NBA media rights breakdown: Who gets what?

The new NBA media rights deals, which were announced Wednesday, are sufficiently extensive as to require a detailed breakdown.

The money

The NBA ended up with a $77 billion price tag across its three, 11-year media rights deals, a figure that is the combined total across the NBA (~$75b) and WNBA ($2.2b). Per The Wall Street Journal, Disney will pay $2.6 billion per year, Comcast $2.5 billion and Amazon $1.9 billion — the latter figure an increase over the $1.8 billion that had been previously reported. (Other reporting, including by John Ourand of Puck Thursday, has the Amazon figure still at $1.8 billion/year).

Rights by bidder

Disney

Disney is keeping much of what it already owned in the previous NBA rights deal, including the NBA Finals, an annual conference final (save for one year), early round playoff games, its Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday regular season games, half of the NBA Summer League, the NBA Draft and Draft Lottery. The network’s will largely cede its Friday night inventory to Amazon, though it will still carry occasional games on the night. (ESPN and Amazon games will be staggered on the Friday nights they share.)

ESPN/ABC will carry 20 fewer regular season games per season, with the ESPN cable network bearing the brunt of the reduction. ABC will actually carry more regular season games in the new contract, a minimum of 20 (compared to a minimum of 15 currently). In total, ESPN/ABC are set for upwards of 112 games in most seasons (80 regular season, 18 in the early rounds of the playoffs and as many as seven each in the NBA and conference finals).

Comcast

Comcast is acquiring much of what is currently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery, including Tuesday night games (starting with Opening Night), Martin Luther King Day and NBA All-Star Weekend (its first will be the Los Angeles edition pictured above), plus two additional nights — Sundays on NBC (following the NFL season) and Mondays on Peacock.

Comcast has more regular season and early round playoff games than any other network (100 and 28 respectively), to the tune of 128 games total. In seasons where NBC airs a conference final, it could carry as many as 135. (NBC has six conference finals in 11 years starting in the first season of the deal.) Peacock will have 50 games per season across the regular season and playoffs, including potentially half of Comcast’s 28 early round playoff games.

Amazon

Amazon’s bid is highlighted by the knockout stage of the NBA Cup (previously known as the In-Season Tournament) and the entire Play-in Tournament, neither of which existed when the 2014 deals were struck. It also consists of Thursday night games following the NFL season, Friday night games all season (including Black Friday) and occasional Saturday afternoon matchups.

Across the regular season (66), Play-in Tournament (6) and early rounds of the playoffs (appx. 20), Amazon is set for a combined 92 games per season, with that figure rising to 99 in conference final years (Amazon has six of 11 beginning in 2027). It also gets half of the NBA Summer League (likely the half currently airing on NBA TV).

Amazon will also be a strategic partner for NBA League Pass, though that does not mean the league’s out-of-market package will belong solely to Prime Video (as NFL Sunday Ticket belongs to YouTube TV). League Pass will still be available on cable and through streaming MVPDs, though its availability on the latter services will be much more limited than currently.

The WNBA

All three NBA media partners will carry WNBA games, with at least 50, 30 and 25 across Comcast, Amazon and Disney respectively. Comcast’s 50-game schedule will include only five per year on NBC, with the rest on USA Network and Peacock.

Unlike the NBA Finals, which will remain exclusive to ESPN, the WNBA Finals will rotate among the three partners. Per Richard Deitsch of The Athletic, ESPN will have the WNBA Finals in odd-numbered years beginning in 2027. NBC and Amazon will alternate even-numbered years beginning with NBC in 2026. As perhaps goes without saying, the three broadcast partners will also split the early rounds of the WNBA Playoffs.

The WNBA will sell two additional packages beyond those outlined Wednesday, which are expected to go to incumbents CBS and ION for a combined $60-100 million per year.

Additional details

— The NBA’s announcement on Wednesday accounted for only 66 of a potential 84 early round playoff games (28 on NBC/Peacock, 20 on Amazon, plus 18 on ESPN/ABC), which is the average number of first and second round games in a given year. In essence, Games 6 and 7 of a series constitute excess inventory.

— Despite considerable speculation to the contrary, the deals did not include any local rights. Early reports that Amazon would acquire a full, exclusive night of games proved to be incorrect. Nor did the rights include the acquisition of NBA League Pass by a sole distributor.

— All playoff games will be exclusive to national television, including those airing on Peacock and Prime Video. Previously, first round games on cable coexisted with those on local RSNs.

— The NBA rights deals do not include an opt-out (unlike the NFL), though Puck’s Ourand reported Thursday that the league at one point in negotiations told WBD that it wanted to include an opt-out after seven years. While there is no opt-out, the WNBA will have the opportunity for a revaluation of its rights fee after three years.

— NBC’s deal includes ten games per season on Telemundo Deportes, marking the first time NBA games have aired on one of the primary Spanish-language networks since Telemundo held rights in the early 2000s.

— Internationally, ESPN games will air on the various ESPN-branded international networks and on Disney+ in some parts of Europe and Asia; Prime Video games will air on that service in select countries, including Mexico, France, Germany and the United Kingdom; all NBC games will air on Sky Sports.

— While Xfinity has become the NBA’s official video partner, that does not prevent the league from selling its annual Finals sponsorship to YouTube TV.

— The NBA app will act as a portal for nationally televised games, sending viewers to the networks’ respective apps, but viewers will not be able to watch those games via the app itself.

NBA media rights by event