Comcast expects to carry 100 NBA games each season in new broadcast rights deal

(Reuters) - Comcast said on Tuesday it expects to announce an 11-year broadcasting rights deal with the National Basketball Association to carry 100 games every regular season across its NBC network and Peacock streaming services.

The media conglomerate - along with Amazon Prime Video and Walt Disney's ESPN - is vying for broadcasting rights to one of the most-watched sporting events in the U.S., as media companies increasingly turn to sports to expand their viewership.

The broadcasting package, which takes effect from the 2025-2026 season, would give Comcast the rights to carry first- and second-round playoff games each year exclusively on its platforms, and six NBA Conference Finals series over the course of the deal term, Comcast President Michael Cavanagh said on a post-earnings call.

The package would include about 50 national regular season and post-season games, including national Monday night games and double-headers, exclusively for the Peacock platform.

The NBA had recently informed team owners it had finalized packages with ESPN, NBCUniversal and Amazon, in a deal reportedly valued at $76 billion, leaving its four-decade-long media partner Warner Bros Discovery out of the mix.

On Monday, Warner's sports network TNT Sports said it would exercise its rights to match one of the three bids to carry the NBA games. One source familiar with the offer said the company was seeking to match Amazon Prime Video's offer of $1.9 billion per season, on average.

Comcast, however, does not expect a resolution of matching rights to affect the package that it would receive, Cavanagh said on the earnings call on Tuesday.

The deal would also include the rights to broadcast Women's National Basketball Association games. Starting in the spring of 2026, Comcast would have more than 50 WNBA regular season and first-round playoff games each season, across the NBC and USA networks and Peacock.

(Reporting by Deborah Sophia in Bengaluru; Editing by Krishna Chandra Eluri)