NBA Finalizes $76B Broadcasting Deal

The NBA secured a multi-year television deal worth $76 billion set to make NBC and Amazon new regular season telecast partners and maintain ESPN’s rights to broadcast the NBA Finals, The Athletic reported, noting longtime NBA partner TNT Sports may match terms of the deal to keep its broadcast rights.

Talking Points:

• The deal will last for 11 seasons and still awaits approval from the NBA’s board of governors, which will send finalized contracts to TNT Sports, giving it the ability to match the offer within five days, according to The Athletic.
• Amazon is expected to fork over $1.8 billion a year under the deal while NBC will spend $2.5 billion each year, according to The Athletic.
• Regular season games would be nationally televised nearly seven days a week under the new deal, The Athletic reported, with games on Amazon Prime Video primarily being streamed on Friday nights and Saturdays while NBC and Peacock games will air on Tuesdays and Mondays, respectively.
• Amazon will have the In-Season Tournament and alternate conference finals with NBC, while ESPN also gets a conference final and the NBA Finals every season, according to The Athletic.
• TNT Sports could be looking at its last season with the NBA after 34 years of partnering with the league if it does not match the deal, bringing an end to its and ESPN’s $2.6 billion, nine-season NBA agreement

The TNT partnership’s potential end provoked “Inside The NBA” host and former NBA player Charles Barkley to call network executives “clowns” who “screwed this thing up.” Barkley has since declared he will retire from broadcasting in 2025.

Forbes reports speculation around the new deal increased in May, when multiple outlets reported the NBA might be moving on from TNT after a decades-long partnership that started in 1989. The rising popularity of streaming services and cord-cutting in the last five years has given way to a slew of sports broadcasting deals. Apple inked a 10-year, $2.5 billion agreement with Major League Soccer in 2022, allowing it to air matches exclusively through Apple TV. Meanwhile, the NFL has splintered the ability to watch its games across multiple platforms including Peacock, Prime Video, ESPN+ and Netflix.