NBA Sells TV Rights Through 2036 for Record $76 Billion

The league will earn this amount from agreements with three media giants – The Walt Disney Company, NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video, SportsPro Media reports. The contract will take effect in the 2025/26 season and will last for 11 years.

$6.9 billion per season

This is a real breakthrough for the most popular basketball tournament, which managed to more than triple the terms of the contract – under the 11-year agreement with The Walt Disney Co. (matches are broadcast by ABC and ESPN) and Warner Bros. Discovery Inc., which ends next year. (TNT Sports) the league became $25 billion richer. The amount is, of course fabulous and comparable only to winnings in the online casino Playfina. Joke!

Our new global media agreements will maximize the reach and accessibility of NBA games for fans in the U.S. and around the world. The partners will distribute our content across a wide range of platforms and help attract new fans over the next decade

Adam Silver

The NBA will pay the largest amount to Disney (ABC/ESPN) – $2.6 billion per year for the right to broadcast 80 regular season games, including more than 20 games on ABC and up to 60 games on ESPN, The Washington Post revealed details. One of the main features of the contract is the broadcast of all five NBA games on Christmas.

ABC will also remain the exclusive broadcaster of the NBA Finals, which have been broadcast on the channel since 2003, will show the NBA All-Star Game, the draft, and half of all NBA Summer League games. Disney will distribute the league’s games on ESPN platforms in several international markets, including Latin America, Africa, Oceania, and the Netherlands, as well as select markets in Asia and Europe. Disney’s partnership with the NBA will be 34 years in 2036.

NBCUniversal will broadcast about 100 regular-season NBA games a year under a $2.5 billion annual deal, which will be broadcast on NBC and the Peacock streaming service. NBC will also broadcast All-Star Game events, including the AT&T Slam Dunk, Starry 3-Point Contest and Kia Skills Challenge. NBC/Peacock will broadcast 28 playoff games across the first two rounds and one of the two Conference Finals series.

As part of the partnership, NBCU will distribute NBA games in several European markets via Sky Sports, as well as in the Caribbean and Africa. In addition, NBCU will show games of the Women’s National Basketball League (WNBA) and all games of the US men’s and women’s national basketball teams.

The smallest package, worth $1.8 billion per season, went to e-commerce company Amazon. For this money, 66 regular-season NBA games will be shown on the company-owned streaming service Prime Video. It is supposed to show Thursday and Friday night games, as well as at least one game on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving), plus the quarterfinals, semifinals, and final of the intraseason tournament of the league, the Emirates NBA Cup. In addition, Prime Video will broadcast one of two series of the conference finals for six of 11 years on a rotating basis with NBCU, starting in the 2026-27 season.

Internationally, Amazon will show NBA games in Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the UK and Ireland. Prime Video will also become a strategic partner of the league and a third-party global arm of NBA League Pass, the league’s live NBA games subscription service with expanded distribution rights in the U.S. and around the world. In addition, as part of the agreement, Prime Video will broadcast half of all NBA Summer League games.

Only the NFL makes more

A huge controversy in the U.S. was caused by the absence of Warner Bros. Discovery Inc (WBD), which has continuously shown NBA games since 1984 through its TNT Sports channel, in the new deal. The company was unable to beat Amazon’s offer, but this is not the only reason the league’s management refused to continue working with WBD, writes The Athletic.

First, TNT wanted to broadcast all of its games on its cable network and Max streaming service, while Prime Video is a streaming service with a much larger reach. Secondly, Amazon has expressed its willingness to pay for the first three years of the contract, while WBD, which has debts of about $40 billion, according to Bloomberg, was unable to do so.

TNT Sports management disagrees with the league’s position, especially in relation to a long-term partner, so the case may end up in court. This is not beneficial to either side, since private conversations can become public during hearings. It is difficult to accuse the NBA bosses of bias or unfair play – Silver expressed his willingness to involve streaming for a third broadcast package last year.

And this is not surprising. Sports has long been a stronghold of traditional linear television, but this is changing rapidly. According to Insider Intelligence, by the end of 2027, the number of subscribers who do not use streaming will be less than 35% of all consumers in the United States.

If TNT Sports had an executive like David Levy, who left the company in 2019, at the helm, competitors would not have a chance. The new WBD management tried to play poker with the NBA in cold blood. In the end, it misread its own cards, Front Office Sports sums up. It is also unclear why WBD did not play its main trump card – the popular show Around the NBA.

Since the early 2000s, this program has been considered one of the best sports analysis shows on American television, and has won 19 Sports Emmy Awards in its history. Instead of trying to attract the main stars of the program and NBA legends Charles Barkley and Shaquille O’Neal to the fight, the channel left them in the dark.

The NBA’s annual revenue of $6.9 billion under the new deal significantly exceeds the figures for Major League Baseball (MLB) at $1.9 billion and the National Hockey League (NHL) at $625 million per season. If the NBA continues to develop at the same rate, it will one day catch up with the most popular sport in the United States – American football. Currently, the National Football League (NFL) holds the record for television deals – $10 billion per year, Sports Business Journal emphasizes.