Prime Video Could Shift NBA In-Season Tournament to Avoid Competing with ‘Thursday Night Football’
Prime Video Could Shift NBA In-Season Tournament to Avoid Competing with ‘Thursday Night Football’
The NBA held the tournament in November in its inaugural season, but with Amazon set to gain exclusive rights in 2025, a move could be inevitable.
The NBA’s media negotiating team deserves a nice, long vacation after the new TV deals it was able to secure for the Association. Last week, the league finalized new national broadcasting deals with ESPN and ABC, NBC and Peacock, and Prime Video, which take effect in 2025 and will pay the NBA $76 billion over their lifetimes. The addition of Prime Video as an NBA partner means that the streamer will have to determine how to balance basketball and football for several months out of the year, as Amazon is also the exclusive distributor of national broadcasts of the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football.” A new report from Sports Business Journal indicates that this could mean shifting the NBA Cup In-Season Tournament to a later date on the calendar, as Prime Video tries to satisfy all of its obligations to its growing list of partner leagues.
Key Details:
- The league could move the In-Season Tournament to an early-December start once its deal with Prime Video begins in 2025.
- The tournament started in November last year, and some analysts believe it created a “halo effect” for NBA teams’ early-season broadcasts.
- There’s still a chance Prime Video loses its NBA package to Warner Bros. Discovery.
Amazon is set to become the owner of the NBA’s new “C” package of broadcast rights when its deal begins in 2025. The package includes exclusive rights to the NBA Cup In-Season Tournament every year, as well as a selection of regular season and playoff games, and will cost Prime Video a cool $1.8 billion per season.
The report indicates the league is considering moving the start date of the NBA Cup from its current mid-November timeframe to early December when Amazon’s deal starts in 2025. This would allow Prime Video to make the last few rounds of the tournament a bigger viewing event, as the streamer would no longer be responsible for offering “TNF” games by the beginning of January and could focus all of its marketing efforts on the tournament semifinals and finals.
If the move occurs as discussed, it would mean that the NBA Cup would start just a couple of weeks later than it did in 2023 and will in 2024. But it could also have an effect on early-season ratings for teams; last year, NBA broadcasts saw Nielsen ratings for games on regional sports networks rise by 8%. According to SBJ, many analysts attribute this to a “halo effect” created by the In-Season Tournament; fans wanted to see more early-season action from their favorite teams leading into the tournament, which led to more eyes on games in late October and early November.
What’s Next in Approval Process for New NBA Deals?
While deals have been finalized, nothing is yet signed, but more details on the NBA’s next broadcast deals will become available soon. The league’s board of governors is expected to approve the contracts on Tuesday, July 16, and according to SBJ that’s when the clock starts on a five-day period in which Warner Bros. Discovery can officially try to exercise matching rights built into its current deal with the league.
WBD currently holds the “B” package of NBA broadcasts but will see its relationship with the league end if deals are confirmed as they currently stand. Most analysts now expect WBD to target Amazon’s package if it tries to use its matching rights, though questions of reach and windowing on a streaming service versus WBD’s cable channels could mean the case ends up in a lawsuit if WBD does try to retain some NBA rights.
All of that means there could be some more dramatic twists and turns for the NBA’s broadcast arrangements before the dust settles for good. But if Amazon does keep the “C” package starting in 2025, it could mean a bit of a change in when viewers can expect to see the NBA Cup In-Season Tournament on Prime Video.
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated the NBA Board of Governor’s meeting would be held on Wednesday, July 17.
Prime Video
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 Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.