According to the very serious Wall Street Journal, the NBA is on the verge of winning the jackpot in the renegotiation of TV rights since our colleagues are talking about a contract worth 76 billion dollars over 11 years. This new deal will begin with the 2025/26 season, and as expected, it will mark the end of the TNT era (and the Inside The NBA show) and the big return of NBC. The other novelty, and it is a turning point in the history of the NBA, is the arrival of Amazon, the repercussions of which could be international.
In detail, ESPN/ABC will thus retain the first lot for 2.6 billion dollars per year, with the exclusivity of the broadcast of the Finals, a conference final, several matches in “prime time” each week, WNBA games and part of the international rights.
Amazon will broadcast matches until the conference final
For 2.5 billion dollars per year, NBC will replace TNT for the second batch, with a show “Basketball Night in America” which will take the place of the equivalent show on American football, every Sunday, at the end of the NFL season . The channel should also share conference final matches and two “prime time” slots per week. In total, the Wall Street Journal speaks of 100 matches per season.
Finally, Amazon will obtain the third lot, with the NBA Cup, Play-In, regular season matches and playoffs up to the conference final, WNBA matches as well as international broadcasting rights . The e-commerce giant would put nearly 20 billion on the table for this lot.
The three broadcasters would have to pay more than $7 billion per season, cumulatively, to broadcast the NBA, which will therefore multiply its earnings by 3 compared to its previous contract, which were $24 billion over 11 years. A monster growth which will benefit the franchises and especially the players with salaries which will explode again as was the case after the signing of the previous deal.
