The media company already owns part of the rights to other major North American sports competitions, such as the National Hockey League (NHL) or the National Football League (NFL).
After acquiring two audiovisual rights from the National Hockey League (NHL), Amazon is getting closer to acquiring a part of the audiovisual rights of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
If achieved, it will become one of the largest players in the sector, owning the rights to the four main men’s professional sports leagues in North America. since the online sales and streaming giant closed a two-year agreement with the NHL to broadcast games on Mondays in Canada, starting with the 2024-2025 season, creating a new Prime Monday Night Hockey program.
Amazon also reached an agreement with the NHL franchise, Seattle Kraken, to stream the ice hockey team matches in Prime Video in Washington State, Oregon and AlaskaThe company, meanwhile, is separately closing a deal to acquire a portion of the NBA’s domestic rights. The above agreements are in addition to the long-term rights that Amazon already has with the National Football League (NFL) for Thursday Night Football and one regional of streaming with the New York Yankees of Major League Baseball (MLB) to broadcast 21 games this season.
Amazon also has an agreement with Diamond Sports Group that, if the regional sports network operator’s reorganization bid is approved, will provide financing to emerge from bankruptcy in exchange for an equity stake and an additional set of regional broadcast rights. .
In that sense, if the acquisition of part of the basketball rights is successful, Amazon would have a set of rights relationships in the United States between the most popular sports properties in the country, only rivaled by ESPN, which owns the national rights to the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL.
Compared to the Disney-owned broadcaster, Amazon is creating a mix of national and regional rights. However, all other television networks and services streaming lack one or more of those major leagues in their respective rights portfolios. Likewise, it is expected that the North American giant of online sales and streaming Make your presentation to advertisers on May 14.
Source: Ambito
I am Pierce Boyd, a driven and ambitious professional working in the news industry. I have been writing for 24 Hours Worlds for over five years, specializing in sports section coverage. During my tenure at the publication, I have built an impressive portfolio of articles that has earned me a reputation as an experienced journalist and content creator.
