Comcast’s pay television service Xfinity TV will serve as the official TV platform partner of the National Basketball Association (NBA) as part of a comprehensive broadcast rights deal that starts net year, the league announced on Wednesday.
The deal supplements a long-standing partnership between the NBA and Google-owned YouTube TV, which will continue on as the league’s presenting partner of the NBA Finals, a role it has held since 2018. The NBA’s deals with Comcast and Google are unrelated.
“Xfinity will become the Official TV Service of the NBA, WNBA and USA Basketball,” the NBA announced on Wednesday. “The partnership includes collaboration on marketing and storytelling opportunities, virtual signage during game telecasts and activations at marquee NBA, WNBA and USA Basketball events.”
The agreement is part of a comprehensive media rights package that will see Comcast’s NBC and Peacock distribute around 100 regular-season games each year, starting in 2025. NBC will air at least half the games, with double-headers scheduled for Tuesday evenings and games played on Sunday evenings when NBC is not offering the National Football League’s “Sunday Night Football.”
NBC and Peacock will also serve as the home of NBA All-Star, including Rising Stars, State Farm All-Star Saturday Night, featuring AT&T Slam Dunk, Starry 3-Point Contest and Kia Skills Challenge, and the All-Star game itself, and telecast at least 28 games in the first two rounds of the NBA playoffs each year, among other events.
The league also announced telecast agreements with Amazon’s Prime Video and the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN, which will expand the national availability of broadcast or streamed games to nearly 300 each year.
—
Editor’s note: The original version of this story stated that Comcast’s Xfinity TV was replacing Google’s YouTube TV as the official TV service platform of the NBA. A source later clarified that the NBA’s partnerships with Comcast and Google are unrelated, and that YouTube TV will continue on as the presenting partner of the NBA Finals. The article was amended Thursday afternoon based on that information.
