Details continue to trickle out about the NBA’s recently finalized media rights deals with Disney, Comcast, and Amazon.
The NBA reportedly finalized its new set of media rights deals last week, with Disney (ESPN/ABC) maintaining the lead package that includes the NBA Finals every year, while newcomers Comcast (NBC/Peacock) and Amazon each secured packages of their own that include regular season and playoff inventory. Warner Bros Discovery (TNT) will seek to exercise its matching rights as an incumbent partner over the coming days, though those efforts are unlikely to produce results.
Since the original reports, new details have emerged about how each network’s inventory will be divvied up. As was originally reported, Comcast and Amazon will alternate years in which they broadcast a conference final, with ESPN airing the other conference final. However, that arrangement will be slightly different during one year of the NBA’s new 11-year agreements, per Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
Comcast and Amazon’s agreements with the league grant them rights to six conference finals each, meaning there will be one year in which ESPN does not broadcast a conference final over the term of the new deals. It is not clear which year that will be, though it will make for an interesting dynamic where ESPN has a substantial gap in its NBA playoff coverage between the second round and the Finals. During the other ten years of the new deals, ESPN will share the conference finals with either NBC or Amazon.
In other NBA media rights news, NBC will broadcast the NBA All-Star Game and NBA All-Star Saturday Night (which includes the dunk contest and three-point contest) each year under the new deals, per Alex Sherman of CNBC. ESPN will continue to air the Celebrity All-Star Game on Friday night.
TNT has aired 22 consecutive All-Star Games dating back to 2003 — the first time the game aired on cable. Should the network fall short in its matching efforts, the 2026 All-Star Game will be the first to air on broadcast television since NBC’s telecast of the 2002 All-Star Game.
Of course, with TNT at risk of losing its NBA rights, the future of Inside the NBA remains in flux. Speaking with CNBC on Thursday, Charles Barkley reiterated his position that he would not work for any other network aside from TNT. Barkley said, while he hopes TNT will “get a last minute reprieve” that allows the network to keep some NBA rights, he “wouldn’t feel comfortable going to work for another network” after 25 years with TNT.
Pending the status of TNT’s matching efforts, the NBA could announce its new deals in the coming weeks prior to the Olympics which begin July 26.
