North American basketball’s NBA is close to concluding a $76 billion domestic media rights deal with Comcast’s NBC, Disney’s ESPN, and retail giant Amazon, it has been reported.
The league’s lucrative new agreements with the trio will run for 11 years, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ).
The WSJ reports NBC will pay an average of $2.5 billion a year to the NBA and show around 100 games per season, with half to air on its Peacock streaming service.
Amazon’s package will be valued at $1.8 billion annually and include regular-season and playoff games and a share of the conference finals, which will reportedly be rotated between the media partners.
Disney, meanwhile, will pay the largest amount at around $2.6 billion per year, up from $1.5 billion in the current deal, and continue to show NBA Finals. However, ESPN and ABC will air fewer games under the new deal.
NBC will effectively replace Warner Bros. Discovery’s TNT Sports which allowed an exclusive negotiating window to pass and appears unwilling to exercise its matching rights clause and pay the $2.5 billion NBC is offering. TNT has been airing NBA games since 1984.
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By GlobalDataWBD chief executive David Zaslav recently stated he was still hopeful of “reaching an agreement [with the NBA] that makes sense for both sides” but also added, “We have strategies in place for the various potential outcomes.”
TNT and ESPN’s current deals, worth a combined total of $24 billion, run through the 2024-25 season.
An NBA deal would add another top-tier sports property to NBC’s already crowded rights stable, which includes the Olympic Games, domestic NFL American football action, English soccer's Premier League, golf’s US Open, and cycling’s Tour de France.
The NBA’s domestic rights situation should become clearer after the conclusion of the 2023-24 season, with the best-of-seven NBA Finals beginning tonight as the Boston Celtics face the Dallas Mavericks.