NBC is bringing basketball to viewers months before the start of the NBA deal
NBC won’t begin broadcasting NBA games until fall of this year, but is already starting to talk about what will happen when it does.
“Sunday Night Football” viewers will see a promo in the middle of Sunday night’s game featuring actor Jack McBrayer reprising his popular “30 Rock” character Kenneth the Page while surrounded by popular NBA players Giannis Antetokounmpo, Jayson Tatum and Victor . Wembanyama. The purpose of the pitch is to tell viewers that NBA games are coming to NBC and its Peacock streaming service in the fall.
“This is a launch moment,” said Jenny Storms, NBCUniversal’s chief marketing officer for entertainment and sports, during an interview. “We will have successive moments that will change over the next ten months.” NBC hasn’t broadcast NBA games in 23 years.
NBC will use Sunday’s unveiling to launch new social media accounts related to the NBA. The @NBAonNBC feed will debut on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook,
NBA fans won’t be able to watch the current season’s basketball games on NBC, but the economic prospects for the league’s next season are so strong that the company wants to hint at it now while fans engage with the sport. NBCUniversal is believed to be spending an estimated $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion per year under the terms of an 11-year deal that gives it the chance to broadcast 100 regular season games; the NBA All-Star game; and a passel of exclusive first-round play-off matches. WNBA games will also be part of the package. In a sign of how much NBC wanted this sports deal, the company is paying more for NBA games than for its current NFL package, according to estimates from independent analytics firm MoffettNathanson.
The big-ticket item represents a huge opportunity. The new NBA games alone could generate $1 billion or more in advertising revenue, MoffettNathanson predicted in a July research note.
NBC needs to prepare viewers for the NBA because league games will take over a significant percentage of the slate in the coming season. Peacock will stream a game on Monday night, while NBC and Peacock will show games on Tuesday. NBC Sports will launch “Sunday Night Basketball” on NBC and Peacock in 2026, giving fans three straight nights of basketball in the second half of next season. When parent company Comcast spins off NBCU’s cable networks in a deal expected to close later this year, NBC will become even more dependent on sports programming for revenue.
Combining McBrayer’s character with some NBA stars is a nod to the strategy NBC used to draw attention to the recent Paris Olympics, employing the services of celebrities like Snoop Dogg and Alex Cooper, together with the athletes who were at the center of the spectacle. “The market success we had with the Olympics has certainly given us some new blueprints and better practices that we can continue to develop,” says Storms.
NBC’s promotional salvo comes as the bulk of this season’s NBA games air on Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery Stores. Warner will lose most of his NBA rights after the end of the current cycle, and in the fall NBC will join ESPN and Amazon as the top U.S. rights holders for the league. The NBA is facilitating NBC’s new marketing, Storms said. Others will too. “So many fans of the game are excited to have the NBA back on NBC,” Tatum said in a statement. “I’m excited to be part of the league’s return to the network and debut on Peacock.”
