STORY: The NBA is closing in on media rights deals with NBC, ESPN, and Amazon that would generate about $76 billion in media revenue over 11 years.
That's according to a report on Wednesday from the Wall Street Journal, which said that Comcast-owned NBC would pay an average of $2.5 billion a year to show around 100 NBA games per season, with about half showing exclusively on its streaming service Peacock.
Amazon's package would amount to $1.8 billion a year and include regular-season and playoff games. It would also include a share of the conference finals, which the report said would be split among the media partners.
And Disney-owned ESPN would pay an average of about $2.6 billion annually, more than the $1.5 billion it currently pays. The Journal said ESPN would continue to air the NBA Finals, though it will get fewer games under the new deal. ESPN would also have rights to WNBA games.
Notably absent from the deal is Warner Bros Discovery, whose Turner Sports network has shown NBA games for about four decades. Analysts have said that Warner Bros Discovery's heavy debt load could hamper its ability to compete for NBA rights.
The rights to professional sports games are a prized possession for media companies, as they attract a reliable and loyal audience at a time when millions of traditional TV subscribers are cord-cutting.
ESPN and Comcast declined to comment, while the other companies and the NBA did not immediately respond to Reuters' requests for comment.
