NBA announces new media deals: NBC, Peacock in; WBD out
Deals worth $76 billion
NBA returns to NBC for the first time in 21 years
Amazon Prime gets streaming games for first time
Warner Bros. Discovery may take legal action against the league in an unprecedented move
[This article has been updated. See the bottom of this post for notations.]
Roundball Rock is coming home.
After months…and months of speculation, rumor, and long negotiations, the NBA made it official Wednesday – new media deals were announced totaling $76 billion with Disney and ESPN re-upping, NBC returning to the league for the first time since 2002, and their first-ever streaming deals with Peacock and Amazon. All new deals go into effect as of the 2025-26 season.
The big loser is Warner Bros. Discovery as when the musical chairs stopped, it was left without a seat – marking an end to a forty-year relationship that began in 1984 with WTBS.
And yes, NBC is bringing back Roundball Rock to its broadcasts as it defined the league in the 1990s through the Jordan era into the Kobe and Shaq one.
“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. “These partners will distribute our content across a wide range of platforms and help transform the fan experience over the next decade.”
The deals also include the WNBA, which saw its popularity soar this year thanks to the addition of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
The new pacts also expand the league’s global presence, especially with the Amazon and Disney streaming deals.
Since we’re dealing with a lot of news here, we’ll split this piece into four parts – what each partner is getting and the ramifications of the deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, RSNs, and sports media in general.
Disney/ESPN/ABC
Cost per year: $2.6 billion
Not much is changing, with ABC keeping Christmas Day games and the NBA Finals. Disney will get up to 80 regular-season games – with 20+ weekend matchups for ABC (on Saturday primetime and Sunday afternoons) and up to 60 games for ESPN – mostly on Wednesday nights – the only games scheduled for linear cable for the week. ESPN will also develop a new whiparound show featuring live cut-ins to games – similar to what NFL RedZone does.
ESPN also gets exclusive rights to a few first and second-round games, ten conference final games, and the ability to air more alt-casts. ESPN also gets five exclusive WNBA Finals series on its platforms. Disney also gets more NBA and WNBA games to stream internationally on Disney+ and ESPN-related properties and retains half a package of summer league games.
All games on ESPN platforms will air on the new Venu sports streaming service, scheduled to launch in the next few weeks.
“We look forward to building upon our incredible legacy of innovation and growth with our longstanding partners at the NBA,” said ESPN Chairman Jimmy Pitaro. “The NBA is a vibrant, ascendant league and through this premium collection of rights, including every NBA Finals on our platforms, we will continue to evolve together while successfully navigating the global digital transition and delivering the highest quality coverage for fans.”
Finally, the NBA and Disney-owned Marvel will collaborate on custom content to reach younger fans, leveraging Marvel’s rich library of characters. Deadpool and Wolverine playing for the Bulls? Billy Donovan needs all the help he can get.
NBC and Comcast
Cost per year: $2.5 billion
The biggest winner is Comcast Corp. and its NBC and Peacock properties.
NBCUniversal gets 100 national games each regular season, with games airing in primetime on Sunday nights after the NFL season concludes and Tuesdays in a unique setup with two different games being beamed out to the country in the Eastern/Central and Pacific/Mountain time zones, starting at 8 p.m. ET/PT – meaning 9 p.m. Mountain Time in markets such as Denver, Phoenix (between November and the second week in March), and Salt Lake City. All games will be streamed on Peacock.
NBC will also gain exclusive rights for the All-Star Game – which returns to broadcast television, and All-Star Saturday Night, which comes to broadcast for the first time after years on TNT. NBC also gets the annual MLK Day doubleheader.
Peacock will have exclusive rights to Monday night doubleheaders and will carry up to 28 playoff games with roughly half simulcast on NBC with exclusive rights. NBC and Amazon will share one Conference Final series on a rotation basis with NBC getting six and Amazon five.
NBA games will also air on Telemundo, NBCU’s Spanish-language broadcaster, which last aired games in the early 2000s under a similar NBC deal.
The WNBA returns to NBC for the first time since 2002 with 50+ regular season games, three WNBA Finals every four years, and rights to Team USA Men’s and Women’s Basketball, which makes sense given NBC and Peacock hold Olympic rights. The deal also gives NBCU rights to distribute games to European countries through Sky Sports, and in the Caribbean and sub-Saharan Africa.
Comcast also becomes the “Official TV Service” of the NBA, WNBA, and USA Basketball through Xfinity, the brand it uses to sell its cable and Internet products. Google’s YouTubeTV remains the presenting partner for the NBA Finals.
“We are excited to once again become long-term partners with the NBA and WNBA, as well as USA Basketball,” said Mark Lazarus, the Chairman of the NBCU Media Group. “With a unique presentation plan across NBCUniversal platforms during the regular season and postseason, as well as the midseason tentpole All-Star Game and events of All-Star Saturday, we have a strong slate that will help supercharge our overall content strategy across the portfolio.”
