As Hollywood frets over Paramount’s $111 billion deal for Warner Bros. Discovery, NBCUniversal and Disney are handing another 33 hours of broadcast TV programming to the NBA.
The NBA announced its 2026-2027 schedule this week, and it includes an expanded slate of games for its broadcast network partners: Between NBC and ABC, an additional 11 games will air on broadcast TV this upcoming season.
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In total, the two networks will air 90 games combined, up from 79 a year ago. The result will be more than 270 hours of broadcast television (it will be higher when the playoffs are factored in) reprogrammed from network fare and reruns to live NBA games.
For the league, it’s a coup: The NBA wants as much exposure as possible, and broadcast delivers that. Ratings were up last season, and it wants to keep that momentum going, with great storylines like the championship-defending New York Knicks, and LeBron James in Philadelphia.
For the networks, it is about predictability. NBA games reliably draw consistent, reliable ratings. They may be lower than an original entertainment program, but the network can game out with a high degree of confidence what it will be. And with advertisers shifting most entertainment spend to streaming, live sports are one of the last places they are willing to commit big bucks in broadcast TV.
Still, as The Hollywood Reporter noted two years ago when the deals were first announced, Hollywood is emerging as a loser. The games are ultimately replacing original network programming, meaning creatives will get fewer shots to reach audiences on broadcast TV. And while some nights are replacing reruns of other shows, that means lower residuals for creatives, with broadcast reruns usually paying out the largest amounts for writers, actors and others involved.
As the industry frets about consolidation, the slow decline of entertainment on broadcast TV in favor of live sports is yet another way Hollywood’s creative class is getting squeezed. And as streamers push further into live sports, there’s risk of that creative class getting crushed: Right now sports are stealing valuable broadcast air time from creatives, but with the NBA deals locked in for another decade, the NFL seeking aggressive renegotiations, and the NHL, MLB and PGA Tour all strategizing for how they can get their cut in the next few years, there’s a good chance billions more dollars flow from Los Angeles production to the league offices on the east coast.
Is it any wonder Bob Iger’s post-Disney project is the Los Angeles Lakers?
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