Prime Video, the NBA, and the WNBA have entered an 11-year media rights agreement, beginning with the 2025-26 NBA season.
In the deal, Prime Video will present exclusive global coverage of 66 regular-season NBA games, including an opening week doubleheader, a new Black Friday NBA game, and all games from the Knockout Rounds of the Emirates NBA Cup, including the in-season tournament’s Semifinals and Finals.
The agreement also gives Prime Video exclusive WNBA postseason games for the first time, including one first-round series each year, plus seven semifinal series and three WNBA Finals over the course of the 11-year deal.
Prime Video acquires the rights to exclusive coverage of every game of the postseason SoFi NBA Play-In Tournament, first and second-round playoff games, and Conference Finals in six of the 11 years of the deal.
Prime Video Channels will also be the strategic partner and third-party global channels store destination for NBA League Pass, the NBA’s subscription service for streaming live and on-demand games, in the U.S. and internationally.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said the digital opportunities with Amazon “align perfectly with the global interest in the NBA.”
“Prime Video’s massive subscriber base will dramatically expand our ability to reach our fans in new and innovative ways,” he said.
While Mike Hopkins, head of Prime Video and Amazon MGM Studios, said: “NBA and WNBA basketball will serve as yet another cornerstone of the robust sports business our Prime Video team has built in just the last six years.
“When combined with our original films and shows; partner streaming services; licensed content; and rent or buy titles – our sports offering is a major driver of Prime Video’s evolution into a genuine one-stop shop for everything our customers want in video.”
Prime Video will present live NBA pregame, postgame, and halftime shows as part of its coverage.
The international live game package rights extend worldwide, with the exception of Greater China, Poland, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands, with rights in Canada beginning in the 2026-27 NBA season.
The deal marks another sports broadcast rights acquisition for the streamer, following acquiring rights for the 2024 MLC season earlier this month, as well as being the exclusive home to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in June.
Speaking to Mediawek in May, head of Prime Video Australia and New Zealand Hushidar Kharas spoke about its outlook on securing audiences for the tournament, amidst free-to-air network lobbying earlier this year to keep sports free.
“I don’t think we’re dragging anyone away,” he said.
“I think it’s a rich media landscape, it’s dynamic, and people can watch things in different places at different times.
“Our worldview or mindset is never that we want to be the only service, we want to be part of a bouquet of services that customers use, and we want to provide value back to them.”
In early July, the Prominence and Anti-Siphoning bill was passed without amendment by the Senate, meaning subscription streamers, such as Prime Video, Netflix, and Foxtel’s Kayo could now outbid free-to-air networks for digital streaming rights for Australian sporting events.
This means that while streaming services, as well as subscription TV, cannot buy the free broadcast (aerial delivered) rights until a free-to-air broadcaster, such as Nine, Seven, or 10, has acquired them, they are not stopped from bidding on the streaming rights that free-to-air broadcasters currently have on their respective BVOD services (9Now, 7Plus, 10 Play or SBS On Demand).
See also: Streamers can now outbid free-to-air networks for digital sports streaming rights