Billions of dollars are raining into the pockets of nba. The National Basketball Association, the most famous and important basketball league in the world, has finalized an agreement epochal value of 76 billion dollars with ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime for i media rights for the next decade. The agreement will come into force for 11 seasons starting in 2025/26. According to direct sources of the agreements, the partnership will guarantee that ABC/ESPN will continue to be the exclusive home of the NBA Finals.
The deal represents a major increase over the previous $24 billion contract, marking a milestone for the NBA and its efforts to maximize returns and premium audiences. The next critical step is theformal approval of the agreements by the league's Board of Governors (the owners of the NBA teams), expected as a formality during their meetings in Las Vegas next Tuesday. A hard blow for Tnt Sports, affiliated with Warner Bros. Discovery which has broadcast great American basketball for forty years.
NBA TV rights: after 40 years Tnt Sports risks saying goodbye
Tnt Sports has broadcast the NBA for forty years. If the new agreement were approved, it would mark the end of this long partnership with Warner Networks. TNT Sports still has the option to match the offer within five days of receiving the final contracts. The CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, David Zaslav, expressed its intention to use existing contractual clauses to maintain involvement, focusing particularly on the package offered by Amazon.
What the new NBA TV rights will be like
According to sources, under the new television agreements, the regular season will see national broadcasts nearly seven days a week. There NBA will follow the NFL model, with NBC and Amazon Prime Video broadcasting the main “Sunday Night Football” and “Thursday Night Football” games respectively. Amazon will concentrate broadcasts on Friday evenings and Saturdays, while NBC will have the games on Tuesdays and Peacock, its streaming service, will broadcast exclusively on Mondays.
NBA TV rights: playoffs for all but Amazon broadcasts the in-season
Espn will slightly reduce the number of games of the regular season from approximately 100 to 80, with broadcasts scheduled on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays during the NFL season, and on Fridays thereafter. NBC will pay 2,5 billion dollars annually, while Amazon Prime Video and ESPN will invest 1,8 and 2,6 billion dollars respectively. All three partners will broadcast the playoffs, with Amazon hosting the NBA in-season tournament and NBC and Amazon alternating the conference finals.
