- More than 250 live regular season games to air on TNT Sports and Discovery+
- Playoffs, Finals and All-Star Game also included
- BT Sport held the rights until 2018 before Sky Sports
TNT Sports has agreed a multi-year deal with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to broadcast more than 250 live games across its linear and streaming platforms.
The joint-venture between BT and Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) will show the league’s marquee events, including the NBA’s inaugural in-season tournament, the All-Star Games, and the playoffs, with more than 40 weekend games given primetime slots.
Other matches will be streamed on Discovery+ and supported by a range of shoulder programming and digital content, including highlights and game recaps.
“We are hugely excited to be embarking on this journey with the NBA in the UK and Ireland,” said Trojan Paillot, vice president of sports rights acquisitions and syndication at WBD Sports Europe.
“Fans watching basketball on our platforms will have much to look forward to, and we’re privileged to be able to lean on the outstanding foundation of TNT’s broadcasting of the NBA in the United States for over 30 years.
“When TNT Sports launched in July, we reaffirmed that premium rights were a priority for us, and the NBA falls squarely into that category. To have the best players in the world, competing in one of the toughest and entertaining competitions in world sport, is extremely exciting as we further extend our proposition in the UK and Ireland.”
“We are thrilled to build on our long-standing collaboration with TNT in the US to bring live NBA games and programming to our passionate fans in the UK and Ireland,” said Elsa Memmi, NBA Europe and Middle East vice president for global media distribution.
“With regular weekend games in primetime, extensive coverage of our marquee events, and original programming and highlights, fans now have a new home for the NBA.”
TNT Sports replaces the previous rights owner Sky Sports, which took over from BT Sport after the conclusion of the 2017/18 season.
SportsPro says…
This is the first significant move made by the freshly-rebranded TNT Sports since the joint-venture was first announced. Up until now, the only real changes have been a less cavernous studio, a new streaming home in the form of Discovery+ and a lot of pink.
The NBA brings a large volume of content and a young and committed fanbase, whilst the combination of primetime games for linear channels and the ability to stream overnight fixtures live and on demand leans into the strength of the Discovery+ platform.
It’s also the first time we’ve seen TNT Sports leverage WBD’s global footprint. TNT is one of the NBA’s domestic broadcast partners in the US, with its live and magazine coverage, especially ‘Inside the NBA’, receiving widespread critical acclaim.
TNT Sports will benefit greatly from this pre-existing relationship, with the new partnership offering an opportunity for brand extension across multiple markets. It might also help TNT in the US. Although the NBA values the quality of TNT’s coverage, there had been suggestions that cable-only distribution was a handicap in negotiations. The launch of a premium sports add-on to WBD’s Max streaming service would alleviate that particular concern, while the strengthening of ties between the NBA and TNT will not do any harm.
