NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast, is preparing to offer a massive $2.5 billion a year bid for the rights to air NBA games, write Joe Flint, Amol Sharma, and Isabella Simonetti for The Wall Street Journal.

This comes as rival Warner Bros. Discovery is making its own last-ditch efforts to keep those rights.

TNT, owned by Warner, is one of the league’s oldest television partners and has paid an average of $1.2 billion a year under its current deal. Warner’s inability to reach a new pact with the NBA before an exclusive negotiating window expired last week allowed NBC to make a bid.

The package NBCUniversal is bidding on would include a number of regular season and playoff games that would air on NBC and Peacock.

NBC has discussed possibly carrying two primetime games a week, which Warner cannot offer since it doesn’t own a broadcast network.

The league’s discussions with partners for the latest round of media-rights deals are in advanced stages. 

Any deals would kick in after the conclusion of the 2024-25 season and last about a decade.

Sports rights deals are coveted assets for both traditional media companies fighting to keep cable subscribers and streamers trying to attract and retain customers.

Read more about NBCUniversal’s bid to secure NBA broadcasting and streaming rights at The Wall Street Journal.

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