Comcast President Touts NBA Rights: Will Put “Weight of Our Entire Company” Behind Deal

NBC is (almost) officially back in the NBA business.

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On Comcast’s earnings call Tuesday morning, president Mike Cavanagh outlined the new deal with the league, noting that while it isn’t quite done yet, with Warner Bros. Discovery trying to match Amazon’s bid , the company does not expect to be impacted by the matching offer.

“Our expectation is that soon an 11 year rights deal between ourselves and the NBA will be announced. We don’t believe that the resolution of matching rights will affect the package that we expect to be awarded,” Cavanagh said. “Much like our long standing relationships with the NFL and the Olympics, we look forward to putting the weight of our entire company behind our partnership with the NBA for decades to come.”

The executive, who also oversees NBCUniversal, proceeded to outline NBA’s new deal, which will include 100 regular season games across NBC and Peacock, the NBA All Star Game, the NBA opening tip off games, an MLK Day doubleheader, as well as rights for Telemundo.

The deal also includes more than 50 WNBA games, which will run on NBC, Peacock, and USA.

But given the high price tag (the deal is estimated to be worth about $2.5 billion per year, or around $25 billion over the course of the deal), Cavanagh also outlined why the company believes it is a good bet for the company.

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For starters, it “completes our year round calendar for sports,” Cavanagh said, noting that between the NFL, Olympics, NASCAR, PGA Tour, Big 10 and Premier League, NBCU will have live sports essentially all year round.

“We are uniquely able to drive strong value with the NBA in multiple ways,” Cavanagh said. “First by growing ad sales, by selling NBA ad inventory package with the rest of our marquee programming. Second, by acquiring and monetizing subscribers, both on linear and Peacock, and third, by optimizing NBCUniversal programming investment across sports, entertainment and news.”

And he added that the NBA will result in changes to the audience for NBC and Peacock, which can lead to new programming opportunities.

“First, it brings in a broad, diverse and youthful audience that is culturally relevant and further expands NBCUniversal’s tremendous reach across broadcast and streaming,” he said. “This new fanbase will also allow us to create new entertainment content that will work beyond the basketball season, with exciting opportunities for companion programming and marketing collaborations that tap into the NBA’s pop culture appeal.”

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