SAN ANTONIO – Following in the footsteps of Major League Baseball and the National Football League, the NBA could reportedly begin airing national games on a streaming service.
Amazon Prime Video is preparing to air NBA games beginning with the 2025-26 season, according to a Friday report by The Athletic senior sports media columnist Andrew Marchand.
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Marchand reported that the league and the streamer have a “framework of a deal” in place.
The amount of games per year, which premier NBA events it would air and how long Amazon Prime Video’s contract would be with the league has not yet been confirmed. The streaming service could include “significant regular season games and postseason games, perhaps even some conference finals” games, The Athletic reported.
The NBA is currently in the eighth year of separate nine-year contracts with The Walt Disney Company (ESPN/ABC) and Warner Bros. Discovery (TNT Sports). The current ESPN/ABC package is considered the most desirable of the two arrangements.
While TNT Sports owns rights to Tuesday and Thursday night regular-season games, Opening Night games, the NBA All-Star Game, the NBA Playoffs and one conference finals matchup, ESPN/ABC’s inventory includes Wednesday and Friday night games on ESPN, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games on ABC, Christmas Day games, NBA playoff games, the other conference finals matchup and the biggest prize of them all: the NBA Finals.
ESPN/ABC has owned the larger inventory of games since the 2002-03 season. TNT Sports, on TNT and sister network TBS combined, have aired NBA games since the 1984-85 season.
The ESPN/ABC and TNT Sports contracts with the NBA will expire after the 2024-25 season.
John Ourand, a sports business reporter at the website Puck, reported Thursday that ESPN/ABC is similarly close to a new contract for NBA rights. The new deal reportedly includes rights to air the NBA Finals, which ABC has aired every year since the San Antonio Spurs won their second NBA championship in 2003.
The NBA’s rumored foray to Amazon Prime Video is the third of North America’s three largest professional sports leagues to have select games on a streaming service. The NFL sold its exclusive rights to Thursday Night Football to Amazon Prime Video in 2022. Also, in 2022, Apple TV+ acquired national rights to Major League Baseball games under the “Friday Night Baseball” banner.