- Prime Video pays US$1.8bn a season for rights
- Deal includes regular season and play-off games
- NBA Europe league scheduled to launch in 2027
The National Basketball Association (NBA) says Amazon Prime Video’s global reach and ability to localise its content for European markets was a key factor in the decision to award the tech giant domestic and international broadcast rights in its new US$76 billion media cycle.
The league is in the first year of 11-season deals with ESPN, NBC and Amazon worth US$76 billion, with Amazon paying US$1.8 billion annually for 67 regular season games in the US, along with play-off matches and the NBA Cup.
Adding a streaming platform was a priority for the NBA, which wanted to expand its reach in the US by attracting younger audiences who do not subscribe to pay-TV whilst also capitalising financially on growing demand for live sports content from major platforms.
However, notably for a major US sports league, international rights were also part of the process. As part of its arrangement, Amazon also has the international rights to 27 regular season matches in selected markets, along with play-off games and the NBA Finals every other year. Certain fixtures will also be scheduled for primetime windows in Europe to maximise audiences.
While several streamers would have been interested in the rights, Amazon’s interest in acquiring the NBA became very apparent early in the process. The tech giant didn’t just have pockets deep enough to finance the deal, it was also able to offer global reach and local expertise to maximise the impact of its coverage.
According to Matt Brabants, senior vice president of global media distribution and business operations at the NBA, Prime Video wasn’t just able to deliver the necessary finances and reach, it was also able to provide localisation services that other suitors simply wasn’t able to match, while there was a pre-existing overlap between potential NBA fans and Prime subscribers. Indeed, the two sides had already worked in Latin America, giving the league first-hand experience.
“We weren’t sure initially whether any single streaming platform could scale with the level of localisation we wanted,” Brabants told SportsPro Media Summit in Madrid. “Amazon’s global reach was undeniable, but what really became clear during negotiations was their commitment to localised content.
“On Prime Video in Europe alone, we’re localising feeds into seven languages. That was essential for us – both the scale and their ability to tailor content for fans across Europe and globally.”
While the Amazon deal will undoubtedly increase viewership in growth markets, the NBA has territory-specific broadcast deals in countries where the sport is popular, such as France, Italy, and Spain. The league sees Prime Video coverage as additive to existing partnerships as it will expand the available audience given the majority of its existing partners are pay-TV channels.
Amazon is also the exclusive distributor of the international version of the NBA League Pass direct-to-consumer (DTC) platform, which remains exclusive to the NBA App in the United States. The hope is that live games included with a Prime Video subscription will help drive subscriptions – either to League Pass or the NBA’s other broadcast partners.
“In Europe, our history has been with pay-TV operators,” Brabants explained. “We saw Amazon as a chance to reach a broader audience – and early results support that.”
Indeed, Amazon has confirmed that its first European primetime National Basketball (NBA) game between the San Antonio Spurs and Brooklyn Nets was the most watched regular season game on the continent in the league’s history, excluding Christmas Day and Paris games.
That fixture involved French superstar Victor Wembanyama, who is part of a growing European contingent in the league. Indeed, European players made up 15 per cent of all NBA rosters on the opening day of this season and is one of the reasons why the NBA, which also plans to launch a 16-team European league by October 2027, is so keen to engage its audience on the continent.
“The impact [of European players] is enormous, especially in France,” Brabants added. “Wembanyama is a generational talent. He became the youngest player ever to surpass 1 billion social media views on our platforms.
“We also had upwards of 20 French players this season, with six drafted this year alone. Viewership and engagement spike noticeably in their home markets – and beyond.”
