In this article, we look at how to watch the NBA in Central America, which service carries what, and what it costs.
If you’re a fan of the hoops, good times are coming for you. After preseason finishes this week, the NBA season tips off on October 20, and it’s worth working out your setup before it does. If you’re watching the games at home, no single service carries the whole thing, and the one you pick determines which games you get on which nights.
Opening night is a good example. There are three games, and the middle one is LeBron James making his Philadelphia debut at Madison Square Garden while the Knicks raise their championship banner. Unfortunately, it’s also the only night of the season not covered by Amazon and ESPN/Disney+ (the two services providing coverage down here), so unless you’ve got League Pass, you’ll be heading to a bar.
The reason is the rights split. In the US the NBA is divided between ESPN, NBC, and Amazon. Opening night is on NBC, which doesn’t operate in Central America at all. So after the first night, how can you watch all the action in Central America?
ESPN and Disney+
ESPN is the main route for most people, and throughout Central America, it comes via your cable package or streamed through the Disney+ app.
If you don’t have Disney+, check your cable lineup before anything. A standard Costa Rican package generally comes with six ESPN channels on it, and if yours is similar, the basketball is already on your TV without paying for anything new. In Belize, DigiTV also carries NBA TV, the league’s own channel, which doesn’t turn up on lineups elsewhere in the region.
Starting from October 21, ESPN has Wednesday and Friday nights through the season, the five Christmas Day games, the Western Conference playoffs, and the NBA Finals in June. Disney+ carries the same games through its ESPN section. Look for the ESPN tab along the top, then the NBA page inside it. You get a proper schedule there, listing fixtures with dates and times, and it matches what turns up on the cable channels.
Worth mentioning here that commentary is in Spanish, with games tagged “En Español” in the listings. That may or may not be a game breaker for you. If it is, you’re probably better off with the League Pass.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime carries Thursday, Friday, and Saturday games through the regular season, the Play-In tournament in April, and the Eastern Conference playoffs. It also features the entire NBA Cup including the knockout rounds and the final, running from late October to mid-December. The NBA Cup isn’t on ESPN at all, so if that’s all you have and your team goes deep, you won’t see them.
Full Amazon Prime is $14.99 a month or $139 a year, both after a 30-day free trial. If all you want is the basketball, Prime Video Only is $8.99 a month and carries exactly the same games. There’s also a young adults plan at $7.49 a month after a six-month free trial, which covers most of the regular season. The NBA has its own section inside Prime Video, listing fixtures with local tip-off times, and some games are available on the free trial if you want to test it before paying.
Amazon’s season starts on Friday October 23 with the Knicks against the Celtics, then the Rockets against the Spurs the same night.
NBA League Pass
If you want everything, League Pass is the NBA’s own service, and it carries every game live and on demand. That means every regular season game including opening night, the NBA Cup, the play-in, the playoffs, and the finals.
There are two ways to buy it. The first is through your phone company, billed to your account and activated by text. Claro sells it in El Salvador at $9.99 a month, in Guatemala at Q76.99, and in Nicaragua at C$365.88, both around ten dollars, all with a seven-day free trial. Kölbi does the same in Costa Rica at ₡10,000, around nineteen dollars, because, you know, Costa Rica is more expensive than its neighbors for essentially everything. Belize, Honduras, and Panama aren’t on the NBA’s list of countries with a carrier partner.
One problem though. If you do this, it’s through the NBA phone app only, so if you want to watch the games on TV, this isn’t the way.
You can also buy direct from the NBA, which is built for multiple devices. Expect somewhere around twenty dollars a month for the standard tier, though exact prices are set per country, so open the NBA site wherever you are to check. There’s a Premium tier above the standard one that drops the commercials, allows three devices rather than one, and adds offline downloads. If you’re in Costa Rica, you might as well do this instead of through Kölbi, as it’s around the same price and you have more ways to watch. Elsewhere in the region, it’s a judgment call based on your viewing preferences and how much you want to spend.
League Pass is also sold through Prime Video as an add-on channel, if you’d rather keep the basketball in one app.
Or Just Go to a Bar
If you’d rather not subscribe to anything, the NBA isn’t hard to find. Basketball has a real following across the region, and you’ll see hoops in parks and plazas everywhere. Plenty of bars will have games on, albeit in Spanish. Expat bars, or places popular with Americans, are a safer bet if you want English commentary.
It’s also the answer for opening night if you don’t have the League Pass. If you want to see Lebron’s Philadelphia debut, your best bet is a bar, though call ahead rather than turning up and hoping.
Most games tip off in the evening local time, which makes for a good night out.
