• by Wayne Friedman , Yesterday

The NBA 2025-26 regular season pulled in $483.3 million in national TV advertising for ESPN, ABC, NBC, and NBA TV, according to estimates from iSpot.tv.

In its first year under a new NBA contract deal, Amazon Prime Video took in an estimated $280 million, according to industry estimates. That would mean a total $760 million for all national linear TV and streaming platforms.

Last year, all national TV -- including TNT and truTV under the NBA's previous deal -- was estimated at $733.2 million and 39.6 billion regular-season impressions, according to iSpot.tv estimates.

One major difference for linear TV networks is significantly fewer airings this year versus last year on linear TV networks -- now at 148,628 airings versus 193,045 a year ago.

The biggest national TV advertisers this year include DraftKings with $13.2 million, Kia Motors at $10.7 million, State Farm at $9.2 million, American Express with $9.1 million and Amazon Prime Video at $8.1 million.

Regular-season NBA games -- across all platforms -- grew 16% to an average 1.8 million Nielsen-measured viewers per game -- with games airing on ESPN/ABC, NBC, NBA TV, and Amazon Prime Video.

NBCUniversal and Amazon Prime Video had new contract deals this season. NBCU averaged 2.8 million viewers coming from Tuesday and Sunday games, while Prime Video averaged 1.0 million, according to reports. ESPN/ABC was at 1.9 million.

The strongest-performing games aired on Christmas Day, when ABC/ESPN aired three games: The San Antonio Spurs-Oklahoma City Thunder, the Cleveland Cavaliers-New York Knicks, and the Dallas Mavericks-Golden State Warriors.

Those top three games averaged 6.4 million viewers.