The National Basketball Association is nearing media deals with NBC, Amazon and Disney/ESPN that could see the league clock about $76 billion in revenue over the next 11 years, according to a Wall Street Journal report. NBCUniversal would have to pay the NBA an average of $2.5 billion a year to show about 100 games a season, half of which would air exclusively on Peacock. The games would air on NBC on Tuesdays and Sundays to avoid conflicts with the network’s “Sunday Night Football.”
Amazon would pay $1.8 billion for regular-season and playoff games, the new in-season NBA tournament and “play-in” games in which teams compete for the final payoff spots. The tech giant would also be given a share of the conference finals, which media partners would divide into a rotation.
Disney would pay about $2.6 billion a year to continue broadcasting the NBA Finals, up from the current $1.5 billion. The company would get fewer games than under its current deal, and ESPN would air league games on its upcoming direct-to-consumer service scheduled to launch in 2025.
The deals, which would also include WNBA television broadcast rights, would take effect after the 2024-2025 season. The new deals could result in a 2.5-fold increase in annual fees for the NBA to average nearly $7 billion, according to the Journal. Owners are expected to approve the agreements and any official announcement could take a few more weeks.
2024-06-05 17:44:09
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