Watching the NBA isn’t as easy and straightforward as it used to be. We’re in the first year of the NBA’s new media deal, which has games from different networks and streaming services this season and in the playoffs. With some games airing on Prime Video and Peacock and others on ABC, NBC and ESPN, it’s no longer as easy as flipping through several channels to find a game.
For example, if you were to turn on your TV this week to watch a sports tournament, you wouldn’t find any games on your regular cable, satellite or. live TV streaming service. Instead, you would need to know how to navigate your way to Prime Video, which shows all the games being played.
Xfinity is trying to make watching NBA basketball more immersive and has used NBA All-Star Tyrese Maxey as an ambassador for Xfinity NBA in this effort.
I interviewed Maxey about working with Xfinity, growing up in Dallas and what sports he follows outside of basketball. I also spoke with Vito Forlenza, vice president of sports entertainment at Comcast, about what Xfinity is doing to make it less of a chore for fans to watch 2026 NBA playoffs.
Xfinity Sports Zone puts the entire NBA in one place
Comcast wants its Xfinity platform to serve as a sports hub for its subscribers. Similar to what it did for the Winter Olympics earlier this year, it has set up the Xfinity Sports Zone where it brings together all the live and upcoming games for each day of the NBA playoffs. But while Comcast has exclusive Olympics rights to NBC and Peacock, it shares NBA rights with Disney (ABC/ESPN) and Amazon (Prime Video). In Xfinity’s Sports Zone, you’ll not only find NBA playoff games broadcast on NBC and Peacock, but you’ll also see what games are being shown on ABC, ESPN and Prime Video.
However, you’ll need a separate subscription to Xfinity to watch games on Prime Video, but Xfinity shows the day’s full schedule, regardless of channel or streaming service.
“The sports environment is very diverse, and the NBA with this new agreement is taking it to another level,” said Forlenza. “How do we make sure that if you’re an NBA fan, it doesn’t apply to you?”
With Xfinity’s NBA Sports Zone, fans will be able to see which games are on which arenas and can customize their viewing by selecting their favorite team. In addition to live and upcoming games, the Xfinity hub will feature full-game highlights and NBA podcasts as well as documentaries, shows, clips and other NBA content from ESPN, NBA TV and elsewhere.
NBA Sports Zone for Xfinity puts all things basketball in one place.
Fan View and Multiview
Once you start watching a game on Xfinity, there is a panel called Fan View that allows you to keep an eye on the scores from the league and check the stats of the game you are watching. Fan View is also useful for Xfinity because it keeps you staring at your TV screen instead of your phone checking scores and stats, so you don’t end up scrolling through Instagram and TikTok instead of watching the game.
Fan View displays live scores, statistics, standings and odds on the sidelines, allowing you to keep watching the game. The slider panel comes out on the right side of your TV screen and allows you to navigate up, down and left and right with your remote control. “We took the patterns that are on the cell phones that everyone is used to and put them on the set-top box,” said Forlenza.
The Xfinity Fan View Panel allows you to check scores, stats and standings and customize your mulitview quad box.
Fan View also allows you to edit your own, personal multiview. Most streaming services offer customized multiviews that allow you to watch four games at once in a two-by-two grid, but Xfinity’s multiview offers both a quad-box grid, which it calls a Tile view, and a Spotlight view that prioritizes one of four windows. In Spotlight, you can place your favorite game in a large window on the left, with three smaller windows stacked on the right. And even in plain view, you can move the sound to any of the four games.
Maxey likes the convenience of Xfinity’s multiview, telling me, “It brings everything into one place and makes it very easy. You can watch multiple times. [games] in four scenes.”
Multiview lets you select games from any channel in your Xfinity lineup, but it won’t let you bundle games from Peacock or Prime Video.
In Spotlight View, Xfinity’s multiview lets you prioritize one game over three others.
What’s in Tyrese Maxey’s multiview?
As he left the court, Maxey said, “I watch basketball all day, every day.” Beyond basketball, he is a huge sports fan in general and uses multiview to watch everything from golf to boxing. Baseball rarely makes it to the grid, however, because it prefers to go to the ballpark and hold its own in the nation’s pastime. I agree with this take; few things in life are more relaxing and enjoyable than spending a summer night at a baseball game.
The Dallas native didn’t grow up a fan of his hometown Mavericks but focused on certain players, starting with Dwyane Wade and another Hall of Fame point guard in Allen Iverson. After Iverson retired, Maxey became a fan of Kyrie Irving and now plays against the nine-time All-Star.
Multiview is useful during the NBA playoffs, so you can watch the NBA playoffs this spring alongside the NHL playoffs, French Open, PGA Championship, WNBA and other sports. It will also come in handy for the World Cup this summer, but it really earns its keep on Sunday during the NFL season when there are so many games going on at once.
In the fall, Maxey likes to watch football, and you can bet the Dallas Cowboys are prominent in many of his viewings. “I’m a Cowboys fan by default,” Maxey said. “If you’re from Dallas, you should be a Cowboys fan.”
