Comcast President Mike Cavanagh Hails Return Of NBA To NBCUniversal, Calling Deal A “Testament To Our Breadth And Reach”

deadline.com:

In the first on-the-record comments by a media partner in the NBA‘s pending $76 billion rights bonanza, Comcast President Mike Cavanagh said the league will be a fixture for NBCUniversal for “decades to come.” The exec said Comcast expects an 11-year deal with the NBA will “soon” be announced.

Thus far, a drip-drip series of reports in various media outlets, attributed to anonymous sources, have indicated that Disney has re-upped with the league.

A third package is being pursued by Prime Video and Warner Bros. Discovery. After reports indicated Amazon had secured the rights, WBD on Monday said it was asserting its matching rights, introducing a wrinkle in the long-gestating set of agreements. “We don’t believe that the resolution of matching rights will affect the package that we expect to be awarded,” Cavanagh said on Comcast’s second-quarter earnings call.

Cavanagh did not confirm reports that Comcast shelled out a hefty $2.5 billion on average per year, but he did provide some details of the rights that were secured.