The NBA’s current media rights deals with Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery expire after the 2024-25 season. The league is in the final stages of agreeing to new deals that would span at least a decade.
The NBA hopes to triple the $24 billion in broadcast revenue it generated from its current deal. In doing so, the league plans to increase its number of partners from two to three.
Those plans are starting to take shape. The NBA has agreed to frameworks with two of three partners – the two being Disney and Amazon. Though we caution, the deals are not finalized.
ESPN/ABC will maintain its “A” package, which includes the NBA Finals and one Conference Finals each season. However, as previously reported, Disney wanted to reduce the regular season slots to avoid exorbitant price increases.
So, while ESPN will continue to air the NBA on Wednesday nights, it will eliminate the Friday night doubleheader it has aired since the 2002-03 season.
The future of ABC's Saturday and Sunday packages will depend on how deals with other partners develop. Pac News reported Monday that Amazon is seeking a Saturday night slot during the regular season, which ABC currently holds.
In addition, Amazon will have biennial hosting rights to in-season tournaments, play-in tournaments, and non-ESPN conference finals.
That leaves the third and final package, with NBC and TNT continuing to battle it out.
NBC plans to give the NBA $2.5 billion annually. TNT has the right to accept the offer, but doubling its annual investment in the NBA (TNT currently pays $1.2 billion annually) is in line with parent company Warner Bros. Discovery's mission to cut costs. contradicts.
The winner of the TNT vs. NBC cage match will be responsible for the non-ESPN conference finals, All-Star Weekend, several playoff series, and weekly regular season matchups in the years Amazon doesn't host them (every other year).
NBC prefers to air regular season games on Sundays, while TNT prefers to air them on Tuesday and/or Thursday nights. NBC's package will also include Peacock games.
Charles Barkley has said he would terminate his TNT contract if the NBA loses to the NBA, but said he expected a resolution to the NBC-TNT battle by last Friday. . There wasn't one.
Negotiations with both networks continue.
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