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NBC will soon debut its Peacock Performance View on the main broadcasts of its NBA coverage. Performance View is a data-driven graphical overlay that Peacock streamers have been able to toggle on and off but will now be used at times on the traditional telecast. Its exact linear launch has not been determined but will be during the regular season.
John Jelley, NBCUniversal’s SVP who oversees product and user experience on Peacock, shared on stage at the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference that, on average, a quarter of users had been engaging with the feature with as many 40% for some games. Given its popularity, the idea is to continue educating the audience of what’s available.
Awful Announcing: Adam Silver: "There's no doubt that AI will have the same impact on sports... how we're going to be able to [hyper-personalize] our telecasts... We're about to witness probably the most significant change, certainly in my lifetime, in how sports are presented." 🏀📺🎙️ #NBA
Sportradar AG announces a multi-year agreement with NBC Sports Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) to enhance the NBA viewing experience through real-time broadcast solutions that enhance live game coverage. NBC Sports Regional Networks will leverage Sportradar’s NBA Advanced Data and GameFrame across live NBA game broadcasts during the 2025-26 and 2026-27 NBA seasons.
Billionaire investor Mark Cuban and several current NBA stars have backed a $4m (£3m) fundraising round for Irish sports tech company Orreco. They join major-winning golfers Padraig Harrington and Graeme McDowell as investors in Orreco, which uses AI to analyse athletes’ movement for signs of injury susceptibility. “This is the first proactive approach to use AI to help reduce injury risk,” said Cuban, a co-owner of the Dallas Mavericks NBA team who made his billions as a tech founder and appears on US TV show Shark Tank. “It’s great today and only going to get better.”
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The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear arguments in a challenge brought by the NBA, seeking the reversal of a Second Circuit decision finding a concrete injury when a consumer’s information is disclosed to another business. The case centers on a lawsuit brought by Michael Salazar, who sued the NBA for tracking his activity on NBA.com and through its free newsletter, data it then shared with Meta to serve him targeted ads.
The Third, 10th and 11th Circuits have each held that a consumer does not have standing, ruling that federal courts cannot recognize “nonpublic, business-to-business disclosures” as harmful. The Sixth and Seventh Circuits have heard arguments in similar cases and are likely to reject the Second Circuit’s decision in looming opinions, the NBA said. The NBA challenged the Second Circuit’s finding that the Video Privacy Protection Act — a 1988 statue prohibiting the disclosure of a customer’s viewing history without their consent — could be extended to apply to individuals who watched videos without renting, buying or subscribing to it.
The NBA’s hypothesis about Generation App — that cord-cutters and cord-nevers will stream basketball games over linear’s dead body — is now looking more prescient. Data from Playfly Insights shows that roughly 15% of the league’s local broadcast audience last season watched through direct-to-consumer streaming apps, a significant gain that is expected to multiply again this season and is a precursor to the future of NBA consumption.
Sources familiar with league metrics are seeing similar DTC data, while adding that the overall consumption of local NBA broadcasts now is roughly 30% through streaming and will likely rise soon to 50% — meaning half of the audience will be viewing games either on DTC apps, virtual MVPDs or digital-first platforms.
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It’s clear, then, that streaming is going mainstream. Never mind the fact that every nationally televised game this season is on a digital platform (Peacock, the ESPN app or Prime Video), local streams are just as critical. The NBA, for instance, has claimed it has the youngest average fan base of any major league (39 years old) and that the 18-to-24 demographic is 33% more likely to access a subscription OTT service than pay TV.
Apple Vision Pro users will be able to experience select NBA games in an immersive way for the 2025-26 season, Apple announced on Friday. Some Los Angeles Lakers matches will be in Apple Immersive video, a format specifically for the headset. The company's release states, "Viewers will feel the intensity of each game as if they were courtside, with perspectives impossible to capture in traditional broadcasts. "
In addition to the NBA App, NBA.com and team apps and websites, Tap to Watch will provide access to game telecasts through national and local media partners and via other NBA partners such as Google, Meta, X, Snap, Reddit, Roku, Dapper Labs and more. Further integrations with FanDuel, Fanatics and Yahoo Sports, as well as other digital and connected TV partners, will roll out during the season.
The NBA has a relatively new tool called “automated officiating,” and the robotic eyes that are now tracking just about everything on basketball courts showed that James was nowhere near committing offensive basket interference on that play. It wasn’t needed to decide matters in that case — again, the humans got it right — but the NBA is tapping into technology more and more to ensure that plays like those get adjudicated correctly.
