The NBC and the NBA have revived their partnership, and as part of this collaboration, Peacock, NBC‘s streaming platform, is launching a new mobile-first feature called Courtside Live. This feature is designed to function alongside traditional broadcast and gives Peacock viewers an unprecedented degree of production control by allowing them to swipe between multiple camera angles in real time, creating a more intimate experience of games.
The idea for Courtside Live was born out of a cross-functional team’s brainstorming session after NBC confirmed its new partnership agreement with the NBA. The team wanted to create a next-gen fan viewing experience that would allow fans to feel like they are sitting courtside. According to John Jelley, SVP of product and user experience for Peacock and global streaming at NBCUniversal, “One of the ideas that came up was what if we could actually create the experience of being courtside—what would that feel like?” The team presented the idea of a feature that allowed fans to flip through different camera views during a live matchup, both on their phone and TV.
The product team began testing Courtside Live during NBA Summer League games at Golden State in July 2025 and quickly realized a big hurdle to clear involved translating horizontally captured video into a vertical format that could live on mobile phones. To solve this, the team employed some Japanese technology that allows operators to make sure they’re delivering live feeds and they can make sure they’re focused on the elements that are most interesting. The team also designed the interface with one-handed use in mind, making standard interactions, like swiping through camera angles on mobile devices, intuitive.
Courtside Live is launching in earnest during the 75th NBA All-Star Game hosted at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles. The action will be captured by 50-plus cameras, more than 20 super-slow-motion cameras, and a flying cable camera. The NBC and Peacock teams are enthusiastic about what they’ll learn from their collaboration on this feature and its debut this weekend. They will be tracking each one of these angles and seeing how much people watch, how long in one view, how often do they come back.
The success of Courtside Live could have a significant impact on the future of live event experiences. According to John Jelley, “You can imagine how this could apply to other events, whether that’s some of our entertainment events like the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade [or] anywhere where we have lots of different angles or even some of our other shows.” The feature’s potential to scale beyond basketball to other live event experiences is vast, and NBC and Peacock are already exploring ways to extend it to other events.
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