Pay-TV giant Sky Italia has secured an additional package of domestic rights to basketball’s NBA ahead of the upcoming 2025-26 season.
The broadcaster will provide coverage on its recently launched dedicated basketball channel.
Comcast, Sky’s parent company, acquired NBA rights for the next 11 years under a contract that begins with the 2025-26 campaign.
As part of that agreement, Comcast secured rights to show 100 regular-season NBA games in several European markets through its main Sky Sports offering, which operates in Italy, the UK and Ireland, Germany, Austria, and Switzerland.
Sky Italia already held NBA rights and maintained its position as the long-term home of the league in Italy through the new Comcast deal.
In an expansion of that agreement, Sky Italia has now acquired more rights before the start of the new season later this month, and with pre-season underway.
This latest agreement includes some pre-season games, several regular-season games, opening-day fixtures, all Christmas Day games, MLK Day games, the NBA All-Star, and multiple playoff games.
Additionally, Sky Italia will show the Conference Finals, with one series live each season and the other on a delay. The deal also includes live and exclusive rights to the NBA Finals in 2027, and delayed coverage in 2026 and 2028.
Sky Italia will rotate live rights to the Conference Finals and NBA Finals with the Amazon Prime Video service, which also signed a global rights deal with the league last year.
Sky Italia will also broadcast several regular-season games from the upcoming women’s WNBA season, as well as playoffs and finals games.
Coverage will be provided on the new Sky Sport Basket channel, beginning with the opening night of the new NBA season on October 21 (October 22 in Italy due to the time difference).
In addition to the live matches, Sky will provide daily insights, news, highlights, and dedicated programs on its Sky Sport 24 news channel, website, and social media channels.
Simone Fontecchio, who moved from the Detroit Pistons to the Miami Heat during the offseason, is again likely to be the only Italian player on an NBA roster this season.
Sky also recently secured domestic pay-TV rights to Italy’s top-tier Lega Basket Serie A (LBA) competition for the next three seasons.
The agreement covers the 2025-2026, 2026-2027, and 2027-2028 seasons and sees Sky replace the previous LBA domestic rightsholder, DAZN.
In June, Sky renewed its deal to show the EuroLeague and EuroCup through the 2027-28 campaign, while the Sky Basket channel also showed the recent 2025 EuroBasket national teams tournament.
Giuseppe De Bellis, executive vice president of sport, news, and entertainment at Sky Italia, said: “The NBA represents the highest level of professional basketball worldwide and enhances the value of Sky's entire offering as the home of basketball, another key pillar of our sports offering.
“The NBA, along with the LBA, and the exclusive coverage of European tournaments, makes our dedicated Sky Sport Basket channel a unique global destination that brings together the best of all the leagues for the many fans of this great sport.”
Meanwhile, TV3, the Catalan public-service broadcaster, has agreed a deal with Spanish basketball’s ACB to show a weekly top-flight Liga Endesa match free-to-air in the territory.
The agreement covers the next two seasons, with the possibility of a further extension.
TV3 and its digital platform, 3Cat, will broadcast a match every Sunday morning. The agreement will also see select matches shown on TV3’s Esport3 TV channel, as well as a series of play-off quarter-finals on a non-exclusive basis.
Coverage on 3Cat began yesterday, with the service airing Joventut’s 87-75 win over Granada. The network will broadcast 14 matches featuring Catalan sides throughout the regular season, with Barcelona’s match against Lleida on October 12 its next live offering.
