Amazon to acquire NBA streaming rights

After the success of TNF (Thursday Night Football) when tech giant Amazon bought the rights to stream games, the NFL gained huge numbers in views as the Ecommerce company marketed TNF to younger viewers. According to Amazon's advertising page (advertising.amazon.com) the average TNF viewer age is 46 compared to the NFL's median viewers of 54, doing so by targeting the 18-34 market. The idea behind this acquisition is to make games more accessible, and for consumers to purchase what is advertised more easily.

Now the NFL is HUGE in the US, it counts for 90% of its viewers, the rest coming from Mexico, Brazil and South Korea. TNF was a great idea to improve streaming for everyone watching on Amazon, but especially American ones, since they make up such a large part of the viewership.

Compared to the NFL, a majority of the NBA's viewers come from abroad, mainly China, then followed by the US, and then Germany and the UK in Europe. The NBA's effort to expand abroad has been successful, in fact it boomed in the mid 90's with the help of Michael Jordan and the Chicago Bulls who were the most popular team in the world at the time. The addition of Yao Ming to the league in 2002 opened the doors to expand to China, gained millions of fans, notably for the Rockets where Yao Ming got drafted.

According to frontofficesports.com the NBA could become the biggest sports media in the world if they were to make a deal with either Amazon and Apple. If they were to go ahead and strike a deal, the NBA would become more global, more accessible and more profitable than ever.

A couple years ago, many people thought the NBA was going to go down, with LeBron James and KD aging, Harden injured, Westbrook declining, there seemed to only be Embiid, Doncic, Jokic and Antetokounmpo left to save the league, in addition to the splash brothers either swiping the league effortlessly or succumbing to injuries. Since then these young players have taken over the NBA, with KD and LeBron still playing at an All Star level. Finally, players like Trae Young and Anthony Edwards have imposed themselves as threats to opposing teams and set a fast pace NBA game we now know today.

The combination of hall of fame talent and accessibility to games with the help of Amazon or Apple could lead the NBA to one of the top sports all over the world. In my opinion they even have the potential to reach the same level of popularity as football and cricket.