MIAMI — Among seismic sports television changes during the past 50 years, the NBA’s new media rights deal, one that officially begins this week, isn’t quite as earth-shaking as CBS losing the NFL to Fox in 1994 or ABC losing Monday Night Football in 2005.

But it’s pretty close.

In ditching TNT and parent company Warner Brothers Discovery, and moving a package of NBA games to NBC and two streaming services, commissioner Adam Silver and the owners have forever changed how the game is consumed by viewers.

Until this month, the NBA was the only pro league that allowed you to watch every game without a streaming service. National games were available on ABC, ESPN, TNT and NBA TV; local games were available on regional sports networks; and out-of-market games could be accessed through a League Pass package offered by DirecTV and other cable and satellite providers.

But in giving a significant package of games to Amazon and NBC’s streaming service Peacock, Silver has fundamentally changed the league’s television landscape.

“We’ve now seen the shift [toward streaming] happening over the last several years, but it’s dramatically accelerated now, particularly for our younger fans,” Silver told Sports Media Watch at NBC Universal’s recent NBA media day.

“That’s where they’re watching their programming, and they’re watching it through what I guess used to be considered unconventional sources, like YouTube, but now through the more traditional, conventional broadcasters like NBCUniversal.”

One significant aspect of the TV package will not change: ABC will air the NBA Finals and ESPN, will continue to carry a conference finals (this season, and 10 of the next 11 years).

Ernie Johnson Jr., Charles Barkley, Kenny Smith and Shaquille O’Neal will keep lampooning each other on the most entertaining sports studio show of our generation, but “Inside the NBA” will now air on ESPN (before and after big games) instead of TNT, with the quartet hosting the show from Turner’s Atlanta studios.

A primer on what to expect from each network in the NBA’s new 11-year, $76 billion TV deals with ABC/ESPN, NBC Universal and Amazon:

ABC/ESPN

ESPN will continue to carry games on Wednesdays but its Friday schedule has been dramatically curtailed.

ABC will again air Saturday night games beginning in January and Sunday afternoon games during the second half of the season. And ABC/ESPN will still have a full slate of playoff games through the NBA Finals.

ESPN says that it won’t tinker with “Inside the NBA,” and that Barkley & Co. won’t be constricted with time limits.

“They said they’re not going to make us throw it to the local affiliates when we’re on ABC, and then they said, when we’re on ESPN, they’re not going to rush us off to go to SportsCenter,” Barkley told Heavy.com’s Steve Bulpett. “Which is the only two things we were really concerned with.

“We always go to 2 in the morning [after TNT doubleheaders]. They said they’re going to give us time. We were concerned they’re going to be like, ‘no, you’ve got to go to SportsCenter or you’ve got to leave when we’re on ABC and go to the local affiliates.’ That’s the only two things we were concerned with.”

This week, ESPN will air “Inside the NBA” before and after ESPN’s doubleheaders on Wednesday and Thursday, the first two of 20 scheduled regular-season appearances this season for the Johnson/Barkley/Smith/O’Neal quartet.

They also will appear during and after NBA Finals and playoff games. For some ABC games, “Inside the NBA” will start on ABC and then move over to the ESPN App.

For the third time in three years, ABC/ESPN changed its lead announcing team. Tim Legler, who has thrived in a game analyst role over the past year-plus, will replace Doris Burke alongside Mike Breen and Richard Jefferson on the lead team.

Burke lost her spot on the lead announcing team after two years, but ESPN gave her a contract extension while demoting her to the No. 2 team, alongside Dave Pasch.

Play-by-players Mark Jones and Ryan Ruocco will do some NBA games with ESPN lead college basketball analyst Jay Bilas. Former Golden State general manager Bob Myers left ABC and ESPN to become president of sports for Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.

NBC/Peacock

NBC, which lost the NBA after the 2002 Finals, will carry a Sunday night game after NFL season ends and will air Tuesday night games all season.

NBC is trying an unprecedented approach on Tuesdays: One game will air on NBC affiliates mostly in the Eastern and Central time zones on Tuesdays, and a different game (often originating from the West) will air on NBC affiliates mostly in the Mountain and Western time zones. Both games will stream on Peacock.

