National Basketball Association (NBA) games are televised nationally in the United States, as well as on multiple local channels and regional sports networks.

The 2025–26 season marks the first year of 11-year agreements with broadcast channels ABC and NBC, pay television network ESPN, and streaming services Peacock and Amazon Prime Video to nationally televise games in the United States. Under these contracts, ESPN shows doubleheaders on Wednesday nights, and Amazon Prime Video streams games on Friday nights for most of the season. NBC airs a Tuesday night doubleheader to be shown across different NBC stations (under the branding Coast 2 Coast Tuesday). The first is scheduled at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (on NBC stations using Eastern and Central Time Zones) and a second game is scheduled at 8 p.m. Pacific Time (on stations using Mountain and Pacific Time Zones). In addition to streaming all games broadcast by NBC, Peacock also streams at least one game exclusively on the streamer (under the branding Peacock NBA Monday), which is also simulcasted on NBCSN. During the second half of the season, ABC shows a single game on Saturday nights and a doubleheader on Sunday afternoons, whereas Prime Video streams Thursday night games and NBC airs Sunday night games (under the branding Sunday Night Basketball). Prime Video also streams selected Saturday afternoon games, while ESPN airs games on selected Friday nights. There are some exceptions to this schedule, including Tip-off Week, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. More games may be shown as the end of the regular season approaches, particularly games with playoff significance. Coverage of the first two rounds is split between ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video, while the conference finals alternates between these platforms every year. The entire NBA Finals is shown nationally on ABC. The NBA Finals is one of the few sporting events to be shown on a national broadcast network on a weeknight.

Games not televised by its national partners are instead broadcast by local broadcast stations and regional sports networks, televising their respective local team within their respective region. A number of nationally televised games are also non-exclusive, meaning that the national telecasts may also air in tandem with those of the game by local broadcasters. With the Toronto Raptors being the only NBA team in Canada, television rights differ in that country. Games exclusively televised south of the border by an American national broadcast network may be simulcast by a Canadian network, but all contests involving the Raptors are non-exclusive north of the border.

In addition to the English-language television broadcasts, select NBA games also have Spanish-language broadcasts since 2002.NBA Finals 2002 to be broadcast on TV, radio, Internet - NBA, May 29, 2002Telemundo to Air NBA en Español - R. Thomas Umstead, Multichannel, August 25, 2002

History

As one of the major sports leagues in North America, the National Basketball Association has a long history of partnership with television networks in the United States. The league signed a contract with DuMont in its 8th season (1953–54), marking the first year the NBA had a national television broadcaster. Similar to NFL, the lack of television stations led to NBC taking over the rights beginning the very next season until April 7, 1962—NBC's first tenure with the NBA. After the deal expired, Sports Network Incorporated (later known as the Hughes Television Network) signed up for two-year coverage in the 1962–63 and 1963–64 season.

ABC then gained the NBA in 1964, airing its first NBA game on January 3, 1965. Up until the 1970–71 season, ABC often aired NBA games as segments of its popular ABC's Wide World of Sports anthology series rather than standalone broadcasts.

CBS took over national rights from ABC in 1973. The late 1970s and early 1980s was notoriously known as the "tape delay playoff era". Ratings sagged in the late 1970s with a series of fairly undistinguished championship teams from relatively small markets, widespread public perceptions of drug usage among players, and a relative lack of marquee players. Even a merger with the American Basketball Association in 1976, bringing several standout players including Julius Erving into the league, did not reverse the ratings slide. CBS, not wishing to preempt higher-rated regular programming for the relatively low-rated pro basketball, elected to show several playoff games each season tape-delayed into late-night time slots. This situation started to improve with the arrival of Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird for the 1979-80 season, but both the 1980 and 1981 NBA Finals (which were won by teams led by first Magic, and then Bird) had games air late at night on tape delay, most infamous with the 1980 Finals' Game 6, where Magic (tasked to play center after an injury to Kareem Abdul-Jabbar) had 42 points in a title-clinching win that wasn't aired live outside of Philadelphia or Los Angeles. Beginning with the 1982 NBA Finals, the schedule was shifted to avoid the May television sweeps period, and tape-delayed games were no longer an issue.

