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NBA Board approves telecast deal with ESPN, Prime Video, NBC

A close-up image of a basketball.
(Stock image)

The clock is ticking on Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) to match an offer that would keep professional basketball games on TNT over the next decade.

On Tuesday, the National Basketball Association’s (NBA) Board of Governors approved a telecast deal with the Walt Disney Company’s ESPN, Amazon’s Prime Video and Comcast’s NBC Sports that would start with the 2025-26 season and run for the next 11 years.



If the deal holds up, pro-basketball games would move from WBD’s TNT Sports to Comcast’s broadcast network NBC, with some games also available to stream via Comcast’s service Peacock.

Under the agreement, NBC would air games on Sunday evenings when the National Football League (NFL) is not in season (Comcast holds the rights to NFL Sunday Night Football, which airs on NBC), with games also available on Tuesday nights. Peacock would stream a handful of Monday evening games.



Prime Video would broadcast games on Fridays and Saturdays, with a handful of Thursday evening games when it is not airing NFL events. (Prime Video holds the rights to the NFL’s Thursday Night Football; Prime Video football games are produced by NBC Sports).

ESPN will air a few nationally-televised, regular-season NBA games each season, as well as one half of the NBA conference finals and the NBA Finals. Most games produced by ESPN will air on ABC, including all of the NBA Finals. Prime Video and NBC will air the other conference finals not offered on ESPN.



The new rights package is expected to earn the NBA around $76 billion — substantially more than the $24 billion collected by the league from its nine-year deal, which expires next season.

Under the NBA’s existing telecast contract, WBD has the right to match any offer made for its package of games. Last week, the Sports Business Journal (SBJ) said WBD was interested in potentially matching or beating Amazon’s bid for NBA games, which could cost the company more than $1.8 billion.

According to the SBJ, WBD still has money in the bank to match Amazon’s offer, even though the company has pursued other rights for TNT Sports over the past few months. Those deals include telecast agreements to broadcast college football games sub-licensed from ESPN, Big East and Mountain West college events, and the Roland Garros (French Open) tennis tournament, among others.

One point of possible contention between the NBA and WBD is whether the broadcaster can live up to the league’s aspirations to reach fans across traditional and streaming television. In an interview with the Associated Press on Tuesday, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the broadcast package approved by the Board on Tuesday met the league’s expectation to deliver “more streaming connectivity [to] our fans.”

“In terms of traditional television — while still vital — there is a large portion of our fan base that no longer subscribes to those services,” Silver commented.

WBD has sought to meet fans on streaming platforms in a way that does not upset its current cable and satellite TV obligations. Late last year, it introduced an add-on package to its streaming service, Max, called “Bleacher Report Sports” (B/R Sports) that offers live games aired on TNT and sister networks TBS, Tru TV and Eurosport. The add-on was originally supposed to cost $10 per month, but WBD has maintained it as a free offering, with no clear date as to when it will start charging for sports.

ESPN remains the biggest hold-out in terms of reaching viewers on streaming, but that is expected to change next month when it, WBD and Fox Corporation launch Venu Sports, which will offer live access to sports-inclusive broadcast and cable channels for around $50 per month. Disney is also developing a standalone version of ESPN that will deliver its linear multiplex of cable sports channels over streaming without a traditional TV bundle.

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About the Author:

Matthew Keys

Matthew Keys is a nationally-recognized, award-winning journalist who has covered the business of media, technology, radio and television for more than 11 years. He is the publisher of The Desk and contributes to Know Techie, Digital Content Next and StreamTV Insider. He previously worked for Thomson Reuters, the Walt Disney Company, McNaughton Newspapers and Tribune Broadcasting. Connect with Matthew on LinkedIn by clicking or tapping here.
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