The one exception is opening night; NBC will air two games in the entire country — Houston-Oklahoma City at 7:30 and Golden State-Lakers at 10.

“The fact the NBA is going to be on broadcast network TV, which is still broadest reach of anything in media, on every Tuesday night is really cool,” NBC lead voice Mike Tirico said last week. “You’re getting a deeper pool of fans heading to the playoffs.”

Besides streaming NBC’s Tuesday and Sunday games, Peacock will carry a doubleheader on Mondays; some of those games will be exclusive and cannot be carried on regional sports networks.

And there will be a twist with many of the Monday games: While the play-by-play announcer will sit in the traditional courtside spot, the analysts will sit near the team benches.

“The concept is one analyst viewing the game through the lens of the team they’re assigned,” NBC executive producer Sam Flood said. “One team will go through that team’s shoot-around. They’ll be sitting as close as possible to the bench with each team and break down the game as if they’re calling it through that lens. We’re excited about giving it a shot.

“Noah Eagle did a rehearsal game with Austin Rivers and Robbie Hummel [on opposite benches] and they could all see each other. There was no issue of talking over each other.”

As expected, Tirico — who was ESPN’s No. 2 NBA voice before leaving for NBC a decade ago — will be the network’s lead play-by-play announcer, paired with former TNT analyst Reggie Miller and/or Jamal Crawford. That trio is calling the OKC-Houston opener on Tuesday and will call a conference finals in May. NBC has five conference finals in the next 11 years.

“I’m looking forward to getting back in it,” said Tirico, who will juggle NBA duties with “Sunday Night Football,” playoff games, the Super Bowl and hosting NBC’s February 2026 Winter Olympics coverage. “I’m going to do the first couple Tuesdays, a few more as the season goes on, and once we get to Sundays after the Olympics, I’ll be doing” a lot of NBA.

Eagle will join Grant Hill for the Lakers-Warriors game on NBC on Tuesday night.

For play-by-play on Peacock games, NBC will use Eagle, longtime staffer Terry Gannon (the former North Carolina State guard who has called figure skating and multiple sports over three decades) and Minnesota Timberwolves TV voice Michael Grady.

Hill, Brad Daugherty, Derek Fisher, Hummel, Rivers, and Brian Scalabrine will serve as Peacock game analysts. Hill and others will do some NBC games as well.

Maria Taylor, Carmelo Anthony and Vince Carter will be the NBC studio team. Ahmed Fareed will host the Monday night Peacock games.

Meanwhile, NBC is reviving its beloved theme song, John Tesh’s Roundball Rock, and will use an AI-generated voice of the late Jim Fagan, a longtime NBC Sports narrator whose voice was synonymous with its NBA coverage and promotion.

NBC says the games on Peacock will include interactive features, including a scorecard game, a live shot chart, highlights presented in vertical orientation as well as the ability to rewind and see key plays (instead of the entire game).

Amazon Prime

Amazon, which has a 66-game regular-season package, will carry NBA games on Friday nights until the NFL regular-season ends, and then will stream games on Thursday and Friday nights, as well as some Saturday afternoon games, a package of playoff games and five conference finals in the next 11 years.

Amazon hired a deep and skilled group of game announcers, including lead voice Ian Eagle and Kevin Harlan (who will do one game per month initially, then more after football season ends) and game analysts Stan Van Gundy, Brent Barry and Dell Curry.

Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash and Candice Parker will split time between games and the studio. Wade and Parker will join Harlan on a Minnesota-Lakers game on Friday, after Eagle and Van Gundy calls Celtics-Knicks.

Both Harlan and Eagle will continue to call NFL and college basketball games for CBS, as they did when they announced the NBA for TNT.

Amazon’s studio team will feature Taylor Rooks, Heat executive Udonis Haslem (who left ESPN earlier this offseason) and Dirk Nowitzki. Nash, Wade and Parker will make occasional appearances in studio.

You will see other familiar faces on Amazon, including former ESPN sideline reporter Cassidy Hubbarth and ex-TNT insider Chris Haynes.

Besides Ian Eagle and Harlan, Amazon also will use Grady and Charlotte Hornets TV voice Eric Collins on play-by-play.

©2025 Miami Herald. Visit miamiherald.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.