The NBA divides its television properties into two distinct categories. The league office collectively sells a package of national rights to major networks, while individual franchises keep the rights to broadcast their remaining games within their specific geographic home markets. The federal government made this split possible through the Sports Broadcasting Act. This legislation gave professional sports leagues the legal permission to act as a collective and sell national broadcast rights. Individual teams retained the ability to manage and sell their local exposure independently.
For decades, this two-tiered structure defined how fans consumed professional basketball. The league handled the premier matchups, and the teams handled the day-to-day schedule. Understanding the national television deals is necessary to see the full picture. Starting with the 2025–2026 season, the NBA entered an 11-year agreement with ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video. This specific contract ended the league’s nearly 36-year relationship with TNT. Any game not selected by these national partners falls back to the individual franchise to broadcast locally.
How the Local Broadcast System Works
Historically, individual teams sold their local broadcast rights to a Regional Sports Network (RSN). The team received a guaranteed annual fee from the network. In exchange, the RSN became the exclusive local television home for the team’s games. The RSN generated its revenue by charging cable and satellite providers monthly carriage fees. As of 2024, these fees often cost subscribers between three and eight dollars per month.
The cable providers then passed these costs down to the consumer. Every cable subscriber in a specific region subsidized the sports channel, regardless of whether they actually watched the games. Understanding the regional sports networks explains why the system was so profitable for teams. The franchises did not have to worry about nightly television ratings. They received their guaranteed money from the RSN, and the RSN extracted its money from the general cable bundle.
This system required strict territorial protection. To protect the RSN’s exclusivity, out-of-market streaming services like NBA League Pass enforced localized blackouts. If a viewer lived in the home market of a team, the streaming service blacked out the local games. The RSN demanded this restriction so local fans had to maintain a traditional cable subscription to watch their home team.
Why Teams Used the RSN Model
Teams prioritized financial security above all else. The guaranteed annual payouts from RSNs gave front offices predictable revenue streams to cover player salaries and facility operations. The arrangement worked perfectly as long as the majority of households maintained traditional cable television packages.
Consumers abandoned traditional cable packages rapidly over the last decade. RSNs lost their primary revenue stream. The business model relied heavily on non-sports fans subsidizing the cost of broadcast rights. Once non-fans cut the cord, the financial math broke down completely. Diamond Sports Group, which operated Bally Sports and eventually the FanDuel Sports Network, held the local rights to dozens of NBA, MLB, and NHL teams. The company entered a protracted bankruptcy battle in 2023. By early 2026, the reorganized entity—renamed Main Street Sports Group—announced plans to wind down operations entirely. This collapse left 13 NBA teams without a regional broadcast partner.
The league had to restructure agreements with bankrupt regional carriers repeatedly just to keep games on the air during the transitional period. Franchises realized the guaranteed money era was over. They had to find a new way to reach their fans.
Famous Examples of Local Broadcast Shifts
With RSNs collapsing, many teams abandoned guaranteed rights fees. They shifted their focus to maximizing local viewership and advertising revenue. The Utah Jazz provided the blueprint for this transition in 2023. The franchise walked away from the traditional distribution system entirely. The Jazz moved their games to a free over-the-air (OTA) television channel and simultaneously launched a direct-to-consumer streaming app. This single decision increased their local-audience reach from 39 percent of households to 100 percent of households.
Other franchises quickly copied the Utah model. Ahead of the 2024–2025 season, the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans exited the collapsing broadcast structure associated with Diamond Sports. Both teams shifted their games to OTA networks like Gray Television and built dedicated streaming platforms for their local fans. This reach-over-revenue strategy forces teams to sell their own advertising, but it ensures every fan in the market can easily access the broadcasts.
The league office also stepped in. Anticipating the complete shutdown of Main Street Sports Group in early 2026, the NBA aggressively explored launching a centralized national streaming hub. This hub would aggregate local broadcast rights for the future. The league entered talks with major tech platforms, including YouTube TV, DAZN, and Amazon, to house local games for a consortium of opted-in franchises. If implemented, the hub would operate much like NFL Sunday Ticket, but specifically designed for local NBA markets.
Common Misconceptions
Fans often blame the NBA directly for local blackouts on League Pass. The league did not invent blackouts to punish fans. The RSNs contractually mandated these blackouts to protect their exclusive broadcast territory. If the NBA allowed local fans to stream games on League Pass, the RSNs would lose their leverage to charge cable companies high carriage fees.
The shift toward a localized streaming hub creates a new logistical problem regarding League Pass. Since League Pass is explicitly designed for out-of-market viewing and is hosted by Amazon, launching an in-market streaming equivalent requires the NBA to negotiate a complicated overhaul. The league might have to eliminate the current iteration of League Pass altogether to prevent duplication between the out-of-market product and the new in-market streaming hub.
Another common misconception is that over-the-air broadcasting is entirely new. Free local broadcasts were the standard for sports before the rise of cable television in the 1980s and 1990s. The recent shift by teams like the Jazz and Mavericks is actually a return to the original sports broadcasting model, augmented by modern streaming apps.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are local NBA games included in NBA League Pass?
Historically, the answer is no. NBA League Pass provides access to out-of-market games but strictly blacks out games involving a user’s local market teams. This rule exists to protect the exclusivity of the local broadcaster or Regional Sports Network. However, as the NBA explores building a centralized streaming hub for local games as of 2026, this blackout system may eventually undergo restructuring or elimination.
Why are regional sports networks (RSNs) so expensive?
RSNs charge cable and satellite providers some of the highest per-subscriber retransmission fees in the television industry. These fees typically ranged from $3.50 to $8 per month as of 2024. The networks use the immense local demand for live professional sports to justify these fees, and the cable providers pass those costs directly onto consumers in their monthly bills.
Where can I watch nationally televised NBA games?
Beginning with the 2025–2026 season, the NBA’s primary national broadcast partners are ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video. This arrangement marked the start of an 11-year broadcasting agreement that officially ended the league’s 36-year relationship with TNT Sports.