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NBC Pushes Basketball to Viewers Months Ahead of NBA Deal Start

brian steinberg
·3-min read

NBC won’t start telecasting NBA games until the fall of this year, but it’s already starting to talk about what will happen when it does.

Viewers of “Sunday Night Football” are slated to see a promo in the middle of Sunday night’s game in which actor Jack McBrayer reprises 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.

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“This is a launch moment,” says Jenny Storms, NBCUniversal’s chief marketing officer for entertainment and sports, during an interview. “We will have consecutive moments that will move over the next ten months.” NBC hasn’t aired NBA games in 23 years.

NBC will use Sunday’s reveal to launch new social-media accounts tied to the NBA. The @NBAonNBC feed will debut on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, X, and Threads, and will, at least initially, distribute promotional spots, behind-the-scenes content, talent announcements, and conversation about the NBA.

NBA fans can’t see the current season’s basketball games on NBC, but the economic prospects of the league’s next season are so great that the company wants to start alluding to them now, while fans are engaged with the sport. NBCUniversal is believed to be spending as much as an estimated $2.4 billion to $2.5 billion a year under terms of an 11-year deal that gives it the chance to air 100 regular-season games; the NBA All-Star Game; and a passel of exclusive first-round playoff games. WNBA games will also be a part of the package. In a sign of how much NBC wanted this sports deal, the company is paying more for NBA games than it is for its current NFL package, according to estimates from the independent analysis firm MoffettNathanson.

With the big-ticket item comes a huge opportunity. The new NBA games alone could fetch $1 billion or more in ad revenue, MoffettNathanson projected in a July research note.

NBC needs to get viewers ready for the NBA, because league play will take over a significant percentage of its offering during the next season.  Peacock will stream a Monday night game, while NBC and Peacock will show games on Tuesdays. NBC Sports will launch “Sunday Night Basketball” in 2026 across NBC and Peacock, giving fans three nights in a row of basketball in the second half of next season. When corporate parent Comcast spins off NBCU’s cable networks in a deal expected to be consummated later this year, NBC will be even more dependent on sports programming for its revenue.

Combining McBrayer’s character with some NBA stars nods to the strategy NBC used to call attention to the recent Paris Olympics, which tapped the services of celebrities such as Snoop Dogg and Alex Cooper along with the athletes at the center of the spectacle. “The market success we had with the Olympics definitely provided some areas of new blueprints and better practices that we can take forward,” says Storms.

NBC’s promotional salvo takes place even as the bulk of NBA games this season air on Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery outlets. Warner will lose the bulk of its NBA rights following the end of the current cycle, and in the fall, NBC will join ESPN and Amazon as the main U.S. rightsholders for the league. The NBA is facilitating NBC’s new marketing, says Storms. Others will as well. “So many fans of the game are happy to have the NBA back on NBC,” says Tatum, in a statement. “I’m excited to be a part of the league’s return to the network and debut on Peacock.”

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