New NBA Deal Will Shift National Broadcast Nights as NBC, WBD Continue to Fight Over Final Package of Games
Puck News has the latest details on how the NBA’s next broadcast deal is shaping up, including more information on Amazon’s game inventory.
The NBA’s negotiating teams are still hard at work, ensuring the league’s next broadcasting deal at least doubles the revenue from its previous deal with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery. No agreements are finalized yet, but as things are shaping up, it appears that ESPN and Prime Video have all but completed their haggling with the Association and are close to inking their respective deals. A third package of NBA rights is still very much up for grabs, however, and a new report from Puck News shares information about what ESPN and Prime Video’s rights packages will look like, as well as the latest on negotiations between the league, NBC and WBD for the last unclaimed share of games.
Key Details:
- As negotiations stand, ESPN will give up Friday night regular-season games, but will keep the NBA Finals and one conference finals series every year.
- Prime Video will get a conference finals series every other year, and will pay $1.8 billion per season over the course of the deal.
- WBD and NBC are continuing to battle it out for the last package of NBA rights, with “no agreement in sight.”
Puck’s reporting includes multiple new details about the plan for ESPN and Prime Video when the NBA’s next rights deal takes hold ahead of the 2025-26 season. Of course, none of these details are finalized until all of the contracts are signed, so some of the specifics could change before negotiations end, but things appear to be fairly solidified at this point.
As it stands, ESPN — and by extension ABC — is set to retain exclusive rights to the NBA Finals for the duration of the contract. The Disney-owned channels will also get one conference finals series per season, though it will likely give up its weekly Friday night bundle of games. NBA games will still air on ESPN each Wednesday during the regular season under the terms of the new framework. Disney is set to pay $2.6 billion per season for this package, a hefty raise from the $1.5 billion it currently shells out. Puck reports that Disney is set to lose around half of the 100 regular season games it split between ABC and ESPN in 2023.
The NBA has made no secret of its desire to carve out a third package of games specifically intended for a streaming service leading up to negotiations, and it managed to sell that package before the fate of its original two was decided. Prime Video reached agreement on a deal framework with the league in late April, and Puck reports it will pay $1.8 billion per season to secure the league’s In-Season Tournament, postseason play-in games, one conference finals series every other year, and a selection of first and second-round playoff series. Amazon has also been pushing for a Saturday night window during the regular season, and that’s reportedly likely to come to fruition.
Where Do Negotiations Stand with NBC, WBD?
The still-to-be-determined third package of NBA games is the bundle currently held by WBD that airs on TNT. In the next deal, it will contain one conference finals series every other year, and first and second-round playoff opportunities alongside its regular season inventory; NBC has reportedly bid $2.5 billion per season to steal it from Warner.
Puck cites a Wall Street Journal report which states that NBC has committed two primetime broadcast windows per week to NBA games as part of its bid, though it’s not clear if those slots will be on the same night. It would also set aside some games specifically for its Peacock streaming service. The plan would be for games to air on Sunday nights once the NFL regular season is over and there are no more broadcasts of “Sunday Night Football.”
WBD has pitched a regular Tuesday-night broadcast of games on TNT to avoid competing with “Thursday Night Football” during NFL season, then switching to Thursdays when football season ends. If TNT loses its package of NBA games, the fate of the channel’s “Inside the NBA” crew will also come into question. According to Puck, both NBC and WBD are in frequent contact with the league, and there’s “no agreement in sight” for this package of games. The report also says that while it is feasible that the NBA could break up the third package to accommodate both NBC and WBD, that is unlikely to happen, as it would not deliver enough value for the hefty pricetags the league would want.
If Puck’s reported financial details become official, the NBA stands to make at least $6.9 billion per season in its next deal. That blows past its goal of doubling its rights fee payments from the approximately $2.7 billion per year the Association makes off ESPN and TNT now, and its presence on linear TV and streaming satisfies commissioner Adam Silver’s goal of making games available via as many different platforms as possible.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.