N.B.A. Announces Lucrative Rights Deals With Disney, Comcast and Amazon

2024-07-24 20:32:38.987000+00:00 - Scroll down for original article

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The National Basketball Association announced new rights agreements with Disney, Comcast and Amazon on Wednesday in which the companies will collectively pay $77 billion over 11 years, substantially increasing the league’s annual revenue and reflecting the continued importance of live sports programming even as streaming has reconfigured the entertainment industry. In making the announcement, the league said it had rejected Warner Bros. Discovery’s bid to match Amazon’s offer. “Throughout these negotiations, our primary objective has been to maximize the reach and accessibility of our games for our fans,” the league said in a statement. “Our new arrangement with Amazon supports this goal by complementing the broadcast, cable and streaming packages that are already part of our new Disney and NBCUniversal arrangements. All three partners have also committed substantial resources to promote the league and enhance the fan experience.” The new deals, which include both N.B.A. and W.N.B.A. games, will take effect with the 2025-26 season and are more than two and a half times the average annual value of the league’s current rights agreements.