“We are proud to once again partner with the NBA and WNBA, two iconic brands and the home of the best basketball in the world,” said Mike Cavanagh, President of Comcast Corporation. “We look forward to presenting our best-in-class coverage of both leagues with our innovative programming and distribution plan across NBC and Peacock to entertain fans and help grow the game.”
On the same day the deal was announced, Mike Tirico was expected to be named lead NBA play-by-play announcer, a role he had at ESPN.
Returning to NBA coverage is Roundball Rock, the iconic theme composed by John Tesh who had a full sixty-piece orchestra ready to re-record if the league returned to NBC. Rock was beloved by NBA fans and soundtracked an era where Michael Jordan and the Bulls dominated the NBA in the 1990s, giving way to the Kobe and Shaq dominance of the early 2000s.
This is NBC’s third go-around with the NBA. NBC outbid CBS for rights in late 1989, ending a seventeen-year relationship – which was often the case with NBA playoff and Finals games airing on tape delay in the early 1980s. NBC first aired NBA games in 1954, lasting until 1962 with the 1956 NBA Finals becoming the first nationally televised championship for the league.
Amazon Prime
Cost per year: $1.8 billion
For the first time, the NBA has a deal with a streamer – Amazon and its Prime Video service, who’ll deliver 66 regular-season games to subscribers, with games slated for Thursday night doubleheaders after Thursday Night Football concludes for the season, Friday night games (including a new Black Friday game, either leading in or out of the NFL), and select Saturday afternoon contests. Amazon gets exclusive rights to the recently-created Play-In Tournament and NBA Cup and will air at least a third of the first and second-round playoff games plus one Conference Final series on a rotating basis with NBCU.
Amazon will exclusively stream thirty WNBA games, including the Commissioner’s Cup Championship, and some postseason games. Amazon also gets expanded rights to distribute NBA League Pass in the U.S. and internationally with Prime Video becoming a strategic partner, with Prime Video Channels becoming a third-party agent for both packages. Amazon will also stream the other half of the summer league package, and NBA G League regular season and post-season games.
All games in the United States will be streamed nationally, with no blackouts, and an expanded package of games is being offered internationally, including Brazil, France, Germany, Italy, and Mexico.
“We are proud to be the first exclusive streaming partner for the NBA, bringing Prime members across the globe one of the most exciting and most popular sports in the world,”, said Jay Marine, who is global head of sports at Prime Video. “With 66 regular-season games, the NBA Cup, the Play-In Tournament, more than 20 playoff games every year, and NBA League Pass, we’re giving basketball fans around the world more ways than ever to watch the action.”
The fallout
The NBA announced their deals on Wednesday after rejecting a last-minute matching bid made Monday by Warner Bros. Discovery. In a statement, TNT Sports blasted the NBA, stating it had matching rights for the Amazon package, “rejecting the many fans who continue to show their unwavering support for our best-in-class coverage,” and “would take appropriate action”, hinting at possible legal action – an unprecedented move in television contracts.
TNT Sports even tried to rally fans by its side on social media Monday, creating a “KeepTheNBAonTNT” hashtag, and enlisting well-known NBA fans to its campaign. The end of the NBA on TNT also marks the end of Inside The NBA, the acclaimed studio show where numerous moments often go viral.
If Warner does sue, it may not have any legal standing – keep in mind WBD CEO David Zaslav did say his company “did not need to have the NBA” back in 2022 – which could hurt any chances of winning a case against the league in court – if it gets that far.
Also with an uncertain future is NBA TV, the 24/7 cable network Warner Bros. Discovery operates for the league as it was left out of any deal-making. With WBD out of the picture and no games scheduled after next season, the NBA will likely shut the channel down.
The new deals will also impact regional sports networks and broadcast outlets as the number of local games would certainly shrink thanks to the exclusive contracts with Peacock and Amazon, which includes losing the first round of the NBA playoffs. With Bally/Diamond Sports still mired in bankruptcy, the NBA is moving away from such a model – which is bad news for the soon-to-launch Chicago Sports Network, which could have fewer Bulls games to air. New York Knicks owner James Dolan recently ripped the new deals, which would see reduced revenues for his MSG Network.
And with NBC now committing two nights for the NBA, it’s bad news for Hollywood, with even fewer time slots available for non-sports programming, pushing more scripted programming to streaming services as cheap-to-produce reality competition and game shows now get top priority.
The good news for NBA fans is more regular-season games will be available to over-the-air television than ever before – 75 to be exact between NBC and ABC, far more than the ten or fifteen ABC has aired in recent years as the league gets a national prime-time showcase on a weeknight on a broadcast network for the first time in history. On the other hand, fans would need to subscribe to two streaming services and ESPN to access all the games, which is a common complaint.
Any way you look at it, change is coming to how you watch your favorite NBA team beginning in October 2025 and it certainly won’t be the same.
[Editor’s Notes: An earlier draft of this article incorrectly stated Xfinity was replacing YouTubeTV as the presenting partner of the NBA Finals. The Comcast and the Google deals are unrelated, per The Desk. Added how much each partner would be paying yearly. Tweet containing Roundball Rock was removed as the video was deleted.]