The NBA entered the cable territory in 1979 when USA Network signed a three-year $1.5 million deal and extended for two years until the 1983–84 season, ESPN also had a brief affair with the NBA from 1982 to 1984. Turner Sports then replaced ESPN and USA Network as national cable partners under a four-year deal beginning with the 1984-85 season, in which TBS shared the NBA television package along with CBS. In the summer of 1987, Turner signed a new joint broadcast contract between TBS and TNT to split broadcast NBA games starting from the 1988-89 season. TNT held rights to broadcast the NBA draft, most NBA regular season and playoff games, while TBS only aired single games or doubleheaders once a week.

In 1990, NBC took over the broadcast rights from CBS. During NBC's partnership with the NBA in the 1990s, the league rose to unprecedented popularity, with ratings surpassing the days of Johnson and Bird in the mid-1980s.

Upon expiration of the contracts in 2002, the NBA signed a six-year, $2.4 billion ($400 million/year) deal with Disney-owned ABC and ESPN. ABC took over the package from NBC, and ESPN took over part of the cable rights from TBS. NBC had made a four-year $1.3 billion ($330 million/year) offer in the spring of 2002 to renew its rights, but the NBA passed and opted for ABC/ESPN's higher bid. Turner was able to keep a package for TNT. And while TBS would initially discontinue game coverage altogether, it would serve as TNT's overflow feed during the playoffs while also simulcasting games like the 2015, 2016, and 2017 NBA All-Star Game. The combined total of ABC, ESPN, and TNT's 2002 agreements became $4.6 billion ($766 million/year). Partially due to the retirement of Michael Jordan after the 2002–03 season, the league suffered a ratings decline. The NBA extended its national television package on June 27, 2007, worth eight-year $7.4 billion ($930 million/year) through the 2015–16 season, during which the league had its new resurgence leading by a renewed Celtics–Lakers rivalry and LeBron James. On October 6, 2014, the NBA announced a nine-year $24 billion ($2.7 billion/year) extension with ABC, ESPN, and Turner beginning with the 2016–17 season and running through the 2024–25 season - the second most expensive media rights in the world after NFL and on a par with Premier League in annual rights fee from 2016–17 to 2018–19 season.

On July 24, 2024, the NBA announced new 11-year agreements with ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video that will last from the 2025–26 to 2035–36 seasons. The new agreements ended a near 36-year domestic broadcast run with TNT Sports; parent company Warner Bros. Discovery and the NBA would later agree to a legal settlement, which included live game rights for select international territories and sublicensing its pregame, halftime, and postgame show Inside the NBA to ESPN and ABC.

Regular season

+Average rating per regular season game on broadcast networks(1989–present) Season Network Rating 2024–25 ABC 1.4 2023–24 ABC 1.4 2022–23 ABC 1.4 2021–22 ABC 1.6 2020–21 ABC 1.5 2019–20 ABC 1.8 2018–19 ABC 2.2 2017–18 ABC 2.2 2016–17 ABC 1.9 2015–16 ABC 2.3 2014–15 ABC 2.2 2013–14 ABC 2.3 2012–13 ABC 2.9 2011–12 (Lockout Shortened) ABC 3.3 2010–11 ABC 3.0 2009–10 ABC 2.3 2008–09 ABC 2.3 2007–08 ABC 2.2 2006–07 ABC 2.0 2005–06 ABC 2.2 2004–05 ABC 2.3 2003–04 ABC 2.4 2002–03 ABC 2.6 2001–02 NBC 2.9 2000–01 NBC 3.0 1999–2000 NBC 3.3 1998–99 (lockout shortened) NBC 4.3 1997–98 NBC 4.8 1996–97 NBC 4.7 1995–96 NBC 5.0 1994–95 NBC 5.1 1993–94 NBC 4.6 1992–93 NBC 5.0 1991–92 NBC 4.8 1990–91 NBC 4.7 1989–90 CBS 5.2

