The National Basketball Association is finalizing media deals with NBC, Amazon, and Disney-owned ESPN after the end of its contract with TNT, potentially bringing in upwards of $76 billion in media revenue for the NBA over the next 11 years.
First reported by the Wall Street Journal, the negotiation process is still ongoing, but all three networks have indicated that they are willing to pay massive sums for the coveted right to air NBA games. According to the outlet:
NBC is near an accord with the league to pay an average of $2.5 billion a year, people familiar with the deal talks said. It would show around 100 games per season, with about half airing exclusively on the Peacock streaming service, reflecting a major bet on the future of streaming. Games would air on NBC on Tuesdays and Sundays when there isn’t a conflict with NBC’s “Sunday Night Football.”
Amazon’s $1.8 billion-a-year package would include regular-season and playoff games, the new NBA in-season tournament, and the “play-in” games in which teams compete for the final playoff spots. It also would have a share of the conference finals, which the media partners will split in a rotation, the people familiar with the terms said.
Disney would retain an NBA package and would continue to air the NBA Finals, with payments averaging about $2.6 billion a year, people familiar with the terms say, up from $1.5 billion under the current deal. Disney would get fewer games than under its current deal. ESPN’s deal will allow the company to air games on its direct-to-consumer streaming service, which is set to launch in 2025.
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These deals will increase the NBA’s annual fees by roughly 2.5 times, nearing almost $7 billion per season.
Warner Bros. Discovery, which has held the rights to air NBA games on TNT since 1988, had the chance to renew the deal ahead of the April 22 deadline but declined to do so. According to the Journal, the network was “unhappy with the price”—$2.2 billion per season—“relative to the value of the package,” and felt that it was losing “too much valuable content” to ESPN affiliates.
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Warner Bros. can now match NBC or Amazon’s package offerings, but reports suggest that “options are limited” for the network.
If accepted, the NBA’s new media deals would go into effect for the 2024-2025 season, and would also include telecast rights for the WNBA, which has seen a surge in popularity given media buzz around rookie player Caitlin Clark.
Connor Walcott is a staff writer for Valuetainment.com. Follow Connor on X and look for him on VT’s “The Unusual Suspects.”
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