The NBA has agreed to a new 11-year, $76 billion media deal that will continue to drive player salaries upward and change how some fans watch basketball in the coming years.
A person familiar with the negotiations confirmed to The Associated Press that the networks have reached an agreement and the contracts now need to be approved by the NBA board of governors.
The person spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity Wednesday because he or she was not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
The deal is a record amount and record length for the NBA and will run through the 2025-26 season. In the United States, games will continue to be shown on ESPN and ABC, but some games will also be broadcast on NBC and Amazon Prime. TNT Sports, which has shown NBA games since the 1980s, could be excluded. It has five days to match one of the offers.
The five-day timeline would begin when the league sends the final version of the contracts to TNT.
The current agreement, which expires at the end of next season, was for nine seasons and nearly 24 billion.
The Athletic was the first to report the news.
The deal almost certainly confirms that the NBA’s salary cap will increase by 10 percent annually, the maximum allowed under the collective bargaining agreement between the league and its players.
That means players like Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic could make around $80 million in the 2030-31 season, and it’s possible the league’s top players could make over $100 million per season by the mid-2030s.
The door also becomes wide open for NBA expansion.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver has been clear about his priorities in recent seasons. First, he wanted to preserve the goodwill between the league and its players, which was accomplished with the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement. Second, he wanted to reach a new broadcasting agreement, which is now settled. Second, he wanted to turn his attention to expansion, with Las Vegas and Seattle among the favorite cities to welcome new teams.
Groups are also expected to attempt to submit bids in Montreal, Vancouver and Kansas City.