HBO Max to Broadcast NBA Games in the US, What About Spain?

At the moment the option will only be available in the US and there are no details about its potential arrival in Spain

Other platforms are moving in that direction and Prime Video, which has agreements with LaLiga, is one of the most prominent in our country

September 21, 2023, 1:05 pm – Updated September 21, 2023, 1:49 pm

It was not enough for HBO Max (now simply ‘Max’) to have some of the best series in the history of television and to have a wide catalog of movies. The lean times of streaming are causing movements in this industry, and HBO Max has just made a spectacular one: it will broadcast NBA games.

The NBA, on (HBO) Max, but only in the US. The streaming platform has purchased the necessary rights to be able to broadcast 65 regular season games, the All-Star game and a good part of the playoffs. It is, at least for that first team, a small fraction of the games played during the regular phase, which are 1,230.

And in Spain, what? This offer will be activated for the moment in the United States, and that means that in Spain we cannot enjoy the NBA through Max. However, we are still able to access those games thanks to the Movistar Plus offer — which broadcasts a game every Sunday, in addition to the All-Star and the playoffs—. This service has been available independently for a few weeks and it is not necessary to be a Movistar customer to enjoy it. The other great alternative to watch NBA games in Spain is through the so-called NBA ‘League Pass’.

First free, then paid. As indicated in Deadline, on October 5th this new format will debut in the United States with those accounts that for $10 a month in the promotional period will include live sports from the Bleacher Report (B/R) platform. Then, starting February 29, 2024, they will have to pay an additional $10 to enjoy that content. The B/R service could be contracted independently, but now it can only be enjoyed as part of the Max subscription, as a kind of optional “Channel”.

Not just the NBA. The proposal highlights the broadcast of NBA games, but these subscribers will also be able to watch NHL, MLB and NCAA college basketball games. There will be other sporting events such as the 24 hours of Le Mans or US soccer league matches.

Live sports to revolutionize streaming. HBO Max thus follows an increasingly important trend in the world of streaming. Series and movies will now be complemented by sports broadcasts. The aforementioned Movistar Plus is a good example, but there are certainly many others.

Amazon Prime Video. This platform closed an agreement in 2022 to broadcast LaLiga matches, and in France it has the broadcasting rights of the highest national football competition. It had previously experimented with these same broadcasts in the United Kingdom, and its agreement with the Premier League is one of the attractions for subscribers in that country. In the US they have specific agreements to broadcast NFL or MLB games.

Apple TV+. Apple’s streaming service has also bet heavily on live sports, and owns the rights to the NFL and MLS. Precisely this competition has been an interesting stimulus for the platform, especially thanks to the commercial agreement they have reached with Messi.

Paramount Plus / SkyShowtime. At the moment there does not seem to be any movement in Spain, but in the United States and Latin America there have already been agreements in the field of live sports broadcasts. In the US, for example, matches from the UEFA Champions League and the Europa League, the Italian Serie A, the Argentine First Division, the Brazilian Championship, the National Women’s Soccer League and the Scottish Premiership are broadcast. In that country there are also NFL or golf broadcasts.

Netflix. The reference streaming platform is curiously somewhat more timid in this sense. In the conversation with investors when presenting the results of the second fiscal quarter Ted Sarandos, its CEO, explained that “we believe that we can offer sports fans a really solid offer on Netflix without having to participate in the difficulties of the concession economic model. of live sports licenses”. For now they broadcast documentaries, but not live broadcasts.

That could change. The firm is preparing the live broadcast of a golf tournament in November in the US, and according to The Wall Street Journal they are thoroughly studying the possibility of getting into that bet of live sports broadcasting. They already made an offer for F1 that didn’t work out, and if everything progresses as it seems, it is very likely that Netflix will end up wanting to be in this war as well.

Threat to the world’s DAZNs. The entry of the traditional streaming majors into this market is a threat to platforms specialized in live sports broadcasts such as DAZN, Eurosport or FuboTV. Not counting specific future bets such as LaLiga’s OTT bet, which has been in development for years and now offers LaLiga+, which broadcasts handball, volleyball or petanque seasons, in addition to league matches and soccer championships such as the Libertadores or the Austrian Bundesliga.

Image | Jorge gonzalez

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2023-09-21 11:05:00
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