NBCUniversal signed an 11-year, $2.5-billion-a-season deal with the NBA Wednesday that will see the league return to NBC for the first time since 2002, starting with the 2025-26 season.
But the NBA isn't the only pro hoops league being restored to NBCU after what will have been a 23-year absence: The WNBA is coming back, too.
Also read: WNBA More Than Quadruples Its Current National TV Contract With 11-Year, $2.2 Billion Deal
The league made official on Wednesday's last week's New York Times report about the WNBA more than quadrupling its current $60-million-a-season national TV deal, with the league signing arrangements that will pay it more than $2.2 billion through the 2036-37 campaign.
What the Times -- and most of us -- didn't know was that NBCU was part of that plan, along with newcomer Amazon, and incumbent Disney.
Under the new agreements, these media partners will distribute more than 125 WNBA regular-season and playoff games nationally each season, including a minimum of 25 regular-season games on Disney platforms, 50 regular-season games on NBCU platforms and 30 regular-season games on Amazon Prime Video.
Additionally, Disney and NBCU will distribute games in key international markets, and Prime Video will distribute games globally to more than 200 million Prime members worldwide.
“These agreements allow the league to continue to build a long-term and sustainable growth model for the future of women’s basketball and sports which will benefit WNBA players, teams and fans," said WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, in a statement.
Per NBCU, here are "highlights" from its upcoming NBA and WNBA contracts:
* 100 NBA national games each regular season across NBC and Peacock
* More NBA Playoff games each season on average than any other NBA media partner
* First-round playoff games presented by NBCUniversal will be exclusive in all markets (national and local)
* Approximately 50 Peacock-exclusive national regular-season and postseason NBA games, including national Monday night games and doubleheaders
* Six NBA Conference Finals series (every other year beginning with 2025-26 season)
* “NBA Tip-Off” doubleheader each season
* More than 50 WNBA regular-season and first-round playoff games each season across USA Network, Peacock, and NBC
* Three WNBA Finals series (2026, ’30, ‘34)
* WNBA Semi-Finals games in seven seasons (2026, ’28, ’30, ’31, ’32, ’34, ’36)
* NBA All-Star Game and star-studded competitions of All-Star Saturday Night each season on NBC and Peacock
* Select NBA games and every NBA All-Star Game on Telemundo
* USA Basketball men’s and women’s games
* The return of the iconic “Roundball Rock” theme music
