Breaking: Amazon Reportedly Secures NBA Rights Leaving WBD and NBC to Fight for Final Portion of Broadcast Package
In a matter of hours, it appears that the NBA has essentially locked up 2/3 of its domestic broadcast partners — ESPN and Prime Video — for the next decade.
Don’t look now, hoops fans, but the basketball drama is not solely contained to the hardwood, as the NBA’s broadcast rights negotiations are getting increasingly exciting. On Friday afternoon, it was reported that the NBA had essentially agreed to a deal with ESPN for the league’s top-tier broadcast rights, and then, just a few hours later, The Athletic reported that the Association has a framework for a deal with Prime Video. If that framework eventually becomes a signed contract, this would mark the first time that the basketball league has moved nationally available games to a streaming platform.
Key Details:
- Amazon’s deal will be for a substantial number of games and could include conference championship series games as well.
- Earlier on Friday, it was reported that the NBA and ESPN had essentially come to a deal as well.
- This would leave NBC and TNT to battle over what is expected to be the final portion of the broadcast package.
The Athletic’s reporting indicates that Amazon’s package would be a substantial one. In addition to a significant slate of regular season games, Amazon is also expected to get a sizable portion of postseason contests, which could include conference championship games. The NBA Finals are expected to remain on ABC as part of ESPN’s 10-year deal with the basketball league. The new report suggests that, like the deal with Disney, Prime Video will hold the NBA rights for a decade, beginning with the 2025-26 season.
While not all of the details have been finalized, and nothing is official until it is signed and announced, the expectation is that Prime Video will become the first streaming service to have a package of domestic NBA broadcast rights. Now that deals with ESPN and Amazon are essentially complete, the NBA will turn its attention to Warner Bros. Discovery and NBC.
Sources indicate that the NBA is looking to have three broadcast partners moving forward, meaning that there is likely only one slot remaining. WBD, which owns one of the NBA’s incumbent broadcast partners TNT, has the right to match any deal offered by another outlet, but Comcast executives have been very outspoken about bringing NBA rights back to NBC. With WBD CEO David Zaslav in constant cost-cutting mode in order to work down his company’s $40 billion in debt, it would not be out of the realm of possibilities for NBC to propose a deal with the NBA that would not be financially prudent for WBD to match.
However, since deals are not yet complete, there is the possibility that the Associate is able to carve out a deal that includes both NBC and TNT. Reports have long indicated that the NBA would like to follow the example set by the NFL and partner with as many broadcasters as possible in order to not only reach as wide of an audience as it can, but also to help drive competition between the partners to increase the rights fees that the league can generate.
Amazon is reportedly also interested in securing international NBA rights. The league has strategically arranged all of its domestic and global rights deals to expire following the 2024-25 season so that it can capitalize on all possible partnership opportunities. Prime Video recently signed a multi-year rights deal with the WNBA that includes the championship round of the in-season Commisioner’s Cup.
If this deal does eventually come to fruition, it will not be Amazon’s first with a major domestic sports league. In 2022, Prime Video became the first streaming service to air a package of NFL games when it took over the broadcasting of “Thursday Night Football.” There is a belief that Prime Video’s NBA package could also be focused on Thursday. In recent years, the NBA has avoided playing a significant number of games on the night in order to avoid the NFL broadcasts. However, with the ability to program hardwood and gridiron games on the same, night it would give the NBA the opportunity the chance to ride the NFL’s coattails, and for Prime Video to establish itself as the go-to place to watch sports on Thursday nights from September through April.
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.