The NBA’s new broadcast partners will cover every corner of the United States come next season.
That’s because Amazon’s Prime Video plans to make their studios in Los Angeles, California “home base” for its NBA coverage. At the Sports Business Journal Media Innovators conference on Wednesday, Prime Video Head of Sports Programming Jeff Kaiser suggested that Amazon’s NBA studio is “very likely to be built at Amazon Studios in L.A., in Culver City. It’ll be an L.A.-based studio show.”
For the NBA, that means its studio programming will originate from all across the country starting next year; Amazon in Los Angeles, NBC in Stamford, Connecticut, ESPN in Bristol, Connecticut, and the continuation of TNT’s Inside the NBA in Atlanta.
Despite its several year run of airing live NFL games, the idea of building out a studio and broadcast station is a new one for Amazon. Thursday Night Football is a once-a-week endeavor and takes its studio crew on the road rather than being based in one place. Amazon’s new NBA package presents different challenges considering it will air approximately 100 games over the course of a season.
Adding to that challenge is that all production for Prime Video’s NBA and WNBA coverage will be done internally. That means building out an entire cast and a team of behind-the-scenes people to go along with its new studio space.
Luckily for Amazon, the Los Angeles area is flush with talent possessing those skill sets.
