. After the NFL season, ESPN will also air games on Fridays. The ESPN package includes 80 regular season games, down from 100 annually in the previous package.
After the NFL season ends, NBA coverage looks like this, with all seven days having nationally televised games beginning in the 2025-2026 season.
ESPN and ABC will remain the exclusive home of the NBA Finals under the new deal with Disney also getting a Conference Finals series annually. The other Conference Finals series will alternate between NBC and Amazon.
Amazon will be the home of the In-Season Tournament. All three companies get access to NBA Playoffs games and will also have WNBA games as part of the package.
The deal is expected to be approved by the league’s governors and then sent to TNT Sports, a unit of Warner Bros. Discovery. According to the report, Warner Bros. still has the opportunity to match part of the package.
Warner CEO David Zaslav has publicly said he could try to remain involved in NBA rights and the report said it could be Amazon’s package that he targets.
Why It’s Important: The new deal shows the strong power of media rights for North American sports in the era of cord cutting and the growth of streaming. Live sports remain a staple of strong viewership and command premium advertising dollars.
ESPN and TNT paid around $2.6 billion annually under the previous deal. Sources said the new deal will see ESPN pay $2.6 billion, NBC pay $2.5 billion, and Amazon pay $1.8 billion on an annual basis.
NBC last aired NBA games from 1990 to 2002 and regains access to the key sports league under the new deal. Assuming the company wins the deal, NBC could be a big winner as it adds to its growing sports rights and has Summer Olympics coverage this month. The NBA deal is expected to be finalized and announced before the Olympics begin on July 26.
Amazon continues to grow its sports coverage and will now have key rights with the NBA and NFL. The company also will have access to regional coverage of several NBA teams under a previously announced partnership.
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