Business 4 min read By Morgan Griffin
Atlanta Hawks to Stream Full Regular Season on Prime Video in NBA First
The Atlanta Hawks will become the first NBA team to stream their entire local regular-season schedule, with 74 of 82 games available exclusively on Prime Video in a five-state region while Gray Media simulcasts on local broadcast TV.
The Atlanta Hawks will become the first NBA team to stream its full local regular-season schedule, announcing a deal with Amazon Prime Video that puts 74 of the team's 82 games behind the streamer's paywall across a five-state region. The arrangement, which begins with the 2026-2027 season, marks a significant shift in how professional basketball teams distribute their local rights.
Under the agreement, Prime Video will hold digital exclusivity for the 74 games not carried by national broadcasters, while Gray Media will air the same games on local broadcast television in simulcast. The remaining eight games fall under the league's national television packages. The deal was confirmed by Andrew Saltzman, the Hawks' president of business enterprise and chief commercial officer.
The five-state footprint gives the Hawks a regional reach that extends well beyond metro Atlanta, and the parallel distribution model means fans will not need a cable subscription to follow the team, but they will need either a Prime Video subscription or access to a Gray Media station. The structure effectively splits the audience between streaming and over-the-air viewers while keeping both feeds synchronized.
The move reflects a broader reordering of sports media economics, in which teams and leagues are increasingly selling direct-to-consumer streaming rights alongside or instead of traditional regional sports networks. For the NBA, the Hawks deal is a test case: no other team has yet handed its entire local regular-season inventory to a single streaming platform. The league has been watching how teams navigate the collapse of the regional sports network model, which left many franchises with reduced broadcast revenue and frustrated fans unable to watch games.
For Amazon, the Hawks agreement adds a full-season NBA package to a sports portfolio that already includes NFL Thursday Night Football and other live events. The company has been aggressive in acquiring live sports as a way to drive Prime subscriptions and advertising revenue. A full regular-season slate from a single team gives the streamer a recurring weekly audience in a defined geographic market, a more predictable asset than one-off events.
For Gray Media, the deal preserves local broadcast access, a crucial point for fans without broadband or streaming subscriptions. The broadcaster gains live sports content that can attract advertisers seeking the Hawks' regional audience. The simulcast arrangement also means Gray stations in the five-state region will carry the games, extending the team's reach into markets that might not otherwise receive local coverage.
The financial terms were not disclosed. It remains unclear how the deal affects the Hawks' previous local rights arrangements or whether other NBA teams will pursue similar full-season streaming agreements. The team has not announced pricing details for Prime Video subscribers beyond the standard subscription, and it is not yet known whether the games will be available on the ad-supported tier of the service.
The Hawks' experiment will be closely watched across the sports industry. If the model succeeds, it could accelerate the migration of local sports rights from regional networks to streaming platforms, reshaping the revenue streams that underpin team valuations and player salaries. For now, the Hawks are first, and the rest of the league is watching.
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