NBCUniversal Brings NBA on NBC Throwbacks Into Its Peacock Present

Bringing the NBA back to NBC stirred up some memories of their storied past, but NBCUniversal and Peacock see even greater potential in the league’s future.

In fairness to NBC and ‘90s/’00s-vintage fans, there’s a lot of history to latch onto. NBA on NBC’s run from 1990 to 2002 was a golden era for Gen X and elder Millennials that spanned Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls’ dominance, the ‘92 Olympic Dream Team, NBA Jam, the Shaquille O’Neal/Kobe Bryant Los Angeles Lakers, and an interior game that player analysts from the period still long for today.

NBCUniversal hasn’t shied away from any of it. During its Kentucky Derby coverage earlier this month, it assembled stars (and Minions) from the company’s properties to welcome back John Tesh’s iconic basketball anthem Roundball Rock.

Last week, it used AI to conjure Jim Fagan, the voice on NBA on NBC, who died in 2017, for a new ad touting the league’s return to the network.

But as observers, including Sports Media Watch’s Jon Lewis, cautioned against leaning too forcefully into turn-of-the-Millennium nostalgia, NBCUniversal clarified in a briefing on Tuesday ahead of its TV upfronts that at least a few elements of the NBA’s return would be markedly different than when the league departed nearly 23 years ago. 

NBCU’s ad-backed Peacock streamer, with its nearly 100 million active users each month, is part of the 40% of NBA inventory that will shift to streaming for the 2025-26 season. In its first year of the new deal with NBCUniversal, the NBA will make 100 regular-season games and 40 playoff games available on Peacock.

In that new reality, both avid and casual fans are looking for ways to access broadcasts from multiple perspectives. By offering fans mobile score cards and highlights, enhanced game graphics, and direct connections to live action and key plays, Peacock is helping fans absorb an NBA ecosystem that’s grown over the last 35 years into far more than a couple of games and an episode of NBA Inside Stuff each week.

“By adding the NBA, we’re bringing year-round sports, including 129 nights in primetime, to both advertisers and viewers,” said Peter Lazarus, evp of NBC Sports advertising and partnerships. “This year into next, Peacock is proud to offer fans over 7,500 hours of live sports.”

Covering the angles

With NBC and Peacock hosting Super Bowl 60 in 2026, Lazarus noted that the addition of the NBA would give NBCUniversal “40% of big-event viewership” next year. But it’s what the Peacock team did with NFL Sunday Night Football, The Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, WrestleMania, and the 2024 Paris Olympics that has brought its production to the next level.

“We want to differentiate viewing across the Sunday and Monday games, as well as on Tuesday,” said John Jelley, svp of product and user experience for global streaming at NBCUniversal. “We’re going to lean into attracting an audience that’s younger, more diverse, and has new behaviors they’re used to watching in a more nontraditional way… they’re doing so on more screens, and we want to make sure that the Peacock experience is unique.”

NBC Sports provided its first hint at what the new order might look like when it announced former NBA star and 2025 Hall of Fame inductee Carmelo Anthony as a member of its broadcast team during its broadcast of the Kentucky Derby.

But Jelley took it a few steps further by flipping through a series of Peacock in-game enhancements meant to draw younger viewers and connect to the NBA’s broad-reaching culture and content. With Dunder-Mifflin paper company’s logo from The Office substituting for potential partners’ brands, Jelley showed off the Live in Browse feature that plays NBA games right on the Peacock homepage and includes updated stats for individual players.

Peacock Performance View turns a broadcast into a combination of NBA Jam and NBA 2K, overlaying graphics that show players’ names, an updating shooting percentage based on their place on the floor, a shooting map, and even a “he’s on fire” flaming basketball for players who’ve made several shots in a row. Another drop-down allows fans to “Catch Up with Key Plays” and watch clips of shots and sequences they’ve missed.

While Peacock will use its recently implemented vertical video to give mobile viewers “Can’t Miss” vertical highlights from various games, the streamer sees potential to hook casual fans with offerings beyond the court. Its ScoreCard turns NBA games into a game for fans, letting fans pick a card of on-court stars that awards fans points if their players exceed a certain amount of points, rebounds, or assists—or Euro step their way into the paint.

Later in the season, Peacock plans to unveil its Courtside Live content series, allowing fans to watch the game feed, but also focus on key players, arrivals and outfits, reaction from fans and celebrities, and more. While Peacock’s multi-screen perks clear the lane for more brands, some of those who were with the NBA on NBC the first time around welcome them for different reasons.

“In 2002, I was part of the production team doing those games back in the day: Some glory days with Michael Jordan, all the magic on the court… incredible time for our team,” said Sam Flood, executive producer and president of production at NBC Sports. “I know everyone on the production side of the house can’t wait to get back to the NBA arenas and tell the stories of this next generation of great players, and having it appear on the Peacock platform with the new toys, bells, whistles, [and] enhanced broadcast all the way.”