Final yr, the NBA signed a brand new 11-year, $77-billion media rights deal that may make the league so much richer and dramatically alter the tune-in habits of followers when the 2025-26 season ideas off this week.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s cable community TNT will not carry the league’s video games, however its iconic studio present “Contained in the NBA” lives on at ESPN.
Extra video games will air completely on streaming platforms than ever earlier than as Amazon Prime Video and NBCUniversal’s Peacock have important packages within the new deal.
Right here’s what it’s good to know earlier than the motion begins.
“Roundball Rock” returns
NBC is again within the NBA enterprise after 23 years, carrying as much as 100 common season video games on the published community and its Peacock streaming platform. The community will carry a major time sport Tuesdays beginning this week and Sundays as of Feb. 1. NBCUniversal’s Telemundo will carry 12 of the Sunday evening NBA video games in Spanish. Peacock will completely stream as much as three video games nationally Mondays.
NBC can also be the brand new house for the NBA’s All-Star weekend, set for February in Los Angeles.
John Tesh performs “Roundball Rock” in an NBC Sports activities promo for its NBA protection.
(NBC Sports activities)
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver mentioned in an interview that the league’s transfer to NBC is extra of a homecoming than a transition.
“Loads of the DNA remains to be in place,” Silver mentioned. “Lots of the producers we labored with 20-plus years in the past are nonetheless with the group. In some methods we’re in a position to decide up the place we left off.”
The community is leaning into its heritage as the house of the league from 1990 to 2002, when Michael Jordan led the Chicago Bulls to 6 championships, galvanizing fan curiosity to new heights. Even John Tesh’s “Roundball Rock” — the infectious percussive theme tune used through the period — is returning.
Jordan has been employed as a particular contributor, however the community has performed it near the vest about how the NBA legend might be used.
“You will notice him on opening evening in some capability,” NBC Sports activities President Rick Cordella informed The Instances.
Western Convention followers ought to admire NBC’s strategy to its “Coast 2 Coast Tuesday” telecasts beginning Oct. 28. In most weeks, NBC TV stations within the Western and Mountain time zones will get their very own video games in prime time at 8 p.m., slightly than a 5 p.m. begin time for an East Coast contest.
Cordella famous that having having separate prime time video games in two areas will assist enhance scores as extra individuals might be out there to observe in these hours. Followers throughout the nation will be capable to stream each video games on Peacock irrespective of the place they stay.
A brand new house for ‘Contained in the NBA’
ESPN retained its package deal of standard season video games, playoffs and the NBA Finals. However probably the most anticipated aspect of its protection this season would be the arrival of “Contained in the NBA,” airing earlier than and after chosen video games on ESPN and ABC.
When TNT misplaced the rights to the NBA, followers of the unfiltered gabfest with Ernie Johnson, Shaquille O’Neal, Charles Barkley and Kenny Smith had been despondent over the opportunity of its demise after 36 years. ESPN reached an settlement with TNT to proceed producing this system in change for a package deal of school soccer video games.
Shaquille O’Neal, Ernie Johnson, Kenny Smith and Charles Barkley on “Contained in the NBA.”
(TNT Sports activities)
Beginning with a doubleheader Tuesday, “Contained in the NBA” will air for an hour earlier than chosen video games on ESPN and a half-hour forward of ABC telecasts.
Postgame editions might be open-ended on ESPN whereas ABC will run a half-hour after which proceed on the ESPN app. This system will air on 20 dates through the common season and all through the NBA Playoffs, together with the Jap Convention Finals and the NBA Finals.
Tim Corrigan, senior vice chairman of sports activities manufacturing for ESPN, mentioned in a current information convention that nothing will change on this system outdoors of it being on a brand new community. Together with the hosts, the graphics, the music and the perspective will stay the identical and can nonetheless be produced at TNT Sports activities’ studios in Atlanta with its longtime manufacturing crew.
“We would like them to do their present,” Corrigan mentioned.
The entire video games on ESPN and ABC can be found on ESPN’s just lately launched direct-to-consumer streaming service out there to followers who don’t have a pay TV subscription.
NBA involves Prime Video
Amazon is the brand new child on the block, with 67 NBA video games completely on the Prime Video streaming platform beginning with a doubleheader Friday.
The streamer will carry each sport within the knockout spherical of the Emirates NBA Cup, the postseason SoFi Play-In Event and first- and second-round playoff video games. Prime will even carry two worldwide NBA video games this yr and deal with the convention finals in six of the subsequent 11 seasons.
Prime Video will make on-screen advance stats a part of its NBA protection.
(Prime Video)
Prime developed plenty of on-screen options for its “Thursday Evening Soccer” protection, and viewers can anticipate the identical for the NBA, the place followers can entry pivotal moments within the sport or get a speedy recap in the event that they tune in late.
Followers who subscribe to NBA League Go, a streaming platform that gives entry to out-of-market video games, can hyperlink the service to Prime Video to observe a number of video games directly on the identical display.
Prime Video can also be teaming with the net sportsbook app FanDuel, giving bettors the flexibility to trace the progress of their wagers whereas watching a sport. (FanDuel shouldn’t be out there to make use of in California.)
