NBA set to shift $2.6 billion media rights from ESPN to Amazon Prime: Details of deal explored

The NBA nears a new deal to partner with Amazon Prime in broadcasting games in the future. They are the most recent league to potentially have a deal with a streaming service. The Major League Baseball and National Football League have already partnered with other streaming platforms to broadcast their games.

According to reports, the current TV deal that the league has with ESPN and TNT is set to expire after the 2024-25 season. This allowed Amazon Prime to strike a deal with the league. It's reported that the new deal with the streaming platform will start during the 2025-26 season and the terms are expected to last at least 10 years.

It's reported that the deal with Amazon Prime will broadcast a "significant chunk" of the regular season and postseason games. The financial side of things hasn't been finalized between the league and the platform. But it would be interesting to see the make-up of their deal.

In the current TV deal, both ESPN and TNT pay the league around $2.6 billion each year. ESPN/ABC will reportedly still participate in the broadcast, only this time, with fewer games. Both networks will likely work to sign a new deal to continue broadcasting games, especially the NBA Finals.

Reports also say that there are still a few games left that could belong to either TNT or NBC as they try to work on a new deal. For TNT, they've broadcast games since 1984, while NBC lost their rights in 2002.

The current deal that the league has with ESPN/ABC and Turner Sports is around $23 billion. According to reports, the new TV deal is expected to be around $75 billion. Sources say that Amazon will likely pay most of the demand in the new deal.

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Which NBA games were the most-watched this season?

There has been some talk about the decline of viewers for the NBA for quite some time now. However, fans have been engaged with the action this season and have tuned in to some of the most iconic games. Across ESPN, ABC and TNT, the average viewership ranges around 1.4 million.

For some of the games this season, it exceeded that number.

Lakers-Celtics Christmas Day game

The Christmas Day matchup between longtime rivals LA Lakers and Boston Celtics drew quite the attention.

It was reported that the game had five million viewers.

In-Season championship

The In-Season Championship game between the Lakers and Indiana Pacers was something fans wanted to see. 4.5 million fans tuned in to watch the game.

Nuggets-Warriors Christmas Day game

The Lakers-Celtics wasn't the only game fans wanted to watch on Christmas. The Denver Nuggets and Golden State Warriors showdown attracted 4.1 million viewers.