Brian Steinberg Senior TV Editor Three different media companies won new 11-year rights deals with the NBA on Wednesday. Only one of them is going to radically rework its business to accommodate the new agreement.
NBCUniversal will, starting in late 2025, devote three full nights a week to NBA play during the league’s season, two of them on the NBC broadcast network and one of them on its Peacock streaming hub. “I think it’s an opportunity,” says Rick Cordella, president of NBC Sports, during an interview .Indeed, in an era when big audiences have grown more difficult to accumulate, NBCUniversal and its parent, Comcast, couldn’t ignore the chance to get involved with Big Basketball.
NBCU is believed to be spending an estimated $2.5 billion a year on a deal that gives it the chance to air 100 regular-season games; the NBA All-Star Game; and a passel of exclusive first-round playoff games.
In a sign of how much NBC wanted this sports deal, the company is paying more for NBA games than it is for its current NFL package, according to estimates from the independent analysis firm MoffettNathanson.
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