After months of negotiations, the National Basketball Association (NBA) has found a new home beginning with the 2025-26 season. According to a report by Andrew Marchand of the New York Times, ESPN and ABC will be joined by Amazon Prime Video and NBC as part of a new 11-year, $76 billion rights agreement. As part of the new deal, each partner is expected to pay nearly $7 billion per season to air live games.
Marchand’s sources have direct knowledge of the deal, however, TNT Sports, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery can match to keep NBA games on their networks. The report states that Amazon’s rights package would be the network that WBD CEO David Zaslav would likely target.
Last month, it was reported that TNT Sports was interested in bringing local games to national TV and streaming on Max with a smaller rights package. At the time, sources told Michael McCarthy at Front Office Sports that “It’s not over until it’s over,” regarding the NBA’s four-decade partnership with the TNT network.
The league’s governors must approve the agreements before it goes into effect as the 2024 NBA 2K25 Summer League games are about to begin in Las Vegas. On Tuesday, the NBA’s board of governors will be meeting in Las Vegas and the league will send the contracts to TNT Sports, in which they’ll have five days to decide if they would like to match and keep the games on their networks.
With the new deal, NBA games are expected to air nationally broadcasted games seven days a week after the conclusion of the NFL season. Below is the expected nights/network schedule:
- Monday: Peacock
- Tuesday: NBC
- Wednesday: ESPN
- Thursday: Amazon
- Friday: ESPN/Amazon
- Saturday: ESPN/Amazon
- Sunday: NBC/ESPN
For cord cutters who are sports fans, adding Peacock and Prime Video as another option to stream live games makes watching a little more convenient than traditional linear networks. Marchand’s sources expect that games airing on NBC will simulstream on Peacock. Each partner is expected to air postseason games with Prime Video being home to the In-Season Tournament. ESPN will still be home to a conference final and the NBA Finals each season with Amazon Prime Video and NBC alternating the other conference final.