National Basketball Association on television

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 US. 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, 1963–64 season.

ABC gained the NBA in 1964, the network aired its first NBA game on January 3, 1965, but lost the broadcast rights to CBS after the 1972–73 season with the initial tenure ending on May 10, 1973. 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.

As the national broadcaster of the NBA, CBS aired NBA games from the 1973-74 until the 1989–90 season, during which the late 1970s and early 1980s was notoriously known as the "tape delay playoff era." Ratings sagged in the late Seventies 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 dramatically improved with the arrival of Earvin "Magic" Johnson and Larry Bird for the 1979-80 season. 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.

NBC then assumed the broadcast rights from 1990 to 2002.[4] 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 contract in 2002, the league signed an agreement with ABC, which began airing games in the 2002–03 season. NBC had made a four-year $1.3 billion ($330 million/year) bid in the spring of 2002 to renew its NBA rights, but the league instead went to ESPN and ABC with a six-year deal worth $2.4 billion ($400 million/year), a total of $4.6 billion ($766 million/year) when adding the cable deal with Turner Sports.[5] Partially due to the retirement of Michael Jordan, the league suffered a ratings decline after ESPN and ABC took over the rights. The NBA extended its national TV package on June 27, 2007 worth eight-year $7.4 billion ($930 million/year) through the 2015–16 season,[5] during which the league had its new resurgence leading by a renewed Celtics–Lakers rivalry and LeBron James. On October 6, 2014, NBA announced a nine-year $24 billion ($2.7 billion/year) extension with ESPN, ABC and Turner Sports beginning with the 2016–17 season and running through the 2024–25 season[6] - 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.[7]

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 NBA from 1982 to 1984. Turner Sports obtained rights to air NBA games beginning with the 1984-85 season (replacing ESPN and USA Network as national cable partners) under a four-year deal, in which TBS shared the NBA television package along with CBS. In the summer of 1987, Turner Broadcasting System 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. The 2001-02 season would mark the final year of regular NBA coverage on TBS, Turner Sports signed a new NBA television contract in which TNT would assume rights to the company's NBA package while TBS would discontinue game coverage altogether. In recent years however, TBS has served as an overflow feed during the playoffs while also simulcasting the 2015, 2016, and 2017 NBA All-Star Game. Subsequently ESPN regained the NBA in 2002–03 season and took over TBS's half of cable television rights.

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Since 2003, coverage of the NBA playoffs have aired nationally across ABC, ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV. During the first two rounds, games are split between the networks regardless of conference, with TNT primarily airing weeknight games on Mondays through Wednesdays, and ESPN generally on Fridays. For Thursday games, TNT has them in the first round and ESPN in the second round. NBA TV also televises selected first round games on Mondays through Thursdays. Saturday and Sunday coverage of the first two rounds have then been typically split between ABC, ESPN, and TNT, with specific time slots and exceptions varying throughout the years since 2003.

The NBA Conference Finals are rotated annually, with TNT airing the Eastern Conference Finals in odd-numbered years and the Western Conference Finals in even-numbered years. ESPN then broadcasts the other conference finals series, with at least one of its weekend games airing instead on ABC.

The NBA Finals has exclusively aired on ABC since 2003.

NBA games not televised by its national partners are instead broadcast by local broadcast stations and regional sports networks. The two networks may also simulcast ESPN, NBA TV and TNT televised games, including postseason contests. But all of these U.S. national feeds have been treated as non-exclusive in Canada if they involve the Raptors, inducing the 2019 NBA Finals, allowing the Raptors regional telecast to air in tandem with the U.S. national broadcast.[9][10]

Most NBA regional broadcasters are members of national chains:

• NBA TV
• NBA TV Canada
• NBA TV Philippines
• NBA League Pass
• List of current National Basketball Association broadcasters
• Major League Baseball on television
• Major League Soccer on television
• National Football League on television
• National Hockey League on television

• NBA on Christmas Day numbers game
• NBA All-Star Game TV rating and viewership
• Most watched NBA games on cable networks
• Most watched NBA games since 1998