NBCUniversal Planning $2.5B Yearly Offer For NBA Rights

Comcast's NBCUniversal is planning to pay an average of about $2.5 billion a year to broadcast a package of National Basketball Association (NBA) games, the Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

Warner Bros Discovery's TNT has paid an average fee of $1.2 billion under its current deal, but was unable to reach a new pact with the NBA before an exclusive negotiating window expired last week, according to the report.

Warner began airing the games in 1984, while Walt Disney's ESPN sports network began broadcasting the NBA in 2002.

Disney is expected to pay an average per-year fee of about $2.6 billion to renew its deal, WSJ reported, citing sources, up from about $1.5 billion per year now.

Meanwhile, Amazon.com Inc. is close to a deal to bring NBA games to its Prime Video streaming service, according to two people familiar with the negotiations.

Bloomberg reports the league is also nearing a new agreement with Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN, which is expected to keep the rights to the NBA finals but air fewer regular-season games, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing nonpublic information.

Details on the number of games Amazon will have in the regular season and playoffs are still being ironed out. Rights to the women’s league, the WNBA, are expected to be included as part of both deals.

The NBA’s incumbent partners are Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. The league’s current media deals are worth a total of $24 billion, or over $2.6 billion a year. Those contracts expire after the 2024-2025 season.

Sports are the biggest draw for major TV networks, making them must-have programming, especially as the audience for general entertainment programming has declined.