TAYLOR ROOKS will be the face of Amazon Prime’s NBA coverage when the streaming giant begins broadcasting late next year.
Rooks, 32, has provided long form features for Prime Video on Thursday Night Football since 2022.
Amazon have been impressed with her work on Thursday Night Football[/caption]
The popular anchor has also hosted Taylor Rooks X for TNT Sports and the Two Personal podcast with Joy Taylor.
Since the start of this NBA season, she has been a sideline reporter for TNT and NBA TV.
But next year she will get the top presenting job on Amazon Prime, according to The Athletic.
The report states that there is a verbal agreement for Rooks to be the lead host of its NBA pregame, halftime and postgame shows.
Amazon did not comment but will begin broadcasting the world’s top basketball league from next season.
An 11-year, $20billion deal for NBA and WNBA rights was confirmed in November.
Amazon is set to report on 60 games per season – including an opening week double header.
They will air games on a Friday night all season – with a caveat that allows games to change – as well as on Thursday nights after the NFL season ends.
NBA games will be available to all Amazon Prime subscribers.
The tech firm will also show the entire knockout stage of the NBA Cup, as well as the semifinals and finals.
New rights deal
The NBA signed an 11-year deal with three networks for the league’s rights from the 2025-26 season.
And there will be no games on TNT for the first time since the network launched in 1988.
The Walt Disney Company will continue to show the league with 80 regular-season games across ESPN and ABC.
They will also show around 18 playoff games from the first and second round, a Conference Finals series for 10 of the 11 years, and remain the home of the NBA Finals.
NBC will return as an NBA broadcaster for the first time since 2002.
The network will show up to 100 games per season across it’s channels and Peacock streaming service.
It will also be the home of NBA All-Star and show approximately 28 playoff games from the first and second round.
NBC will show one Conference Finals Series for six of the 11 years, rotating with new broadcaster Amazon Prime.
Amazon will show 66 NBA regular-season games including one on Black Friday.
The streaming service is also the home of the latter stages of the NBA Cup and the entire Play-In Tournament.
Prime will also broadcast around one third of the playoff games in the first and second round.
During the playoffs they will broadcast 14 to 26 games per season in the first two rounds, along with three Eastern Conference finals and three Western Conference finals over the 11-year deal.
In years where they don’t have an NFL game on Black Friday, Amazon also has the rights to air an NBA game instead.
Alongside Rooks, Ian Eagle is set to be the lead game-caller for NBA coverage.
It has also been reported that Dirk Nowitzki is closing in on a deal to launch his broadcasting career with Amazon.
