A new era of professional basketball on television appears to be upon the United States.
The NBA has finalized media rights agreements with Amazon, ESPN and NBC to air its games over an 11-year span at a combined cost of $76 billion, according to a Wednesday afternoon report from Andrew Marchand of The Athletic.
Per Marchand, ESPN will retain the rights to the NBA Finals, which have been produced by the network since 2003.
"The next step is for the league’s governors to approve the agreements with ESPN, NBC and Amazon, which is expected to be a formality," Marchand wrote.
At that point, per the veteran media critic, the NBA will bring its finished contracts to TNT—the league's current non-ESPN television partner.
TNT has broadcast NBA games in some form or fashion since 1989, and it has long been speculated that the network wants to match any new platform's offer in order to remain involved with the league.
"Under the new NBA television deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon Prime, the regular season would feature national telecasts nearly seven days a week, according to sources briefed on the agreements," Marchand wrote, including potential football-mimicking Thursday and Sunday night packages on Amazon and NBC.
NBC previously held NBA rights from 1991 to 2002—a span during which the league exploded in popularity. According to Marchand, the network and Amazon will rotate off showing one conference finals per year while ESPN broadcasts the other.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as NBA Finalizes New Media Deals With Amazon, ESPN and NBC, per Report.
