The NBA has finalized its media rights deals, Andrew Marchand of The Athletic reported Wednesday, with an official announcement possible before the Olympic Games.
The NBA has agreed to 11-year media rights deals with Disney (ESPN/ABC), Comcast (NBC/Peacock) and Amazon that will be worth $76 billion, and the league’s board of governors is expected to sign off as soon as their next meeting on Tuesday, per Marchand. At that point, incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT Sports) will have five days to decide whether it will attempt to match one of the third-party deals, either Comcast’s bid for the league’s “B” package or the new Amazon “C” package.
Depending on whether WBD attempts to match, the league could announce the new deals before the Olympics begin a two weeks from Friday.
As previously reported, Disney would continue to carry the NBA Finals and a conference final every year, with the company scaling back its regular season inventory. Newly reported by Marchand is that ABC would continue to air its Saturday night NBA game. Games on the ESPN networks would primarily air on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays, with ESPN scaling back its Friday slate to after the football season.
Also as previously reported, NBC would air games on Tuesday nights throughout the season — presumably including Opening Night, though that has not been stated in any of the reporting — and on Sunday nights after the NFL season. Newly reported by Marchand is that Peacock would have a night of exclusive telecasts on Mondays.
Finally, Amazon is expected to carry games on Thursday nights after the NFL season and on Friday and Saturday nights throughout the season. Per Marchand, Amazon and NBC will alternate the conference finals.