It’s a bolt from the blue on the basketball planet. The NBA, the North American league, will be broadcast on Amazon Prime Video starting in 2025. An announcement that effectively excludes TNT, the historic broadcaster of the major league for years. The end of this call for tenders also brings back to the forefront NBC, the broadcaster of the NBA during its “golden age” in the 90s.
It should be noted, however, that this call for tenders only concerns the overseas broadcasting of the NBA; in France, it is still Bein Sport which has the majority of rights for basketball matches broadcast live every night or almost every night and delayed the following morning.
The linear channel will nevertheless have to face Prime Video, which recovers 66 regular season games, the entire “play-in” as well as a third of the series of the first and semi-finals of the conference playoffs. Bein Sport therefore sees its bouquet, always substantial, divided by two. Sole broadcaster of the NBA since 2012, it will be interesting to see how the Qatari channel will manage this unprecedented competition.
A subscription like the Ligue 1 Pass?
The broadcasting of the NBA in France nevertheless raises several questions. Will Amazon Prime Video leave the matches visible to all (as for Rolland Garos), or will it be necessary to pay a supplement as was the case for the Ligue 1 Pass? In the columns of the Team, we learn that this hypothesis seems to be favored for the moment. After several years of broadcasting French football, Prime Video would therefore turn to sports
US and first and foremost basketball. With the arrival of many French players in the NBA, like Victor Wembanyama to name but one, Amazon Prime Video wants to capitalize on this French presence in the big league.
A decision still pending
The arrival of Amazon Prime Video is not, however, conditional. While the brand has obtained the broadcasting rights for the North American league, several historic players such as Warner Bros have announced their intention to take the matter to court.
They claim to have financially “covered” Amazon’s offer, which, according to the contracts that bind them with the NBA, should give them the right to broadcast the championship. It is now up to the American justice system to decide this legal issue. Depending on the reaction of the authorities across the Atlantic, the solution could also evolve in France. For the moment, Bein Sports, the big loser of this announcement, has not reacted officially.
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