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metafisical wrote:Regarding Amazon:
"The international live-game package rights extend worldwide, with the exception of Greater China, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with rights in Canada beginning in the 2026-27 NBA season."
Darn...
Scase wrote:metafisical wrote:Regarding Amazon:
"The international live-game package rights extend worldwide, with the exception of Greater China, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with rights in Canada beginning in the 2026-27 NBA season."
Darn...
Isnt that the first season the contract starts? Or is it 25-26?
WuTang_OG wrote:TheRealDeal wrote:Isn’t this potentially good for us? One of the biggest things going against us is the fact that Canada doesn’t count towards TV ratings, so we rarely get exposure south of the border
If the TV rights extend to Canada now maybe they’ll feature us more
this is only for US viewership. Canada will likely get fked so it wont matter.
Only thing IMO that is different is if we ever get games on Amazon. If its same as AppleTV/MLB, then the broadcast will be on there.
Appostis wrote:Scase wrote:metafisical wrote:Regarding Amazon:
"The international live-game package rights extend worldwide, with the exception of Greater China, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with rights in Canada beginning in the 2026-27 NBA season."
Darn...
Isnt that the first season the contract starts? Or is it 25-26?
Assuming the Canadian deals with Rogers/Bell might have a different end date. The overall contract starts 25-26.
So all NBA in Canada would be through Amazon as of 26-27?
Gotta be honest I'd be okay with it...right now kinda paying for league pass (discount via paying VPN/mexico) + Sportsnet/TSN streaming services.
Appostis wrote:WuTang_OG wrote:TheRealDeal wrote:Isn’t this potentially good for us? One of the biggest things going against us is the fact that Canada doesn’t count towards TV ratings, so we rarely get exposure south of the border
If the TV rights extend to Canada now maybe they’ll feature us more
this is only for US viewership. Canada will likely get fked so it wont matter.
Only thing IMO that is different is if we ever get games on Amazon. If its same as AppleTV/MLB, then the broadcast will be on there.
As in streaming on Amazon and TV airing the same as it currently is?
Scase wrote:metafisical wrote:Regarding Amazon:
"The international live-game package rights extend worldwide, with the exception of Greater China, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with rights in Canada beginning in the 2026-27 NBA season."
Darn...
Isnt that the first season the contract starts? Or is it 25-26?
Amazon's content will stream in Canada exclusively, while Peacock games will include domestic partners north of the border.
WuTang_OG wrote:?s=46&t=0YpMScWXY2zRUqR8fH-usg
WuTang_OG wrote:I deal with ROFR's but they are normally just monetary and whatever obligations are in the agreement. Content and outreach is a different animal. NBA have to back this case. Curious how these one plays out
Some titles just have a sweet sound and “Sunday Night Basketball” is such a thing. It sounds like a program an NBA fan would want to check out. We’ve seen what NBC has done with its primetime Sunday NFL package — Sunday Night Football has been the No. 1-ranked show in primetime for 13 consecutive years and last year averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 21.4 million — and while no sane person would argue that the NBA and the NFL are equal in terms of popularity among American sports fans, it’s NBC’s acquisition of a Sunday Night window for the NBA that has my interest piqued.
By now many of you have seen the litany of elements NBC received from the NBA when it comes to NBC Universal’s 11-year, $2.5 billion deal with the league. Those rights include an NBA conference finals in six of the 11 years of the deal: 100 NBA national games each regular season across NBC and Peacock; first-round playoff games that will be exclusive in all markets; approximately 50 Peacock-exclusive national regular-season and postseason NBA games, including national Monday night games and doubleheaders. There’s also six NBA Conference Finals series (every other year beginning with 2025-26 season); “NBA Tip-Off” doubleheader each season; the rights to NBA All-Star Saturday Night and the NBA All Star Game on NBC and Peacock; more than 50 regular season WNBA games between Peacock, USA and NBC; the WNBA conference finals in 2026, 2028, 2030, 2031, 2032, 2034 and 2036; the WNBA Finals in 2026, 2030, and 2034; USA Basketball men’s and women’s games; the return of “Roundball Rock,” and what we are writing about here – Sunday Night Basketball after the NFL season concludes.
We are a long way from the debut Sunday Night Basketball telecast, but the working premise is to air something that resembles the Sunday Night Football franchise, including amplified production values for games. Matchups will feature best on best or teams with a national draw and Rick Cordella, the president of NBC Sports, says the overarching goal is to air an hour-long pregame show leading into the games, which will serve as “the paper of record for the league” as well as provide highlights, analysis and entertaining discussion.
