It has been a foregone conclusion for months, but the NBA is officially returning to NBC.
Comcast executive Mike Cavanagh said in a Q2 earnings call Tuesday that the company expects to soon announce its widely-reported NBA rights deal and that it does not expect to be impacted by Warner Bros. Discovery’s exercise of its matching rights.
Cavanagh detailed several aspects of the deal, some of which had already been reported. NBC and Peacock will carry a combined 100 games per regular season, which is more than any other media partner in the deal and more than any partner currently carries. (Though WBD currently airs more games if one includes NBA TV.)
Comcast’s playoff coverage will include exclusive first and second round games, plus the six conference finals that were reported by Andrew Marchand last week. Cavanagh said Comcast will also have more playoff games on average than any other media partner.
Peacock’s lineup of games will include 50 combined across the regular season and playoffs.
The NBC deal is highlighted by NBA Opening Night, the NBA All-Star Game and All-Star Saturday Night and an annual Martin Luther King Day doubleheader, all of which are hallmarks of TNT’s current schedule. While WBD is matching Amazon’s “C” package, the new NBC deal is a spiritual successor to WBD’s current contract.
Comcast’s WNBA coverage will include three WNBA Finals, part of seven semifinal series, and a combined 50 regular season and first round playoff games. Though not said Tuesday, the WNBA games will air primarily on USA and Peacock, with fewer on the NBC broadcast network.
NBC has also acquired the USA Basketball games that lead up to the Olympics and FIBA World Cup. Those games are currently airing on Fox Sports.
The deal also includes Telemundo, which last carried NBA games in the early 2000s.
NBC was the lead NBA broadcast partner from 1990-2002, a period that coincided with the Michael Jordan era.
Is there any word on the ratings for any of the Team USA basketball exhibition games? I haven’t seen any ratings for those games posted here.
Wrote about opener here: https://www.sportsmediawatch.com/2024/07/usa-basketball-ratings-opener-most-watched-exhibition-since-2012/
Plan to have something on the full series of games later today.
I don’t like this at all. Why? Let me tell you, if it was approximately 100 games on regular TV I would go for it, and approve this deal, but when they are planning on putting about half of their games on another streaming service, that is the problem. Also I haven’t heard if it is being streamed, well the game still be able to be shown locally, I sure hope so. Also even if TNT keeps some of their games, does anyone know the status of NBA TV? I am not a hater, because I love sports as much as the next person, but NBC last year acquired some of the rights for the Big 10, yes NBC showed college football on Saturday nights, but when it came to Big 10 basketball, how many were on NBC? Zero, nothing. Like I said I hope they do a good job, because I will still watch, but why stream the games.
Putting the 100 games on NBC a season is not feasible and I’d rather have them split that up with Peacock than NBC throwing it USA Network or SYFY. broadcast > streaming >>> cable.
I agree with you
2025 NBA All-Star weekend will take place at the Golden State Warriors’ Chase Center, just southeast of downtown San Francisco, which Steph Curry and Draymond Green have been based since the start of the 2019-20 season. Super Bowl LX will take place 42 miles south at Levi’s Stadium in Santa Clara a year later. BOTH will be on NBC. Managers at NBC Bay Area must be doing high-fives today
No, 2025 All-Star Game is on TNT. NBC starts in 2026. Remember this deal does not go into effect until the 2025-26 season.
The NBA Three-point Shootout and Slam Dunk Contest is coming to NBC.
NBA on NBC is back.
Any word about a Tuesday night weekly package on NBC? Still very curious to see if NBC is going to really have a weekly Tuesday night game. I am still not believing it’s going to be weekly. NBC still has to invest in their entertainment division. I can see maybe opening night, holiday weeks, and some special must-see games. And I see a lot on Peacock on Tuesdays. Will be interesting to see what kind of commitment NBC broadcast puts to Tuesday nights.
Are you even trying to read anything????? Every report that came has stated the same thing!!! NBC will televise games all season long every Tuesday throughout the regular and beginning on Sunday nights after the NFL season ends. Other reports coming out of Comcast also stated that NBC is committed to changing its entertainment schedule to accommodate the new Tuesday night schedule. Every network realizes that live sports in primetime is the only guarantee that viewers will tune in and having the second most popular sport on your network every Tuesday night instead of just weekends January through May is a pretty big deal. More network television and less cable is a win for us all.
I agree NBC can change to accommodate this, it’s like how Fox is doing on Fridays now with this, Tuesdays is not going to be as big of a deal, even ABC could be changing it’s Monday nights real soon following this to have sports there, Just on Weekends is just not going to be enough anymore these days, their entertainment schedule will have openings in the summer when their Wednesday and Thursday lineups go on pause to put something new for entertainment instead of encores of dramas etc
I think this is a bigger deal than most people think. To have the NBA weekly on a Tuesday night during the prime time season. The NBA is not the NFL. The NFL could put a game on any night of the week and guarantee 15-20 million. NBC was televising the Voice on Tuesdays. It was getting 4-6 million viewership a week. Which in todays segmented TV market, is a terrific number. Can regular NBA get 4-6 million a week in prime time on a Tuesday? I can’t see it. Maybe for a Lakers-Warriors game (thats a big if). This is why I am still skeptical that NBC is going all in on Tuesday nights. There was no announcement about the Tuesday schedule in the yesterday’s earnings call. Huge commitment every Tuesday during the season. We will see if this happens.
So Paulson, do we know if ESPN/ABC or NBC/Peacock deal will include any Christmas games (since TNT had a right to air Christmas games if it landed on Thursday) will that be a case for NBC if Christmas lands on a Sunday or Tuesday it will have the right to air some Christmas games during the contract?
I suspect it will be the same as currently, with ESPN having Christmas Day rights except for primetime games in any year where Christmas falls on NBC or Amazon’s “regular” broadcast window.
Christmas Day is probably the main value of ESPN’s regular season rights because they really don’t have any other slots all season where no other game is played/televised on League Pass at the same time. I suspect them losing it would have leaked already.