as The Athletic It was reported on Friday that the NBA and Amazon Prime Video have a deal framework in place that would give the streamer a major role in how the league's games will be watched in the future.
At the same time, ABC/ESPN and the NBA also moved toward a new agreement to continue the NBA Finals on the network.
This leaves a battle royale between incumbents TNT Sports and NBC for the final package. The NBA wants to have just three partners, but there's an outside possibility it could go to four.
The Athletic's Andrew Marchand and Richard Deitsch share their first impressions of the news.
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Marchand: My first conclusion is that Prime Video has emerged as the largest technology company in the sports rights space. Once the deal is complete, Prime Video will stream NFL, NBA, and MLB (locally known as the Yankees in New York) games and retain primary rights around the world. If it wasn't the case before, there's no doubt now that ESPN, Fox, NBC, CBS, and TNT Sports have to be talked about as major live rights players.
Richard, what did you think at first?
Deitsch: What particularly caught my attention in your report was that “playoff inventory is increasing significantly.” This could be a game-changing change for NBA fans and consumers alike. How will NBA fans react? We also think about what this means for the WNBA. In my opinion, this could be huge for that package over the next few years. What does the NBA hypothetically look like on Amazon in terms of production, inventory, and personnel?
Marchand: Amazon has laid out its strategy to the NFL. Added credibility to the play-by-play with the legendary Al Michaels. They will likely continue to take that approach, so Ian Eagle could be at the top of the list. He and Mike Breen are two of the best play-by-play announcers in basketball, and Breen will be tied to ESPN for another five years. Eagle is already the voice of the Final Four and has also appeared on TNT, so it would seem like an honorable choice, similar to Michaels.
As for analysts, Eagle and Grant Hill have had a good relationship, but I can see interest in someone like JJ Reddick, another Duke graduate. Richard Jefferson is also in it. If you want to think really big, and the aggregators should hold off on rewriting him for now, but he retires by 2025-26, one of those names is LeBron James. Amazon already has an established relationship with James, especially by airing his “The Shop” from time to time as an alternative to “Thursday Night Football.” Amazon has also allowed Fred Gaudelli to start Kickoff on Thursday night, so I think they'll consider adding a top producer and perhaps collaborating with one of the other networks on production, similar to what they did with Football.
Let's move on to the final battle, TNT Sports vs. NBC. What does that shake look like? If you were the league, how much importance would you place on “Inside the NBA”?
NBC has been out of the NBA since 2002, when Chris Webber and Doug Christie's Sacramento Kings lost to the Los Angeles Lakers in the Western Conference finals. (Jed Jacobson/Getty Images)
Deitsch: I've written a lot about Inside the NBA over the years, including an article discussing why it should be inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame in the contributor category. It seems incomprehensible that the NBA wouldn't want a show like that somewhere. TNT Sports also has premium play-by-play players in Eagle, Kevin Harlan, and Brian Anderson. But I don't think “inside the NBA” is the important factor here. TNT's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD), likely needs the NBA in its streaming business between Max and its Disney-Fox-Warner business plan to bundle live sports content. NBC would be a great partner and I love her history with NBC and the league. But if the NBA is serious about three partners and four partners, TNT Sports will stick with a smaller package.
By the way, I love your LeBron suggestion. Given his basketball IQ and reputation, he would be an incredible analyst.
Marchand: NBC will have a top-notch play-by-play duo of Mike Tirico and Noah Eagle for the game. In other words, it is positive for production value. But this all comes down to the almighty dollar in the first place. Money wins. However, if relationships are involved, TNT Sports may have a choice. In November 2022, WBD CEO David Zaslav said, “We don't need to have the NBA.” Maybe so, but the NBA didn't like to hear that, and TNT Sports' cable, satellite, and even small bundles with Disney and Fox are heavily based on their contracts with the NBA. . So if you want to keep your league on a network or streaming service, you may have to pay a lot of money. NBCUniversal chairman Mark Lazarus, meanwhile, has a long history with top NBA executives. If the NBA stays with three packages, it will be interesting to see what the last package turns out to be.
Deitsch: The takeaway here is that even in a tough economic environment for these media giants, Tier 1 sports continue to be important in how these companies approach sports content consumption. The bubble hasn't burst yet. This is also a significant statement by Amazon. Staying is a sport.
(Photo of Inside the NBA staff and San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembaneyama during the NBA All-Star Game in February: Brandon Todd / NBAE via Getty Images)
