Amazon might soon create an NBA version of its Thursday Night Football package. Sources told Front Office Sports that the company is eyeing a package on Tuesday and Thursday nights, with the league expressing interest in Amazon.
Last year, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said he was “fascinated” by Amazon’s NFL package. The NBA is also interested in the streamer’s ability to draw a younger audience in comparison to the NFL’s legacy TV partners, the report said, noting the league is looking for about $50 to $70 billion for its next TV rights contract at the start of the 2025-26 season.
The ecommerce giant pays about $1 billion annually for Thursday Night Football, which garnered an average of 12.9 million viewers year-to-date this season, and has seen six consecutive weeks of double digit year-over-year audience increases.
In addition to Amazon, Apple and NBC Sports are also interested in buying rights to the league, whose streaming viewership has more than doubled over this year. The NBA is currently only negotiating with its current media rights partners, Disney’s ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports’ TNT. Reports suggest both ESPN and TNT are looking to air fewer games.
With several Bally Sports TV contracts approaching renewal, many NBA teams could be looking for new TV homes. Amazon aims to offer local and national games.
Streaming services have increasingly turned to live sports content to achieve or maintain profitability amid uncertain economic times.
The NFL moved Thursday Night Football to Amazon, but fans can also subscribe to the NFL Sunday Ticket through YouTube TV (who hasn’t ruled out a bid for NBA rights as well.) The MLS moved its games to Apple TV+, College Football is headed to NBC’s Peacock, and Max launched its sports tier which carries NBA and MLB games.
Amazon wasn’t immediately available for comment.