As The Athletic reported Friday, the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have the framework for an agreement that will make the streamer a major player in how the league’s games are watched in the future.
At the same time, ABC/ESPN and the NBA also headed for a new deal that will keep the NBA Finals on that network.
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This leaves a battle royale for the final package between incumbent TNT Sports and NBC. The NBA prefers to have just three partners, but there is an outside chance it goes with four.
The Athletic’s Andrew Marchand and Richard Deitsch give their first impressions on the news.
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BuyMarchand: My first takeaway is that Prime Video has emerged as the biggest tech company in sports rights. When this deal is completed, Prime Video will stream games for the NFL, NBA and MLB (locally in New York with the Yankees) and hold major rights around the globe. If it wasn’t before, it now unquestionably must be talked about with ESPN, Fox, NBC, CBS and TNT Sports as the major live-rights players.
Richard, what’s your initial thought?
Deitsch: What really stood out to me from your report was “significant playoff inventory.” That’s potentially a monumental consumer change for NBA fans. How will NBA fans react? I also think about what this might mean for the WNBA; my thinking is this could be very big for that package in the next couple of years. What could the NBA hypothetically look like on Amazon regarding production, inventory and talent?
Marchand: Amazon has shown its strategy with the NFL. It added credibility at play-by-play with the legendary Al Michaels. I think it will try to go with that approach again, so I could see Ian Eagle at the top of its list. He and Mike Breen are the two best basketball play-by-play announcers, and Breen is locked up with ESPN for five more years after this one. Eagle is already the voice of the Final Four and does TNT, so he would seem like a similar prestige choice as Michaels.
As far as analysts go, Eagle and Grant Hill have been good together, but I also could see them having an interest in someone like JJ Redick, another Duke alum. Richard Jefferson is also out there. One name, if you want to think really big — and aggregators, hold your rewrites for now — is LeBron James, if he were to retire by 2025-26. Amazon, notably, has already established a relationship with James by occasionally having his “The Shop” as an alternate broadcast on “Thursday Night Football.” Amazon also got Fred Gaudelli to kick off Thursday nights, so I think it will add a top producer and then probably look to work with one of the other networks for the production, again similar to football.
Let’s move to the last battle: TNT Sports versus NBC. How do you see that shaking out? How much of a factor would you place on “Inside the NBA” if you were the league?
Deitsch: I’ve written so much about “Inside the NBA” over the years, including a piece that argued why it should be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in the contributor category. It seems incomprehensible that the NBA would not want that show somewhere. TNT Sports also has premium play-by-play callers in Eagle, Kevin Harlan and Brian Anderson. But I don’t think having “Inside the NBA” is a major factor here. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), TNT’s parent company, probably needs the NBA for its streaming business between Max and the proposed Disney-Fox-Warner venture to bundle live sports content. NBC would be a great partner, and I love the company’s history with the league. But if the NBA is serious about three partners versus four, TNT Sports retains a smaller package.
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By the way, I love your LeBron suggestion. Given his basketball IQ and fame, he’d be an incredible analyst.
Marchand: NBC comes into the equation with a top-notch play-by-play combo with Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle. So that is a plus for production value. However, this is going to come down to, No. 1, the almighty dollar. Money wins. But if relationships are involved, TNT Sports will have a choice. In November 2022, WBD CEO David Zaslav said, “We don’t have to have the NBA.” Maybe so, but the NBA didn’t love hearing that, and TNT Sports’ affiliate fees on cable, satellite and even in the skinny bundle with Disney and Fox are based largely on having the NBA. So he might have to pay up big time if he wants to keep the league on his network and streaming services. Meanwhile, Mark Lazarus, the chairman of NBC Universal, goes way back with top NBA executives. If the NBA stays at three packages, it will be fascinating to see how this last one turns out.
Deitsch: A big takeaway here, even in a challenging economic environment for these media giants, is that Tier 1 sports remain vital when it comes to how these companies approach sports content consumption. The bubble has yet to burst. It’s also a major statement by Amazon. It is in sports to stay.
(Photo of the “Inside the NBA” crew and San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama during February’s NBA All-Star Game: Brandon Todd / NBAE via Getty Images)