As the Atlanta Hawks prepare to tip-off their season Wednesday against the Orlando Magic, the team has moved to create one of the more fan-friendly streaming arrangements in the entire league.
The Hawks announced Tuesday that all local broadcasts will stream on Amazon Prime Video for fans within the team’s regional footprint at no extra cost. Anyone with an active Prime Video subscription, included with a standard Amazon Prime subscription, who lives in the Hawks’ territory spanning Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Mississippi can stream the team’s games directly on the platform.
The deal instantly makes the Hawks one of the most accessible NBA teams to stream this year. A standalone Prime Video subscription will cost Hawks fans $54 over the six-month regular season. By comparison, most other NBA teams charge more than $100 for a season-long subscription to their local broadcasts, with some charging over $200. Perhaps the only better streaming situation in the league comes from the Miami Heat, which will stream games on a direct-to-consumer app called Local 10 Plus Platinum for free.
The Hawks are one of 13 NBA teams forced to arrange new local broadcast deals this offseason after Main Street Sports Group, owner of the FanDuel-branded regional sports networks, collapsed. Many of these teams have moved to local deals with over-the-air affiliates and paired them with a streaming option. The Hawks are among this group, having announced a television deal with Gray Media in July.
While these deals typically benefit fans, many of whom can now access their team’s local broadcasts for free via antenna, the teams stand to lose millions in media revenue previously earned from regional sports networks. Team executives hope the increased accessibility will lead to more lucrative advertising partnerships, higher merchandising sales, and more people in the arena. Whether the limited data from teams that have already made the switch supports that is unclear.
Viewership for teams that shift from cable-based regional sports networks to over-the-air networks is up across the board. So for teams willing to sacrifice some local revenue to reach more fans, moving to over-the-air is a decent tradeoff.
Financial terms of the Hawks’ Prime Video deal were not reported. The deal also reportedly has an out after this season as the NBA prepares to debut its streaming hub ahead of the 2027-28 campaign.
Next year, the NBA plans to launch an aggregated local streaming hub to cover most (or all) of its 29 U.S.-based teams. YouTube is reportedly the frontrunner for the package, though London-based streaming service DAZN is also expected to vie for the rights. Prime Video, which already houses NBA League Pass, the league’s out-of-market streaming service, has also been mentioned as a potential destination for the in-market hub.
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