The National Basketball Association (NBA) finalized its new television and media rights deal that will net the league $76 billion over an 11-year period. That works out to $6.9 billion per season from the league’s new partners. Those partners include Disney, which owns the sports media giant ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. The National Football League (NFL), still the largest sports league by revenue in the United States, pulls in $10 billion annually from its mammoth TV and media deal. Still, this new agreement puts the NBA in a similar ballpark.
This new TV and media deal almost triples the current agreement on an annual basis. The new contract will take effect starting with the 2025-2026 season and end in 2036-2037. Turner Sports (TNT), which has been a cornerstone of NBA coverage through the 21st century, is not currently part of the new agreement. However, it does have the option to match a portion of the deal.
Reportedly, Disney will fork out $2.6 billion, NBC $2.5 billion, and Amazon $1.8 billion annually in the deal. It is rumoured that TNT has the opportunity to match Amazon’s portion of the agreement.
The deal will have significant ramifications for the NBA going forward. Expansion to 32 teams from the current 30 is now on the table. Players will also benefit enormously, as the NBA salary cap will see a 10% increase annually. That means that top players could be earning near $100 million per season by the middle of the next decade.
