Amazon’s looming media rights deal with the NBA reportedly includes a first for one of the league’s broadcast partners, a full night of games.
Amazon will acquire “exclusive access” to a full night of NBA games each week of the regular season as part of its expected rights deal with the league, John Ourand of Puck reported Thursday. Though the games would be available only through the Prime Video service, it is expected that Amazon would rely on local RSN crews to produce the broadcasts.
There is no precedent for the NBA giving a national rights partner exclusive rights to a full night of games, though one does not have to look far for a similar example. The WNBA agreed to a deal with ION last season in which the Scripps-owned broadcast network carries all Friday night games.
Going further back, NBC and ABC held exclusive rights to all Major League Baseball games played on their designated dates during “The Baseball Network” era of the mid-1990s.
Local rights have always been expected to play a major role in any Amazon NBA deal, and the company appears to be taking a multi-pronged approach. Beyond the exclusive night of games, Amazon is also said to be interested in the NBA League Pass out-of-market package and, per Ourand, has notified the league that it plans to negotiate on behalf of Diamond Sports Group — the bankrupt RSN operator it agreed to bail out in January — for a package of in-market rights.
The Amazon-NBA deal is also believed to include a more traditional slate of regular season and playoff games.