+Average viewership per regular season game in millions by networks(2007–present) Season ABC TNT ESPN NBA TV 2017–18 3.82M 1.74M 1.63M 0.31M 2016–17 3.27M 1.54M 1.57M 0.31M 2015–16 3.93M 1.68M 1.65M 0.35M 2014–15 3.59M 1.67M 1.50M 0.29M 2013–14 3.58M 1.90M 1.68M 0.32M 2012–13 4.70M 2.00M 1.77M 0.34M 2011–12 (lockout shortened) 5.42M 2.50M 1.86M 0.34M 2010–11 5.11M 2.40M 1.99M 0.25M 2009–10 3.69M 1.72M 1.56M --- 2008–09 3.68M 1.71M 1.68M --- 2007–08 3.18M 1.47M 1.47M ---

NBA playoffs

Since the 2026 playoffs, ABC/ESPN broadcasts about 18 games in the first two rounds each year, NBC Sports has between 22 and 34 first and second-round games, either televised on NBC or streamed on Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video streams between 14 and 26 first- and second-round games. For the conference finals, ABC/ESPN has one series in the first 10 years of the deal, while the other series would be rotated between NBC and Prime Video; in 2036 (the final year of the deal), NBC and Amazon will have the conference finals instead of ABC/ESPN. ABC will continue to exclusively broadcast the NBA Finals, which, dating back to 2003, would extend the network's consecutive streak of airing the series to over 30 years. The entirety of the playoffs, including the first round and the play-in tournament, are exclusive to the NBA's national TV partners; no local broadcaster is allowed to produce its own broadcast of playoff games, as had been allowed before 2026.

+Most watched NBA playoff games on cable networks Year Network Game Rating Viewership 2016 TNT Oklahoma City Thunder vs Golden State Warriors WCF Game 7 8.9 16.00M 2012 ESPN Boston Celtics vs Miami Heat ECF Game 7 7.7 13.35M 2013 TNT Indiana Pacers vs Miami Heat ECF Game 7 7.1 11.57M 2011 TNT Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls ECF Game 1 6.2 11.11M 2012 ESPN Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics ECF Game 6 6.8 11.07M 2012 ESPN Miami Heat vs Boston Celtics ECF Game 4 6.8 11.07M 2011 TNT Chicago Bulls vs Miami Heat ECF Game 3 6.4 10.89M 2016 TNT Golden State Warriors vs Oklahoma City Thunder WCF Game 6 6.2 10.81M 2011 TNT Miami Heat vs Chicago Bulls ECF Game 5 6.4 10.41M 2012 ESPN Boston Celtics vs Miami Heat ECF Game 5 6.3 10.25M

NBA Finals

ABC has exclusively aired the NBA Finals since 2003, and will continue to do so through 2036.

+Most watched NBA Finals games on ABC Year Game Rating/Share Viewership 2016 Cleveland Cavaliers vs Golden State Warriors Game 7 15.8/29 31.02M 2010 Boston Celtics vs Los Angeles Lakers Game 7 15.6/27 28.20M 2013 San Antonio Spurs vs Miami Heat Game 7 15.3/26 26.32M 2017 Cleveland Cavaliers vs Golden State Warriors Game 5 13.5/25 24.47M 2011 Dallas Mavericks vs Miami Heat Game 6 13.3/23 23.88M 2015 Golden State Warriors vs Cleveland Cavaliers Game 6 13.4/24 23.25M 2004 Los Angeles Lakers vs Detroit Pistons Game 5 13.8/23 21.84M 2015 Cleveland Cavaliers vs Golden State Warriors Game 5 11.8/21 20.86M 2016 Golden State Warriors vs Cleveland Cavaliers Game 6 11.8/22 20.70M 2013 San Antonio Spurs vs Miami Heat Game 6 12.3/21 20.64M

Single games

NBA on Christmas Day