In a first for an NBA team, the Atlanta Hawks will stream their full regular season (apart from nationally broadcast games) on Amazon Prime Video in simulcasts with local broadcast TV.
The streamer will have the digital exclusive for 74 games of the full 82 on the schedule, with local broadcast group Gray Media airing them on WANF-TV and other free platforms. Only viewers within the team’s five-state footprint, which includes Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, South Carolina, and Mississippi, will have access to the telecasts.
The ultimate number of local games can fluctuate based on the team’s win/loss record, but 74 is the projected tally. The Hawks open their 2026-27 season on Wednesday.
The streaming move follows the dissolution of Main Street Sports, one of the largest and most troubled regional sports network groups. Across leagues, college conferences and regions of the U.S., the collapse of RSNs in all but the top handful of markets has prompted a paradigm shift in the thinking around rights management on linear TV and streaming.
Prime Video has been swooping in on a lot of rights caught up in the RSN mess, streaming games of more than 30 teams across Major League Baseball and the NBA, NHL and WNBA. It has exclusive rights to seven NHL teams and now the Hawks in the NBA.
Andrew Saltzman, President of Business Enterprise and Chief Commercial Officer for the Hawks and State Farm Arena, told Deadline in an interview that the team viewed the demise of Main Street as a chance to regroup.
“We didn’t want to be in the direct-to-subscription selling business,” he said. “We wanted to be in the ubiquity business.” The return of local TV as a destination for live sports made the Gray arrangement “a really interesting lane” alongside the Prime Video deal, he said. In some markets and sports, the streaming availability is not accompanied by a local linear alternative.
Saltzman added that Prime Video, which he called “an innovative and accessible pillar for both the NBA and NFL” in a statement, has pledged to help educate local fans about the option for them to watch games with a Prime subscription.
“Exclusively streaming the Atlanta Hawks as part of our growing local sports portfolio is another step forward in providing fans an easy, one-stop destination to watch the teams they love,” said Charlie Neiman, Head of Sports Partnerships, Prime Video. “The Hawks have demonstrated a forward-thinking approach to reaching and engaging their fans and share the same commitment to innovation that drives our organization. Together, we’re making it easier than ever for fans across the Southeast to watch their team.”