NEW YORK (AP) — The numbers are in, and the NBA says Year 1 of its new television deals were a hit.
The league released numbers for the regular season on Wednesday, showing that 170 million people in the U.S. watched NBA games across the league's four primary broadcast platforms this year — those being ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock, and NBA TV.
Those numbers are the league's best in 24 years, the NBA said, plus represented an 86% rise over last season.
Prime Video was part of the league's television rights package for the first time this season and NBC/Peacock returned for the first time in a generation. The league signed a new 11-year, $76 billion-plus media rights deal in 2024 to show games on those two platforms along with ABC/ESPN and NBA TV.
Those deals kicked in at the start of this season.
Other highlights of the viewership numbers:
— NBA games across ABC/ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and NBA TV had the the highest average viewership in 13 years, up 35% over last season.
— A total of 57 telecasts this season reached an average of 2 million viewers, the most since the 2011-12 season.
— People watched NBA games for more than 920 million hours, up 25% over last season and the most since 2011-12.
— The NBA's social media channels generated a record 228 billion views this season, according to Videocites. That's up 13% over last season.
— Attendance over the past three seasons in NBA arenas is higher than any three-season span in league history.
— Viewership for NBA Cup group play games was up 90% from last season.
— The audience for the All-Star Game on NBC, averaging 8.8 million viewers, was the largest for the league's midseason showcase event since 2011.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Portland Trail Blazers center Donovan Clingan, left, celebrates a win against the Phoenix Suns with Trail Blazers forward Deni Avdija (8) and center Robert Williams III after an NBA play-in tournament basketball game, Tuesday, April 14, 2026, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors made an unannounced visit this week to a construction site at Federal Reserve headquarters that is the focus of an investigation into a $2.5 billion renovation project, according to two people familiar with the visit.
Two prosecutors and an investigator from U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro’s office were turned away on Tuesday by a building contractor and referred to Fed attorneys, one of the people said. The two people familiar with the visit spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to publicly discuss an ongoing investigation.
The visit underscores that the Trump administration is not backing down from its investigation of the Fed and its chair, Jerome Powell, even though the probe has delayed the confirmation of a new chair nominated by President Donald Trump. The investigation is focused on cost overruns and brief testimony about the project last summer by Powell. Trump confirmed in an interview that aired Wednesday on Fox Business that he wants to continue the probe.
Last month, during a closed-door hearing before a federal judge, a top deputy from Pirro’s office conceded that they hadn’t found any evidence of a crime in their investigation of the headquarters project.
Robert Hur, an attorney for the Federal Reserve board of governors, sent an email to Pirro’s prosecutors about their visit and their request for a “tour” to “check on progress” at the construction site. Hur’s email, which The Associated Press has viewed, noted that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg concluded that their interest in the Federal Reserve’s renovation project was “pretextual.”
“Should you wish to challenge that finding, the courts provide an avenue for you; it is not appropriate for you to try to circumvent it,” Hur wrote.
Sen. Thom Tillis, a North Carolina Republican who is a key member of the Senate Banking Committee, has vowed to vote against Kevin Warsh, Trump's nominee to replace Powell as Fed chair, until the investigation is dropped. With the committee closely divided on partisan lines, Tillis' opposition is enough to block Warsh.
The Banking panel said yesterday that it will hold a hearing on Warsh's nomination April 21. Powell's term as Fed chair ends May 15, but Powell said last month he would remain as chair until a replacement is named.
Powell is serving a separate term as a member of the Fed's governing board that lasts until January 2028. Chairs typically leave their posts as governor when their terms as chair end, but they can remain on the board if they choose.
Last month, Powell said, “I have no intention of leaving the Board until the investigation is well and truly over, with transparency and finality.” If he remains in his seat, even after Warsh is confirmed, it would deny Trump the oppotunity to fill a seat on the seven-member board.
Late Tuesday Tillis posted a link on social media to The Wall Street Journal’s article on the visit below an image of the Three Stooges and wrote, “The U.S. Attorney’s Office for D.C. at the crime scene.”
The investigation by Pirro’s office centers on an appearance by Powell before the Senate Banking Committee last June, when he was asked about cost overruns on the Fed’s extensive building renovations. The most recent estimates from the Fed suggest the current estimated cost of $2.5 billion is about $600 million higher than a 2022 estimate of $1.9 billion.
“It is probably corrupt, but what it really is, is incompetent,” Trump said on Fox Business. “Don't you think we have to find out what happened there?”
The president's support for the investigation threatens a timeframe set out by Sen. Tim Scott, a South Carolina Republican who chairs the Banking Committee. Scott said Tuesday on Fox Business that he believed the investigation would be “wrapped up in the next few weeks,” allowing Warsh to be confirmed soon after.
News of the unannounced visit by prosecutors comes as Trump has again threatened to fire Powell, if the Federal Reserve Chair decides to stay on the central bank's governing board after his term as chair expires next month.
“Well then I’ll have to fire him, OK?” Trump said when reminded that Powell has said he won’t leave the Fed while the Justice Department investigates a $2.5 billion renovation project at the bank. Powell has also said he will remain as chair of the Fed's rate-setting committee until a replacement is confirmed by the Senate, following the precedent of previous chairs.
Trump has for months wanted to remove Powell as chair of the Fed, saying he has been too slow in orchestrating interest rate cuts that would give the U.S. economy a quick boost. Powell has said the investigation is a pretext to undermine the Fed's independence to set rates.
Powell's term as Fed governor expires May 15, but his term as a Fed board member lasts until January 2028.
Trump’s threat to fire Powell comes as the Supreme Court is weighing the president’s effort to remove another central bank governor, Lisa Cook. Lower courts have so far allowed Cook to remain in her job while her legal challenge to the firing continues. The Supreme Court also seemed likely to keep her on the Fed when the court heard arguments in January. A decision could come any time.
The issue in Cook’s case is whether allegations of mortgage fraud, which she has denied, is a sufficient reason to fire her or a mere pretext masking Trump’s desire to exert more control over U.S. interest rate policy.
The Supreme Court has allowed the firings of the heads of other governmental agencies at the president’s discretion, with no claim that they did anything wrong, while also signaling that it is approaching the independence of the nation’s central bank more cautiously, calling the Fed “a uniquely structured, quasi-private entity.”
AP Writer Mark Sherman contributed to this report.
FILE - Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, right, and President Donald Trump look over a document of cost figures during a visit to the Federal Reserve, Thursday, July 24, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Julia Demaree Nikhinson, File)
