NBA season opens with NBC return under new 11-year rights deal

The 2025-26 NBA season opened Tuesday night with a primetime doubleheader in which the defending champion Oklahoma City Thunder hosted the Houston Rockets in the early game and the Golden State Warriors visited the Los Angeles Lakers in the later matchup. The games, broadcast on NBC and streamed on Peacock and other partners, marked the league’s first return to NBC since 2002 and kicked off a season that coincides with a new 11-year media-rights agreement spreading national broadcasts across ABC and ESPN, NBC and Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video.

Oklahoma City began the season as bookmakers’ favorite to repeat, and the Thunder celebrated their championship with a banner-raising prior to tipoff. The Rockets unveiled offseason star Kevin Durant in their starting lineup, a storyline that drew extra interest to the opener. The Warriors-Lakers game proceeded without LeBron James, who was listed inactive for the matchup.

The new media landscape will significantly change how fans watch games. NBC and Peacock will carry roughly 100 regular-season telecasts, Prime Video will stream about 66 games including the NBA Cup and the Play-In Tournament, and ESPN and ABC will continue to hold a...