The first season under the NBA’s blockbuster media rights package proved to be a lollapalooza for the league’s distribution partners, as coverage of the 2025-26 campaign generated a record $2.11 billion in advertising revenue.
According to a new report issued by Guideline, which captures actual investment data from the six major U.S. holding companies as well as most of the large independent shops, NBA in-game ad revenue last season grew a staggering 38% year-over-year, as the TV networks and streamers booked $580 million more than the previous haul ($1.53 billion).
The big gain was largely a function of higher CPMs (i.e., the cost of delivering 1,000 ad impressions), which were in turn powered by the NBA’s expanded reach.
Under the terms of the NBA’s 11-year, $76 billion pact with Disney’s ABC/ESPN, NBC Sports and Amazon’s Prime Video, the league ditched a significant volume of cable-exclusive telecasts for the greater reach of broadcast television. Last season saw 62 regular-season NBA games air on old-school network TV—way up from the 24 over-the-air contests in 2024-25—with NBC carrying 39 games and ABC hosting 23. This coming season will give rise to even more over-the-air broadcasts (71), as NBC bumps its regular-season slate to 50 games, while ABC will handle 21 games.
The increased focus on the big-reach broadcast nets translates to nearly one-third (31%) of the NBA’s regular-season national games appearing on NBC/ABC in 2026-27. Via their respective affiliate relationships, both networks are available in some 84 million U.S. TV households, which marks a 35% advantage over pay-TV’s reach (62.2 million across the traditional cable bundle and via the virtual MVPDs).
All told, the average in-game delivery for the NBA in 2025-26 was 1.78 million viewers per outing, up 16% versus the previous season’s 1.53 million. The regular-season deliveries were the league’s highest in seven years.
The NBA’s three partners booked $870 million in sales during the regular season, up 74% versus the 2024-25 campaign ($500.1 million), while the playoffs poured another $987.9 million into the ad mix (+27%). The five-game NBA Finals series, which culminated in the Knicks winning their first title since 1973, generated $256.1 million in sales, up 39% compared to the opening quintet of the previous year’s Pacers-Thunder showdown. While an additional two games of ad inventory helped the 2025 NBA Finals eke out a nominal win over this summer’s series, the margin of victory was a negligible $1.4 million, or less than a 1% differential.
As expected, streaming’s share of the NBA’s ad sales pie grew exponentially with the addition of Prime Video and Peacock to the league’s roster of media partners. Per Guideline, streaming platforms accounted for $874 million in total in-game spend, with exclusives generating $527 million, or 60% of the non-linear haul, and simulcasts contributing the remaining $347 million. (By way of comparison, streaming platforms ginned up just $10 million in total in-game sales during the 2024-25 season.)
The streamers predictably stole share from their trad TV counterparts, as linear spend fell 19% from $1.52 billion to $1.24 billion.
All told, ABC/ESPN commanded 39% of the NBA’s sales tally, or $824.5 million, while NBC Sports was hot on Disney’s heels with $782.2 million. Prime Video walked away from its first go-around with the league with $507.4 million in NBA sales.
As has been the case with Prime’s stewardship of the NFL’s Thursday Night Football package, the audience for Amazon’s NBA coverage skewed significantly younger than the trad TV crowd. Prime’s NBA games served up a median age of 46.9 years, or nearly an entire decade shy of the linear-TV telecasts (56 years).
During the previous season—the last under the old Disney/TNT Sports duopoly—the Warner Bros. Discovery network whipped up $642.6 million in NBA sales, while ABC/ESPN raked in $872.1 million. As a consequence of now having to split the kitty three ways, Disney last season took in about $47.6 million less in sales than was the case in 2024-25.
Among the NBA’s most free-spending categories were entertainment and media brands, which invested $232.7 million in commercial messaging, and tech ($215 million). Auto ($180.9 million), financial services ($173 million) and consumer packaged goods ($147.8 million) were also big hoops boosters.
