Comcast Lands 11-Year NBA Broadcast Deal

Comcast officials said Tuesday that the Philadelphia company's 11-year broadcast deal with the NBA gives it rights to more regular season games and more playoff games on average each year than any of the league's other media partners.

The Pahiladelphia Business Journal reports the deal, outlined during the company's second quarter earnings call, is expected to start for the 2025-26 NBA season with Comcast's NBCUniversal division reportedly paying $2.5 billion for its share of the league's broadcast rights. Mike Cavanagh, president of Comcast, said the company expects the NBA to announce the rights deal "soon."

According to Cavanagh, Comcast's agreement with the NBA includes:

• 100 regular season games each year across NBC and its streaming platform Peacock, which is more than any other media partner;
• First and second round playoff games each year;
• Six NBA conference finals series over the course of the deal;
• About 50 regular season and postseason games exclusively aired on Peacock, including Monday and Tuesday night doubleheaders;
• The NBA All-Star Game and All-Star Saturday Night each year;
• Season-opening doubleheader each year and a doubleheader on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

The package also includes WNBA rights, with more than 50 regular season and first round playoff games across Peacock, NBC and the USA Network beginning in the spring of 2026, Cavanagh said. There are also broadcast rights to games in seven conference finals and three WNBA Finals series over the course of the 11-year deal.

NBC will also have broadcast rights to USA Basketball men's and women's games leading up to the Olympics and the FIBA World Cup.

Cavanagh said the deal will bring in a diverse audience that Comcast hopes to capitalize on with new entertainment content on its platforms, including Peacock, outside of basketball.

Comcast sees the NBA deal as a final step in filling its calendar of live sports programming, which now includes rights to NFL games, the Olympics, the Premiere League, the PGA Tour, NASCAR and the World Cup. That translates to year-round opportunities to continue growing Peacock, which increased its subscriber base by 38% year over year to 33 million in the second quarter and saw revenue jump 28% to $1 billion.

CEO Brian Roberts said the combination of streaming on Peacock and linear cable broadcast rights on NBC was "very appealing" for the company. He called it a "very exciting moment" for Comcast.