In a first, ABC will carry all five NBA Christmas Day games this season.
ESPN announced on Monday that all five NBA Christmas Day games will be scheduled for both ESPN and ABC, marking the first time that the broadcast network has carried the full, five-game schedule.
ABC was initially set to simulcast the middle three games (Lakers-Mavericks at 2:30 PM ET, Bucks-Celtics at 5:00 and Grizzlies-Warriors at 8:00), but has now added the Noon ET Sixers-Knicks and 10:30 PM ET Suns-Nuggets games to its schedule.
Suns-Nuggets will be the latest-starting NBA game on broadcast television since CBS carried live and tape-delayed games following the late local news in the 1980s.
The move comes as the NBA faces increased competition on the holiday from the NFL, which this season has scheduled three Christmas games.
In other NBA media news, the league announced Monday that it has reached a multi-year deal with Amazon to carry games exclusively on Amazon Prime in Brazil. Under the deal, Prime will carry 87 regular season games and up 24 playoff games in the country this season.
With Amazon’s NFL Thursday Night Football package exceeding most expectations — both in the ratings and in its overall production — there has been increased belief that the company will be a major player in the NBA’s next U.S. media rights negotiations. The current NBA deals with ESPN/ABC and Turner expire after the 2024-25 season.
(News from ESPN, Amazon PR)
