Opinion: NBA 2025: A New Era of Media Rights. How Amazon and ESPN Are Redefining the Game Off the Court
Calendar icon Updated 05 Sep 07:23

Opinion: NBA 2025: A New Era of Media Rights. How Amazon and ESPN Are Redefining the Game Off the Court

Kaleb Vanderhorst

The NBA’s historic $76 billion media rights deal is so much more than just a new financial agreement — it’s a full transformation aimed at positioning basketball at the forefront of media. Namely, the NBA is looking to get into the streaming world, with Amazon and ESPN leading a fundamental change in how Americans consume live sports.

For the first time in what feels like forever, something about how we engage with NBA media has actually shifted. The league’s landmark 11-year, $76 billion media rights agreement with Disney (ESPN/ABC), NBCUniversal, and Amazon Prime Video could change basketball, or at least its media presence. However, the long-term impact remains to be seen. 

The Shift to Streaming

When NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the new media partnerships in July 2024, the deal was a nearly threefold increase from the previous $24 billion agreement. But the numbers, even with how big they are, really don’t tell the full story here. Instead of streaming being a little side thing here and there, they’re going to focus all of their attention on it. 

This seemingly random change came from a strategic phone call in mid-April, when ESPN and TNT Sports agreed to allow Silver to bring in Amazon as a third rights partner. That move showed that even traditional broadcasters themselves recognize the inevitable shift toward digital distribution

It’s almost like the final nail in the coffin for traditional television, the last holdout finally giving in. The future of sports consumption is streaming-first, and those who don’t adapt will be left watching from the bench.

How is Amazon Making This Work?

Amazon’s $1.8 billion annual investment in NBA rights is yet another arm of the monster that is Amazon, making its ecosystem basically synonymous with Western life at this point. It’s getting a little ridiculous. With exclusive coverage of 66 regular-season games, the Emirates NBA Cup, and significant playoff content, Amazon is creating appointment television for its Prime ecosystem.

The integration of Amazon’s “Shop the Show” feature with NBA programming will put basketball content front and centre, but at a cost. This could be more expensive for the average fan in the long run, but for now, nobody really seems to care. They aim to capture the people migrating from TV to streaming, particularly the older crowd.

Amazon’s global approach is equally telling, with expanded packages across Mexico, Brazil, France, Italy, Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, combined with strategic partnership rights for NBA League Pass distribution internationally. 

While traditional broadcasters are confined to small domestic markets, Amazon’s global reach allows it to leverage its existing infrastructure in over 240 countries, exporting American basketball culture worldwide.

This, however, is a massive win for the NBA itself, as it could potentially attract millions of new viewers worldwide who might have never tuned in otherwise — unless the game was put right in front of their faces.

ESPN’s Defensive Strategy Pays Off

ESPN’s approach to the new NBA landscape demonstrates why it remains the undisputed champion of sports media. By securing exclusive rights to the NBA Finals and maintaining its core package at $2.6 billion annually, an 86% increase from its previous $1.4 billion deal, ESPN has protected its most valuable basketball real estate.

The timing of ESPN’s direct-to-consumer service launch in August 2025, offering unlimited access to all its networks for $29.99 per month, should also bring in a pretty penny for the NBA in the future. 

They’re being far less reactive than many other industries here, trying to strategically position themselves as a winner no matter what happens.

ESPN’s also kept the Christmas Day games, the NBA Draft, and key playoff programming, ensuring it remains the destination for basketball’s biggest moments.

So Where Can You Watch Basketball?

Fans looking for complete national NBA coverage will need subscriptions to Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, and ESPN’s streaming service if they want to avoid traditional TV entirely, which honestly sucks. 

It’s ridiculously fragmented. Sports fans may end up juggling a cable package, Amazon Prime, ESPN+, Peacock, and team-specific apps just to follow their teams throughout a single season

Despite the decline in NBC viewership and the increased cost burden on viewers, the higher prices reveal both the growing value of live sports to broadcasters and the impact of streaming on driving up sports licensing costs.

Traditional broadcasters face mounting pressure to compete with technology giants or risk being swallowed up, as people don’t want to pay for cable on top of streaming services.

Changing the Game

With streaming representing 44.8% of TV viewership as of May 2025, surpassing the combined 44.2% share of broadcast and cable for the first time, sports programming is riding the wave of an irreversible cultural shift.

The deals represent what many industry veterans describe as “a transfer of wealth from Hollywood to the sports leagues,” with agents and writers already expressing concerns about fewer TV shows being ordered as media companies redirect spending toward sports rights. This reallocation of entertainment budgets signals sports’ growing dominance in the attention economy.

For NBA players, the massive revenue increase will likely translate to higher salary caps and team valuations, while the league gains valuable data insights from streaming partnerships that traditional broadcast relationships couldn’t provide. Amazon’s consumer behaviour analytics and ESPN’s engagement metrics could be game-changing.

However, the biggest part of this has to be how the NBA is the first major American sports league to fully embrace streaming’s global potential. With the NBA already attracting a bigger worldwide audience than other major U.S. sports leagues, Amazon’s 200 million monthly global viewers are a massive audience that it could potentially grab. 

As digital sports viewership surpasses traditional TV for the first time ever, and with younger audiences increasingly consuming sports through highlights and clips rather than full games, the NBA seems to be putting itself in a decent spot to future-proof the league.

Looking Forward

The implications of this deal stretch far beyond basketball, with U.S. monthly sports streaming viewership projected to reach over 90 million by 2025, up from 57 million in 2021.

If this goes well, the NBA deal will serve as a blueprint for other leagues to follow, guiding them through the streaming shift. Perhaps it could even save the MLB.

The only real downside in the short term will be the decline in regional sports networks and potential impacts on local team coverage. The national rights deal highlights a decline in local media rights sales, making a global streaming approach increasingly necessary for league sustainability, though it still stings.

The NBA’s 2025 deal will, no doubt, go down as a turning point in sports media, but whether it’s for the better remains to be seen. Amazon brings technological innovation and global reach that traditional broadcasters can’t match, while ESPN leverages its sports media expertise, but will this be good for us, the fans?

The bottom line is this: this isn’t just about where to watch games, it’s a bigger shift in how sports, technology, and entertainment converge in an increasingly digital world. 

As we prepare for tip-off of this new era, one thing is certain: the game off the court has become just as compelling as the action on it. The players may change, but the revolution they’ve started will reshape sports entertainment for decades to come.

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