Which Streaming Partner Would Be Best for the NBA to Team Up With in Next Broadcast Deal?
The NBA is looking to triple its revenues in its next national broadcasting deal. Which streaming partners will help it achieve that goal?
The NBA wants to get paid. The league’s current broadcasting rights deal expires following the 2024-25 season, and reports indicate it wants to make anywhere from double to triple the $24 billion it makes from its current broadcasting partners ESPN and TNT. In early 2023, reports surfaced that the league wanted to create a new package of games that will be sold exclusively to a streaming service, which gained further credence when it was reported that ESPN and TNT wanted to buy smaller packages of games in the next deal. When considering the league’s goals in growing its audience, increasing revenue, and being available to as many viewers as possible, it seems that Amazon’s Prime Video is the ideal streaming partner to purchase a new package of games.
- Prime Video has already shown interest in pursuing the NBA, and wants to make games a weekly event in the vein of “Thursday Night Football.”
- Amazon can offer a large subscriber base and has plenty of revenue to help the league achieve its financial goals.
- Prime Video could offer a complete NBA streaming experience, including national and locally-broadcast games and alternate streams.
What Does the NBA Want from Its Next Rights Deal?
NBA commissioner Adam Silver spoke about the league's need to appeal to its younger audience in an interview with John Ourand last spring. Silver recognizes that younger audiences are more likely to be comfortable with streaming than they are with traditional pay-TV providers like cable and satellite distributors, and that while pay TV would still be an important part of the league’s broadcasting strategy, it could not be the only way that fans can access games going forward.
“There’s still 75 million homes receiving cable/satellite programming in the United States,” Silver told Ourand. “But [the decline of cable] has a particular impact on a sport like ours that has a very young viewership. Our young fans are not watching traditional television.”
Surveys from last year back up Silver’s assertions. A large majority of Gen Z and millennial audiences say that they think streaming is a better viewing experience for watching live sports than traditional TV. Additionally, streaming services are also much more accessible via mobile phones; data from Hub Research shows that 88% of Gen Z viewers watch video on their phones at least once a week, so moving a large package of NBA games exclusively to streaming will help the league find its younger fans wherever they are.
In addition to reaching younger viewers and making more money, the league will assuredly want to increase its international audience. A report from Reuters last fall indicates the league is considering Mexico City as a potential expansion team site, and having a partner that can deliver games to domestic and international audiences will be important for the league.
Which Streaming Partner Will Help the NBA Achieve Its Goals Most?
There are several subscription streaming services in the United States that would seemingly make good partners for the NBA, considering its goals. But some of these candidates are already out of the running for NBA games; Netflix, for example, reportedly has no interest in acquiring live NBA contests. The new joint venture streaming platform that will combine the sports rights of ESPN and TNT with Fox's assets is also not the right buyer for the NBA’s streaming-exclusive package. It will already carry games airing on cable through ESPN and TNT, and it’s not likely that Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery will want to pay for a streaming-only package on top of their linear games packages, considering both companies want to reduce the amount they spend on the league going forward.
Peacock could be a player for this package, given NBC’s desire to get back into basketball broadcasting, but it’s hard to imagine the league will be too keen on selling a large portion of nationally broadcast games to a streamer with just 30 million subscribers. If NBC does end up with a portion of games, it would not be a surprise if some of the contests end up as Peacock exclusives — like NBCUniversal has done with NFL games — though a dedicated Peacock package seems less likely. In truth, outside of Netflix, there is only one streaming service that could reasonably help the NBA achieve all of its goals for its next broadcasting deal: Prime Video.
Why is Prime Video the Best Streaming Partner for the NBA?
From a market penetration standpoint, it’ll be hard for any streaming service to beat Prime Video when trying to attract the NBA. Data released by Just Watch in July 2023 shows that Prime Video had a greater share of the U.S. streaming market than any other service, including Netflix. Amazon does not reveal how many subscribers are signed up for Prime Video, but former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed in 2021 that Amazon’s Prime service had over 200 million subscribers worldwide. All of those customers are Prime Video subscribers even if they don’t use the service actively as access to Prime Video is one of the benefits of a Prime membership. That nearly three-year-old total also does not account for the number of consumers who have joined the service since then, or those who are Prime Video subscribers but not Amazon Prime members.
| Streaming Service | Subscriber Count | Market Penetration Percentage |
Monthly Price (Cheapest plan with sports) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Prime Video | 200 million+ | 21% | $8.99 |
| Apple TV+ | 40 million (estimated) | 6% | $9.99 |
| Peacock | 30 million | N/A | $5.99 |
| Netflix | 260.28 million | 20% | $6.99 |
| ESPN+ | 25.2 million | N/A | $10.99 |
As the table shows, Prime Video is the ideal candidate for the NBA in terms of market penetration and subscriber totals. Other streaming partners that have been mentioned as possible allies for the NBA in its next broadcast deal like Apple TV+ and Peacock don’t approach Prime Video’s numbers in either category. As mentioned above, Netflix is giving the NBA a pass this time around, and ESPN+ may not even exist past the end of 2024, as its content is due to be folded into the new Disney/Fox/WBD joint venture streaming service this fall.
