NBC Sports Execs Lay Out Vision for October 21 Return of NBA on NBC'

NBC Sports Execs Lay Out Vision for October 21 Return of NBA on NBC'With broadcast and digital, today's production environment is more dynamic and complexBy Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Tuesday, October 7, 2025 - 2:14 pm

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Two weeks from today, NBC Sports will tip off its return to NBA coverage with Coast 2 Coast Tuesday, which will begin a season-long run of Tuesday-night doubleheaders on NBC Sports and Peacock. During the regular season, nearly 100 games will be delivered to viewers via NBC and Peacock on Tuesday night, exclusively via Peacock on Monday nights, and, beginning Feb. 1, on Sunday nights (with a two-week pause for the Winter Olympics and NBA All-Star Game) on NBC and Peacock.

For both NBC and fans of a certain age, the return of the NBA on NBC brand evokes nostalgia for a brand that ended on June 12, 2002, but is now back and ready to reflect a media environment that is much more dynamic than just over-the-air TV and cable (or satellite) television.

At NBC Sports press conference on Oct. 6: (from left) Jim Denney, chief product officer, NBCUniversal Media Group; Jenny Storms, chief marketing officer, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming; Sam Flood, executive producer/president, production, NBC Sports; Rick Cordella, president, NBC Sports; Ahmed Fareed, reporter, NBC Sports

Building a new property from scratch happens once in a career, and we're lucky to have these guys with of us, said NBC Sports President Rick Cordella, speaking in front of the new on-air talent and production team as well as the media at a press event at NBC Sports headquarters in Stamford, CT, yesterday.

[NBA on NBC] is an enormous investment by the company, he added. When the NBA [rights] came around, we thought it made sense for us. It fills a time in the schedule in the spring when we have little content overall. And the NBA offers a diverse audience; [we've] had 20% new advertisers that came in [for the NBA].

When NBA on NBC launched with NBA Showtime in 1990, NBC Sports Executive Producer/President, Production, Sam Flood was there, writing scripts for then-commentator Pat Riley. At the press briefing, he described the technology available the last time NBC had the NBA rights versus that at NBC's disposal today, saying it's like Apollo 1 versus a spaceship.

NBC Sports' Sam Flood is excited to see how the revamped NBA on NBC will take the production and coverage to new heights.

We're excited, he said. NBA on NBC was iconic, and those 12 years were the peak of excitement and energy. We're going to bring back touches, but we're also going to move the sport forward and move our broadcast forward. It's just fun to do this sport, and there is a [new] energy in our building.

The part of the building that most reflects the advances is Studio One, originally the home of the studio show for Thursday Night Football.

It's a spectacular space and is state of the art, Flood said. NBC Olympics Coordinating Director Mike Sheehan and his team have designed a spectacular space.

A big part of moving the coverage forward is, of course, advances in production gear: all the games will be produced in 1080p HDR. But there is also the Peacock app, which will offer a lot of new ways to experience the NBA. According to NBCUniversal Media Group Chief Product Officer Jim Denney, a lot of work has been done to ensure that the app not only is reliable but can scale properly while also incorporating new features.

As we create the customer experience, he explained, we have to come at it from the fan's point of view and incorporate as many points of view as possible, like the casual or avid fan. We also learned [through the Olympics] to work tightly with the production team to create those experiences, talking about what's possible from a technology standpoint and incorporating feedback from everybody. [We] make sure we don't get in the way of the game because, at the end of the day, the fans are coming to see the event. We want to make sure that we're complementing the event and making it fun while not getting in its way.

One new production feature for the 23 games exclusively on Peacock is On the Bench. Analysts Robbie Hummel and Austin Rivers will be located next to each bench instead of in a booth with play-by-play announcer Noah Eagle.

They will be focused on each team and telling the story of the game through the lens of that team, Denney explained. That has never been done before, and we thought it would be a unique way to take viewers inside the game.

Later in the season, other digital experiences via Peacock will be available: Courtside Live, offering exclusive videos of player arrivals, cameras courtside capturing pregame warmups, and celebrity reactions from celebrity row; Peacock Performance View, a viewing mode providing fans with on-screen stats and data; and Peacock ScoreCard, a first-of-its-kind, real-time streaming experience described as bingo meets fantasy sports.

'Peacock Performance View' gives casual fans a way to understand the game more deeply, noted Denney, adding that fans will get more detail as to what's going on and analysis of the game. Postgame, they'll be able to see highlights from the game they're watching or other games from around the league.

We're thinking about this holistically, he continued. How do we make it at an event? How do we make it a new experience? How do we make every game exciting?

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/10/07/nbc-sports-execs-lay-out-vision...
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