“We hope to have a fantastic studio show and studio talent around what we see as the game of the week and we will use our team appearances working closely with the NBA on making it the best matchup that we possibly can have at that point of the season,” Cordella said. “We’ve obviously had a lot of success on Sunday Football. I’d love to say someone had a eureka moment coming up with the idea for Sunday Night Basketball but I think it was just natural to us at NBC Sports that this would be a franchise we wanted to create outside of football season. Certainly we have a (broadcast) window open there (after the NFL season). We pitched it to the NBA and it’s an easy to understand concept.”
The NBA reportedly worked with other partners to make Sunday evenings free for NBC where Disney/ESPN has Sunday afternoon NBA games. In theory, Sunday Night Basketball will debut the Sunday after Super Bowl LV, which will be played on Feb. 8, 2026, in Santa Clara. One big wrinkle is that date coincides with the Milano-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, which run Feb. 6 through Feb. 22, and will air on NBCU platforms. But that’s not a bad problem to have given how much promotion Sunday Night Basketball can get during the first week of those Olympics.
Cordella said the key to Sunday Night Basketball feeling big will be scheduling. He likes the idea of pitting the best Eastern Conference teams against the best Western Conference teams in that slot. The NFL has long worked with NBC to make Sunday Night Football feel like destination viewing and NBC plans to work with the NBA’s broadcasting department for the same style matchups.
“The best matchups that we have access are what we will attempt to put on that night,” Cordella said. “So a rematch of the NBA Finals would be a Sunday night matchup we’d want. Things that are big market and big ratings. We’ll have a research team that goes through all this. There is some flexibility to move games in and out within reason during the NBA schedule. You have seen Turner previously move games in and out and we will work closely with the NBA on that. Then it’s about putting production values against this.We want to showcase our production capabilities. We will have our ‘A’ team on the game in terms of announcers and analysts and a great studio show.”
On that note: Cordella said NBC plans on Mike Tirico being the “A” voice on NBC’s NBA games. NBC will obviously need multiple game teams and studio analysts given the inventory.
NBA announces $77 billion deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon
Sunday Night Basketball should end prior to 11 p.m. ET, which will provide the ability for a quick postgame wrap-up before getting off the air for nightly news and other programming. In theory, Peacock could pick up studio coverage after that. “There are still lots of details to be sort of settled out,” Cordella said when asked about a Sunday night NBA show on Peacock.
Cordella said his group has high hopes for the product. NBC will need some hits given the company has a monster challenge — it has fewer games than Turner to monetize and has to offset a higher rights fees acquisition cost. That will not be easy.
“If we are successful, people will write that NBC kind of copied a little bit of its winning NFL formula from the fall,” said Cordella, “and brought it through to the NBA season.”
TNT’s current nine-year contract includes backend rights, that from TNT’s point of view, allow it to simply say it wants to keep the NBA and will assume Amazon’s deal.
“We have matched the Amazon offer, as we have a contractual right to do, and do not believe the NBA can reject it,” TNT said in a statement posted on X. “We think they have grossly misinterpreted our contractual rights with respect to the 2025-26 season and beyond, and we will take appropriate action. We look forward, however, to another great season of the NBA on TNT and Max including our iconic Inside the NBA.”
When the current agreements were signed a decade ago, streaming was on the horizon, but not part of the deals. This is why the two sides could end up in court.
Before making its official announcement, the NBA sent TNT its reasons for rejecting the broadcasters’ matching proposal, according to sources briefed on the interactions between the league and the network. The NBA told TNT Sports it was rejecting its offer for three main reasons.
First, TNT wanted to put all of its games on its cable network and its streaming service, Max, whereas Amazon is just a streaming service. Second, the NBA believes Amazon’s reach is greater. Third, Amazon offered to pay in full its first three years, while Warner Bros. Discovery, which is in debt, provided a three-year line of credit.
Warner Bros. Discovery disagrees with the NBA’s assessment and thus a lawsuit is expected, according to sources briefed on their thinking.
Boardbreaker wrote:WuTang_OG wrote:?s=46&t=0YpMScWXY2zRUqR8fH-usg
I mean Ernie said he isn't leaving Turner and Barkley says he'll retire. Kenny, Shaq, whatever host they hire and then the likes of Draymond filling in sounds terrible.