When discussing Prime Video’s viability as an NBA streaming partner, it’s important to bring up how much experience the streamer has in offering other live sports. In addition to “Thursday Night Football” streams, Prime Video offers a selection of games from the New York Yankees to fans in the New York area every season, and also provides around 30 Seattle Storm games to viewers in Washington. But the streamer could import a much wider variety of sports in the near future; Amazon has agreed to a deal with Diamond Sports Group to invest in its Bally Sports regional sports networks. That deal could lead to Bally Sports channels streaming within Prime Video, and if it does it will boost the amount of sports games on the streamer in the U.S. substantially.
| League | Teams Available on Prime Video | Number of Games on Prime Video Per Season |
Available to National Audience? |
|---|---|---|---|
| NFL | 32 | 17 (including one preseason); plus one WIld Card game in 2025 |
Yes |
| MLB^ | 13 (12 Bally Sports, plus Yankees) | All regular season games not on national channels; ~20 Yankees games | Local markets only |
| NBA^ | 15 | All regular season games not on national channels | Local markets only |
| NHL^ | 11 | All regular season games not on national channels | Local markets only |
| WNBA | 12 | 20 exclusive games featuring teams around the league, plus ~30 Storm games every year | Yes (Storm games in Seattle area only) |
| NASCAR | N/A | 5 Cup Series races each year (starting in 2025) | Yes |
{^} indicates games that do not appear on Prime Video as of now, but will if the streamer incorporates content from Bally Sports channels.
Prime Video’s price point is also attractive; the service’s ad-supported tier is $8.99 per month, which is just about middle-of-the-road when compared to its peers and would be seen as a better value proposition if it adds NBA games in addition to the weekly streams of NFL “Thursday Night Football” games that are available on the service. In the upcoming season, Prime Video will host a streaming-exclusive playoff game as well.
Will Prime Video help the NBA attract younger viewers? That potential certainly exists, as Amazon offers multiple media services, including Amazon Music and Twitch that will be attractive to young customers. Twitch has stated that a large portion of its subscribers are either millennials or elder Gen Zers, and partnering with the NBA could create new opportunities for synergy. Could famous Twitch streamers be enlisted to watch and react to NBA games every week?
When examining the question from a technical standpoint, Prime Video is well-equipped to become an NBA streaming partner. The platform has been a streaming partner with the WNBA since 2021. Since then, Amazon has been hard at work on technical innovations to reduce latency, the delay between events happening live and when audiences see the action on their screens. Additionally, Prime Video has plenty of knowledge about offering alternate broadcasts with “TNF” games, which lends to the improved viewing experience that fans say they enjoy while watching sports on streaming. “TNF” offers multiple alternate broadcasts during some games, and always allows fans to switch between the main feed and the “Prime Vision” stream that incorporates key stats and gives access to different camera angles, another facet of sports streaming fans enjoy.
Putting the NBA on Prime Video will allow the league to pursue a holistic approach to its rights. Amazon reportedly wants their package to include playoff rights, and the company’s aforementioned investment in Diamond Sports Group could include the availability of Bally Sports-branded regional sports networks on Prime Video Channels. Bally Sports networks currently hold the rights to 15 NBA teams, and while the league’s deal with Diamond expires after this season, there’s a good chance that many of those teams will re-sign with their respective Bally Sports channel instead of trying to find a new partner for their local broadcast rights. Acquiring the NBA’s streaming package would allow Prime Video to stream nationally televised contests, regional games through Bally Sports channels, and even playoff games if the league consents to include them.
If the NBA does want to make big strides in expanding its international audience, Prime Video can help in this regard too. Prime Video is available in over 200 countries and territories, and already has experience streaming some NBA games every season in Brazil.
Finally, but perhaps most importantly, Amazon has the revenue to help the NBA make significantly more money on its next rights deal than it is with its current contracts. The company brought in $574.8 billion in net sales in 2023, and while its streaming segment might not be turning a profit by itself yet, there can be no doubt that Amazon is one of the largest and most profitable companies in the world. It has the revenue to pay whatever it wants for NBA rights if it’s serious about acquiring them. While the talks have been quiet lately, there are previous reports that indicate that Amazon would like to launch its own sports streaming app. Having regular NBA, WNBA, and NWSL games and weekly NFL contests, as well as in-market Bally Sports broadcasts from the NBA, NHL, and MLB, would make that more possible.
When going through the NBA’s checklist for a streaming partner, Prime Video seems to check off all the boxes. It has the money, the reach, and the technical ability to make a streaming-only package of NBA games a success, and it is the logical partner for the league as it seeks to increase its broadcast partners — and in turn its potential audience — in its next national broadcasting deal.
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.