Inside Amazon Prime Video’s Sports-Heavy Upfront Ad Pitch: Top Sales Exec Danielle Carney Says NBA Debut Highlights “Pivotal Year”

deadline.com:

As much of ad sales milestone as 2024 was for Amazon’s Prime Video, 2025 figures to be even bigger thanks to the addition of NBA and WNBA games to the slate. “This is a pivotal year for us,” Danielle Carney, Amazon’s Head of US Video and Live Sports Sales, told Deadline in an interview. “We are transitioning from a single-sport upfront to a multi-sport upfront, so our conversations this year will not be focused on just one sport.” Last year, which was the third of an 11-year exclusive deal with the NFL for Thursday Night Football, Prime Video also began putting ads on films and series for the first time.

The tech giant hosted its first upfront presentation for advertisers, a splashy affair in New York last spring. With ratings momentum building for the NFL and more traction for originals, the company exceeded its internal projection of $1.8 billion in upfront ad revenue. (It doesn’t break out full-year video ad totals.) The arrival of the NBA and WNBA this fall as an 11-year deal tips off will give Prime multiple nights of sports during the fall, plus top-tier live games in most of a given calendar year.

In May and June, the platform will also carry five straight NASCAR Cup races. It also has rights to several dozen New York Yankees baseball games.

Carney said discussions with advertisers about the NBA have been very active, especially because the deal includes a studio show with enhanced sponsorship opportunities compared with the NFL.