NBA on NBC returning in 2025: The new NBA TV contract is all but done By Brody Sorbera
With the NBA playoffs in full swing, it is easy to forget that at the end of the day, professional sports is a business, and with business comes contracts, and the NBA’s coveted TV rights contract expires after the 2024-2025 season concludes. The current contract gives Disney (ABC/ESPN) and Turner (TNT) the rights to the NBA, but with the new contract negotiations underway (according to sources, including The Ringer), it already looks like the NBA on TV is going to look very different for 2025.
Multiple sources have speculated from what they have heard from the negotiations that more is needed. Still, the biggest headlines are NBCUniversal’s big push with a staggering $2.5 billion bid. It appears that TNT’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery, is throwing in the towel as Warner Bros. CEO David Zazlav, known for his controversial cost-cutting measures, said, according to Andrew Marchand of The Athletic during an investor conference, that “We don’t have to have the NBA.” This is the same guy who canceled two finished movies for tax write-offs. I just wanted to give you an idea of the type of guy we are dealing with here.
That said, NBC, ESPN, and Amazon are nearing a deal to broadcast the NBA for the next decade. Disney looked to keep the exclusive rights to the finals they have held since 2003. Still, with NBC’s massive bid, I would like to speculate that they would also try to get exclusive rights to the NBA Finals back as they did from 1991-2002 during most of the Jordan era no matter what happens, each broadcasting partner would get a fair share of regular season and playoff games and gives 90s kids a massive nostalgia trip.
This leaves the remaining question, the fate of the popular TNT pre/post-game show “Inside The NBA” and the talent on the show as Charles Barkley already has announced that he will be jumping ship if TNT loses the NBA rights and there might be a new show all ready for him as NBC is planning a “Basketball Night In America” similar to NBC’s award-winning “Football Night In America” that Mr. Barkley might be looking to jump too and he might be bringing his frienemy Shaq with him but Ernie Johnson made a similar announcement saying he would stay behind at TNT if that happened.
Another massive takeaway is Amazon quickly emerging as a player in pro sports as they already secured “Thursday Night Football” in the NFL and they are now poised to expand their broadcasting portfolio with this new deal and streaming love it or hate it is becoming a part of the sports landscape and is not going away any time soon. Disney even wants put games on Disney+ as part of renewing their contract with the NBA.