Comcast (CMCSA) said Tuesday it's confident it will clinch an 11-year NBA media rights deal, despite Warner Bros. Discovery's (WBD) TNT Network exercising its matching rights the day prior.
Warner Bros. has aired a portion of games through its TNT network since 1989. It reportedly shells out $1.2 billion annually for the rights, which expire at the end of next season. The company revealed Monday it has matched a media rights bid to continue airing NBA games, but it's unclear if the league will continue the partnership.
"Our expectation is that soon, an 11-year rights deal between ourselves and the NBA will be announced," Comcast president Michael Cavanagh said during the company's second quarter earnings call. "We don't believe that the resolution of matching rights will affect the package that we expect to be awarded."
Cavanagh said the package will include 100 regular-season games, which will air across NBC and Peacock. That's "more than any other media partner and more regular-season games than each existing partner has under the current rights deal," the executive said.
For playoffs, NBC will have the exclusive rights to the first- and second-round games each year on its national platforms. It will also host six NBA conference final series over the course of the deal, "which is more playoff games on average each year than any other media partner."
Peacock, meanwhile, will exclusively stream about 50 national regular season and postseason games.
He added the presumed NBA deal is one of the reasons why Comcast has avoided acquisitions: "Instead of engaging in a process to buy content companies, we have focused primarily on organic opportunities like the NBA, one of the most coveted sports franchises across the globe, which will help drive growth for us well into the future."
In total, the NBA has reportedly secured a media rights package worth around $76 billion over 11 years — a bullish sign when it comes to the importance of sports to both streamers and traditional broadcast and cable providers.
"Sports as a cornerstone will ensure that Peacock is relevant," MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett wrote in reaction to the results. "They have a place at the table in the consolidation to come. We observed last quarter that Peacock is blessed to have Comcast’s strong balance sheet behind it."
Peacock losses narrowed to $348 million in the quarter, down from $651 million in the year-ago period and $639 million in the first quarter of 2024. The streamer also grew its subscriber base by 38% year over year to 33 million, although subscribers dipped by about 500,000 on a quarter-over-quarter basis amid recent price hikes.
"Adding the NBA will mean an even longer path to profitability," Moffett noted. "But for now, the losses at Peacock are, thankfully, getting smaller."
Alexandra Canal is a Senior Reporter at Yahoo Finance. Follow her on X @allie_canal, LinkedIn, and email her at alexandra.canal@yahoofinance.com.
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