If your basketball media plan looks the same as it did a few years ago, you're leaving significant value on the table. And your competitors may already be pulling away.
According to EDO's 2025-26 Basketball TV Outcomes Report, no sport in Convergent TV is growing across more dimensions. Across the NBA, WNBA, and men's and women's college hoops, the average basketball ad generated 4.1x as much impact as the average primetime broadcast and cable ad — up 13% from last season.
Between a blockbuster NBA Finals, the league's streaming debut on Amazon Prime Video, and continued audience growth across college and professional women’s basketball, the sport's advertising playbook has expanded to create new opportunities for brands across categories.
The biggest story of the 2025-26 basketball season was the Knicks-Spurs NBA Finals, a rematch 27 years in the making. The showdown captivated two of the sport's most passionate fan bases, and advertisers saw the benefits. The average Finals ad generated 132x as much total impact as the average primetime spot, nearly doubling last year's already-impressive figure.
The NBA's broader season was strong across the board, too. Ads during regular-season and playoff games drove 9.6x the primetime impact, up 23% year over year. And brands that leaned into contextual strategies found particular success. Cutwater Spirits, for instance, concentrated its NBA airings on the league's Christmas Day slate, featuring its White Russian cocktail in a festive, product-focused creative that drove 582% more engagement than the average NBA regular-season ad.
The NBA's first season on Amazon Prime Video was one of this year's most closely watched media developments — and the outcomes data shows it was a win for brands. Ads on Prime were 14% more effective than the primetime benchmark on a per-person, per-second basis, and generated 6.1x as much total impact when accounting for audience size.
The playoff matchups on Prime were especially strong. All five of the streamer's most impactful games for advertisers came during the conference semifinals, led by the Cavaliers-Pistons Game 7, where ads delivered 35x the primetime impact.
Women's basketball continued to grow its footprint as a premium advertising environment. In the WNBA, total ad impressions climbed 12% year over year and overall ad impact grew 5%, even as a Finals sweep limited the league's postseason window. Meanwhile, ads featuring the league's current and former stars — including Aliyah Boston, A'ja Wilson, Cameron Brink, and Caitlin Clark — proved effective not just during WNBA games but across all of TV, in some cases outperforming their in-league results.
On the college side, women's NCAA basketball impressions grew 9% year over year, and the championship game delivered 28x the primetime impact — a 77% jump from the prior year's final. Brands like Skechers, Walmart, and Dairy Queen were among those that drove outsized results during the regular season, proving that the women's game rewards advertisers well beyond the tournament window.
From the NBA's streaming expansion to the WNBA's rising star power to March Madness delivering for fast-food and retail brands alike, this past season showed that basketball's value to advertisers keeps compounding. The brands that understand where the most engaged audiences are — and show up with the right creative — are the ones seeing the biggest returns.
For the full breakdown of the season's top brands, creatives, and strategies, download EDO's 2025-26 Basketball TV Outcomes Report.