The Summary
- The NBA’s new media rights deal means a big shift in where people will be watching games starting in 2025, adding NBC and Amazon and moving away from TNT.
- ABC and ESPN will still broadcast games, and will also retain exclusive broadcasts of the NBA Finals.
- Fans will have to subscribe to two streaming platforms, Peacock and Amazon Prime, in order to access the complete slate of games. The NBA will still offer its League Pass subscription service.
The NBA announced a new media deal late Wednesday that would end its long-standing relationship with TNT, while adding and restarting partnerships with Amazon and NBC — expanding the reach of professional hoops but potentially posing new access issues to fans.
Barring a dramatic last-minute change, all of this means the upcoming 2024-2025 season will be the last to feature the popular “NBA on TNT” broadcast. Co-anchor and NBA Hall of Famer Charles Barkley said last month he would retire from TV following this season.
“Our new global media agreements with Disney, NBCUniversal and Amazon will maximize the reach and accessibility of NBA games for fans in the United States and around the world,” NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said in a statement. “These partners will distribute our content across a wide range of platforms and help transform the fan experience over the next decade.”
Comcast’s NBCUniversal is the parent company of NBC News.
The new arrangement means that a year from now, NBA fans looking for a complete national viewing schedule will have to subscribe to two streaming platforms: Peacock and Amazon Prime Video. And if they want to avoid traditional TV entirely, they’ll need a third: ESPN’s upcoming streaming service.
Still, many games will be available through traditional broadcast channels on ABC and NBC, and through cable via ESPN. The NBA will continue to sell a separate League Pass subscription that starts at $14.99 a month.
Here’s what a sample basketball week looks like according to the new agreement:
- Monday: Peacock
- Tuesday: NBC broadcast network and Peacock
- Wednesday: ESPN
- Thursday: Amazon Prime Video
- Friday: Amazon Prime Video or ESPN
- Saturday: ABC broadcast network or Amazon Prime Video
- Sunday: ABC and NBC broadcast networks
Early-round playoff games will also be split up among the networks; ABC will remain the exclusive home of the NBA Finals.
The deal also includes expanded WNBA coverage among those networks, with 125 games slated to be televised.
The deal marks a return of the basketball league to NBC after a run from 1990 to 2002 that coincided with the game’s rise to international popularity led by stars such as Michael Jordan, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Mike Tirico will anchor the network’s coverage, NBC Sports President Rick Cordella told Richard Deitsch of The Athletic on Wednesday.
For the past 22 years, games have been split among ABC, ESPN (both owned by Disney) and TNT. The most recent agreements with those networks generated $24 billion, according to CNBC.
With the new deal, the NBA has nearly tripled that figure to approximately $76 billion, according to The Associated Press.
Live sporting events are highly coveted by broadcast groups because of the viewership they can command. This year’s regular season averaged 1.09 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, TNT and the league-owned NBA TV. While that was up just 1% from last year, it was the highest all-network average in four years, according to Sports Media Watch.
Last year’s NBA playoffs was the most watched in 11 years, according to Nielsen.
In fact, annual ratings churn is not necessarily the most important part of the negotiations for sports broadcast rights. Rather, the slate of games themselves — known as “inventory” in the industry — is valuable in itself as it ensures a consistent audience.
“Inventory is what matters,” said Jon Lewis, who runs SportsMediaWatch.com. “If you’re trying to build up a streaming service like Peacock, or Amazon sports, that inventory is a big deal. They’re clearly willing to pay a lot for it.”
