Amazon Wants to Turn NBA Basketball into a Weekly Event Like ‘Thursday Night Football’
A new report suggests Amazon would create a weekly NBA showcase night if it got some of that league’s rights in the upcoming negotiation period.
The 2023-24 NBA season tips off this week, but market analysts have their eyes firmly affixed on the 2024-25 NBA year. When that season concludes, the league will send its broadcast rights to market, and it could end up earning as much as triple the value of its current contracts with ESPN and TNT in the next round of negotiations.
- The NBA has shown interest in creating a streaming-only package of games in its next rights deal.
- Amazon would reportedly turn one night of the week into an NBA extravaganza if it won the rights to some games.
- The e-commerce giant expects to face stiff competition from Apple for the NBA’s proposed streaming games bundle.
‘Tuesday Night Basketball’ and ‘Thursday Night Football’?
But where will the cash for the NBA’s big raise come from? Recent reports indicate that ESPN and TNT both intend to reduce the number of games they purchase in their next deal, which is why the NBA has been so eager to engage with a streamer regarding a package of games.
Front Office Sports reports that Amazon is not only a front-runner to land a streaming-exclusive bundle of NBA games, but that it has big plans for how they would be shown on Prime Video. Amazon has been discussed as a potential NBA partner all year, and in August Prime Video global sports chief Jay Marine said that the company would be “aggressive” in going after more live sports.
The FOS report indicates that Amazon would create an NBA showcase night every week to make viewing of the sport on its platform an event, similar to “Thursday Night Football” games. Amazon is eyeing Tuesday or Thursday nights as the timeslot for its weekly NBA showcase. NBA commissioner Adam Silver is intrigued by Amazon’s ability to draw younger audiences to “TNF” streams, according to FOS.
Look Out for Apple
Amazon is not alone in its reported NBA interest, however. The success of MLS Season Pass, especially in the wake of Lionel Messi's move to Inter Miami, has emboldened Apple’s belief that it can be successful in hosting the NBA as well. One of the most important facets of any sports deal for Apple is the ability to offer games to a global audience, so it remains to be seen if that will temper its interest in NBA games.
NBC has also reportedly expressed interest in bringing games back to that channel. Whether those games would also end up on NBCUniversal’s streaming platform Peacock is unclear, but at the least NBC would be able to pick up the slack from TNT and ESPN if those two channels do end up with smaller parcels of games.
Amazon already has experience with alternate broadcasts and other technical features for “TNF” designed to help immerse fans in the game, so it could easily hit the ground running with its plans to create an NBA-centric night if it did win some of that league’s broadcasting rights. For now, it’s a waiting game, as Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery must finish their exclusive negotiation window with the NBA before outlets like Prime Video can jump in.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.