(Reuters) -The National Basketball Association has finalized a $76 billion deal that will make Comcast’s NBC and Amazon.com’s Amazon Prime Video new partners, while maintaining Disney’s ESPN as the home of the NBA finals, the Athletic reported on Wednesday, citing sources. The deal worth $76 billion will extend for 11 seasons, the report said, citing executives with direct knowledge of the deals. The new agreement, which is more than three times its current deal, comes as sports becomes a powerful draw for media companies trying to expand premium viewership. Disney’s ESPN and ABC, and Warner Bros Discovery’s TNT sports have been the league’s two primary partners from 2002 and 1984, respectively. But media reports have said NBA has been looking to bring in new partners to maximize returns and more than double the deal value. NBA has always been a star-driven sport with talents like Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Shaquille O’Neal dominating the games and viewership. NBC, ESPN, Amazon and NBA did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
(Reporting by Priyanka.G and Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Shailesh Kuber)
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