UK public broadcaster the BBC has secured rights to North American basketball’s iconic NBA for the remainder of its 2023-24 season.
Through the end of the season, the BBC will air as many as nine games, five of which will take place during the remaining regular season while four will be shown from the league’s post-season play-offs and/or finals.
NBA fixtures will be broadcast across the BBC’s BBC One main channel, tertiary channel BBC Three, and on its BBC iPlayer OTT streaming service.
The deal was inaugurated last week with the February 23 match-up between the Philadelphia 76ers and the Cleveland Cavaliers broadcast on BBC One, followed by the February 25 game between the Phoenix Suns and Los Angeles Lakers shown on BBC Three.
Three further regular season fixtures will be shown on the BBC, namely the Boston Celtics vs Dallas Mavericks (March 1), Celtics vs Golden State Warriors (March 3), and Dallas Mavericks vs Denver Nuggets (March 17) fixtures.
The date and allocation of play-off fixtures is yet to be confirmed.
Bastien Lacheny, president for NBA Europe and Middle East, stated: “We are excited to bring NBA basketball back to the BBC. Fans in the UK will be able to watch live action across BBC platforms as part of our commitment to making NBA games and programming available to our passionate fans on the devices and platforms they use most.”
The deal marks the second successive year that the UK public broadcaster has shown live NBA action.
In January 2023, the broadcaster acquired a similar package of free-to-air NBA rights for four regular season and four post-season games.
Philip Bernie, interim director of BBC Sport, said: “Last year we brought live, free-to-air NBA games to our audience. This year we now have some of the biggest games of the season, showcasing the NBA’s brightest stars, and fans can also keep across the action on our website and app.”
The NBA’s main rightsholder in the UK is pay-TV option TNT Sport, owned by Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), which purchased exclusive pay-TV rights for the first time, with the NBA having previously been shown by broadcaster Sky.
Because of the channel's WBD ownership, NBA games are also broadcast in the UK on the Discovery+ streaming service.
