The NBA and WNBA have secured streaming rights for their games for the next eleven years, from 2025 to 2036, through major deals. Disney-owned ESPN will remain the primary broadcast channel for both leagues, strengthening its role in professional basketball coverage.
For the NBA, these deals cover the 2025-2026 season through the 2035-2036 season, and for the WNBA, from 2026 to 2036. ESPN has committed to exclusively broadcasting the NBA Finals for these eleven years, and will also air five of the eleven WNBA Finals. This coverage will be available on both the ESPN platform and Disney+, which will offer a package of games in some international markets.
In addition to ESPN, basketball will be seen more on streaming platforms thanks to new deals with NBC and Peacock. NBC and Peacock will stream 100 national NBA games each regular season, with about 50 games exclusive to Peacock, including Monday night national games and doubleheaders. Amazon Prime Video will also stream 66 NBA regular season games and 30 WNBA regular season games each year.
One major change is that TNT Sports is not included in these new deals. It appears that the NBA’s contract with TNT Sports will not be renewed after next year, with many of those games moving to Amazon. However, TNT Sports has said it matched Amazon’s offer for the games, and there is uncertainty about whether the NBA will reconsider its decision. The NBA has said that the offer from Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of TNT Sports, did not match Amazon’s, allowing them to look for other partners.
These deals for the NBA and WNBA show how the way fans watch basketball has changed. While fans will have more streaming platform options, they will also have to keep an eye on multiple services to watch their favorite games. This is similar to what happens in Major League Baseball, which distributes its games between ESPN, Fox, Apple TV+, TNT Sports and MLB Network on different nights.