NBA Finalizes Lucrative Media Deals With ESPN, Amazon, and NBC — TNT Could Still Try to Match Offers

Jason DeCrow/AP

The NBA has finalized TV deals with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC totaling $76 billion over 11 seasons, The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand reported Tuesday.

Those deals notably leave out Warner Brothers Discovery and TNT, but Marchand noted that the company is still threatening to match one of the offers to keep NBA games on the network. If WBD does try to match, it’s expected to target Amazon’s offer.

The league’s Board of Governors is expected to approve the deals. Once that happens, they’ll be sent to TNT Sports. The company will have five days to make an offer.

Should TNT not match, the deals with ESPN, Amazon, and NBC will be officially announced sometime before the start of the Olympics.

With three media packages in the deal set to begin with the 2025-26 season, there will be nationally-broadcast games nearly every day of the week. All three platforms will broadcast playoff games, with ESPN hosting a conference final and the NBA Finals. Amazon and NBC will alternate the other conference final, meaning if network gets it one season, the other will get it the next season.

Amazon will also be the home of the NBA’s in-season tournament, which will be known as the Emirates NBA Cup starting next season.

The loss of TNT, however, will mean the loss of one of the best sports shows in the entire industry: Inside the NBA. Analyst Charles Barkley has openly ripped his bosses for allowing that to even become a possibility, even referencing the time WBD CEO David Zaslav infamously said WBD didn’t need the NBA.

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