Details of the eight-year extension the NBA has signed with ESPN/ABC and TNT are coming out:
ESPN and ESPN2 will televise up to 75 regular season games ? primarily on Wednesday and Friday nights. ESPN will also televise up to 29 playoff games, feature exclusive television coverage in the Conference Semifinals and showcase exclusive coverage of one of the best-of-seven Conference Finals each year. In addition, ESPN will televise exclusive coverage of the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game, the NBA Draft and NBA Draft Lottery each season, and feature coverage of the yearly NBA Pre-Draft Camp via ESPNU.”
The Conference Finals remain on cable. ABC will now a minimum of eight playoff games; the current minimum is five. The NBA will not move its games on ABC to Saturday nights, as was rumored briefly last year.
More:
- Terms of the deal have not been disclosed, “but sources said the networks will pay a ‘cost-of-living increase’ over the current combined $4.6 billion deal that was set to expire after the 2007-08 season.”
- ESPN will air more early round playoff games. So far, the network has only aired early round games on Fridays and Saturdays.
- ESPN will obtain exclusivity for second round games. During the current television contract, only TNT has exclusivity for the second round of the playoffs.
- TNT will continue airing the NBA All-Star Game, as well as one full Conference Final.
- ESPN will now have the rights to NBA content “across all media, including future platforms“, as well as the “[a]bility to include ESPN and ABC games and studio programming in any ESPN offering, on a live, delayed and on-demand basis and in an interactive format” and the “[a]bility to simulcast full NBA games live on ESPN360.com and ESPN Mobile TV“.
- Both ESPN and TNT “will now be able to stream their respective NBA live game and studio content via broadband, mobile and other digital platforms“.
- At the conclusion of this deal, ABC will have aired the NBA for more years than previous rights holder NBC.
