FILE - An Amazon Prime truck is seen on April 5, 2024, in Portland, Ore. Amazon hits a stock market valuation of $2 trillion for the first time on Wednesday, June 26, 2024.(AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)
Jay Marine is finally able to relax and celebrate after a hectic couple of months.
The global head of sports programming for Amazon Prime Video found out Wednesday afternoon that they will be carrying the NBA beginning with the 2025-26 season, along with ESPN/ABC and NBC. Warner Bros. Discovery matched Prime Video’s $1.8 billion per season offer to carry NBA games, but the league said the proposal did not match what Prime Video offered.
“The NBA had to go through their process and evaluate what other parties had sent in,” Marine said. “I felt very good about what we were able to offer the NBA and I think they did as well as their owners. That’s the part we controlled. And we, like everyone else, had to wait and see how the rest would play out.”
Amazon’s 11-year agreement includes 66 regular-season games, including a doubleheader on Thursday nights after the NFL’s regular season is over. It also includes all six NBA Play-In Tournament games, about one-third of the games in the first two rounds of the playoffs and the knockout rounds of the NBA Cup in-season tournament. It will also carry one of the conference finals series for six seasons.
The more intriguing parts, though, are what Prime Video gets internationally. It will be the global distributor for NBA League Pass as well as an expanded package of games for Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, Britain and Ireland. That includes a minimum of 20 regular-season games, the conference finals each year and the NBA Finals in six of the 11 years of the deal.
The European countries are new as Prime Video is already streaming games in Mexico and Brazil.
In an April letter to shareholders, Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Prime Video had more than 200 million monthly viewers.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said during the past year leading up to negotiations that expanding steaming options, as well as expanding reach globally, were major objectives for the new media deals.
“The digital opportunities with Amazon align perfectly with the global interest in the NBA,” Silver said in a statement announcing the agreement. “And Prime Video’s massive subscriber base will dramatically expand our ability to reach our fans in new and innovative ways.”
The addition of the NBA furthers Prime Video’s rapid expansion into sports in the U.S. Besides going into its third season with the NFL and “Thursday Night Football” this year, Prime Video also carries the WNBA and NWSL. Prime Video also has a five-race NASCAR package next season, with the first race being the Coca-Cola 600 next May 25.
“We’re excited about how far we’ve come and in a relatively short time frame. I would say the conversations with leagues have changed in that now that they’ve seen what we’ve done and proven they are comfortable,” Marine said.
___
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba
By JOE REEDY
AP Sports Writer