As the NBA Finals come to a close, the league isn’t just crowning a champion; it’s preparing for a massive shakeup in how fans watch games locally. With a new 11-year, $76 billion national TV deal kicking in next season and the decline of traditional RSNs, change is on the horizon for teams, networks, and viewers alike.

FanDuel Sports Network: From Bankruptcy to Streaming Boom

Heading into next season, NBA fans can find more games over the air and streaming, as teams continue to ditch the old cable and pay TV RSN model that NBA commissioner Adam Silver once called “broken.” Main Street Sports Group, the parent company of FanDuel Sports Network, stands at a crossroads, as it has rights for 13 NBA teams, and according to sources in a new report from The Athletic, the RSN is open to “adding more teams or bringing teams it used to have the rights for.”

Previously, Main Street Sports CEO David Preschlack said his company is “open for business” on having conversations with other teams or RSNs interested in joining forces. After successfully emerging from Chapter 11 bankruptcy earlier this year, FanDuel Sports Network was able to retain the digital rights of 13 NBA franchises as long as it met certain conditions, per the report.

The Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Detroit Pistons, Indiana Pacers, LA Clippers, Memphis Grizzlies, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Oklahoma City Thunder, Orlando Magic, and San Antonio Spurs currently make up the FanDuel Sports Network NBA roster. The RSN has a multi-year agreement in place with each team and plans to hit one million streaming subscribers by the end of the year, according to the report.

Earlier this year, five NBA teams decided to opt into their FanDuel Sports Network contracts, which reportedly generated considerable amount of money for each club:

Since emerging from bankruptcy, FanDuel Sports Network has made waves in in-market streaming after securing a distribution deal with Amazon, which allows in-market fans to stream local NBA, NHL, and MLB games on the platform. Next season, fans may not be able to stream local games via Amazon, as the league only agreed to a one-year deal, per the report. Teams who have left FanDuel Sports Networks in recent years to start their own RSN and streaming platforms include the Phoenix Suns, New Orleans Pelicans, Dallas Mavericks, and Portland Trail Blazers.

Local TV Revenue and How Teams Are Betting on Accessibility

With local TV rights being an important income stream for teams, navigating outside of the traditional RSN broadcast model has proven difficult, with one team executive telling The Athletic that it is “worse than cable.”

However, not every NBA executive or franchise feels that way. After switching to the local OTA model, the Utah Jazz lost nearly 50% of their revenue, according to owner Ryan Smith. However, their accessibility and reach have increased dramatically since launching their streaming platform Jazz+ and airing on free TV.

In 2023, Jazz games reached over 3.3 million Utahns, and now, that number has nearly doubled to 6.3 million people in the region and neighboring states. Even with the loss of local TV revenue, Smith views the new model as a success: “You couldn’t pay me enough money to go back to the old model,” he said.

When the league’s new national TV deal kicks in next season, it will pay each team around $140 million each, and will rise to $290 million in the final year, per sources The Athletic spoke to. Smith noted that the new media deal and the increased accessibility enhances other revenue streams. “The more people watch, the more people come to games, the more we sell in concessions, the more money we bring in with sponsorships,” he said.

Beyond FanDuel Sports Networks, other RSNs have struggled as more subscribers continue to leave cable. In New York, there have been talks of merging MSG Networks and YES Networks, home to the NBA’s New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets, respectively. MSG Networks, owned by Knicks owner James Dolan, avoided bankruptcy after reaching a deal that lowered the RSN’s loan with JPMorgan from $800 million to $210 million. The deal lowered the rights fees paid to the Knicks and New York Rangers, and Dolan is reportedly looking for a buyer for the network.

In the Windy City, Chicago Sports Network (CHSN), owned by the Chicago Bulls, White Sox, and Blackhawks, recently shut down its free over-the-air broadcasts in several markets after agreeing to a new deal with telecom giant Comcast. The move shifts the network’s focus from free accessibility to prioritizing pay TV and its direct-to-consumer streaming service.

For other teams, owning their RSN has made distribution easier. After acquiring NBC Sports Washington and rebranding it to Monumental Sports Network in 2023, the Leonsis family, owners of the Washington Wizards, Mystics, and Capitals were able to pay off all of the network’s debt, according to The Athletic.

While speaking to The Athletic, Zach Leonsis, President of Media & New Enterprises, Monumental Sports & Entertainment said this about acquiring the network and controlling the team’s broadcasts:

“The team started to feel like eliminating a middleman and taking advantage of some of our own capabilities might be the best, the best path forward,” Leonsis said. “In our case, there was a defensive mindset in not wanting to have our regional sports network be acquired by another company, wanting to protect the integrity of our content, wanting to push the envelope a little bit more on going direct to consumer and developing additional channels for distribution.

“In our view, our network was a small asset, a tail on Godzilla of a larger Fortune 500 company, but for us a core asset, still the number one way that we reach our fans. Today, even. Nearly three million cable subscribers. And we want that product to be a very, very good one, and we didn’t want it to end up in somebody else’s hands that we didn’t sign up to be with. In terms of playing offense, we viewed it as an opportunity to invest back into our rights, and that’s really what we acquire.”

Viewers aren’t able to watch Monumental Sports Network for free over-the-air, but can find the RSN on pay-TV providers or its direct-to-consumer streaming platform. Like Smith and the Jazz, Leonsis acknowledges that the team makes the most money from cable and other pay TV services, but free OTA linear TV would bring in the most viewers. It’s all about finding the right balance, as he told The Athletic:

“But you need some scale,” he said. “It’s harder to launch a single team RSN these days. You want multiple teams. We have the advantage of owning multiple teams ourselves. We’d like to grow in that aspect as well. That’s why I think you are seeing some teams pursue virtual mergers, if you will, like it did in Chicago, they’re trying to stand up an RSN on its own. It is hard to stand up distribution from scratch that way, sort of in this environment. So it really varies team to team, market to market.”

What’s Next: A Local NBA League Pass and One-Stop Streaming

With Game 7 of the 2025 NBA Finals this weekend, the clock begins for the start of a new season. Next season, the shot clock is winding down, and the NBA will have to figure out what’s next for the league’s local rights, similar to the MLB.

According to The Athletic, the NBA has considered launching a local League Pass by the 2026-27 season. If that were to happen, the league could do it through the NBA app or use a partner to distribute the games. It has reportedly spoken to existing partners, Amazon, Disney, and Peacock, and others, including Apple, YouTube, DAZN, Disney, and Peacock.

Last month, while speaking to the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing entitled “Field of Streams: The New Channel Guide for Sports Fans,” Bill Koenig, the NBA’s president of global content and media distribution, stated the following:

“If you go to the WNBA app, you will be able to click right on the game and go directly there,” he said. “It’s on a digital platform. You’ll be able to access the games. And we’re going to even do that beyond just the NBA and WNBA apps. We’re going to do that through a number of other partner and team relationships, you might be able when you order food to watch a game from that food delivery app directly to a game telecast.” [Transcript: The Athletic]

For fans, this shift could mean watching more games for free over the air or via streaming, but it also may bring new logins, subscription costs, or platform confusion, depending on the market. As the sports industry continues to adjust to the digital shift, nearly half of cord-cutting sports fans have expressed frustration with the fragmentation of sports.

With more games across leagues becoming streaming exclusive, fans are growing tired of subscribing to multiple services to watch their teams compete. Just on a national scale, Peacock, Prime Video, and ESPN will each stream live NBA games next season. If the NBA and other leagues can secure deals that bring their games all in one place at a reasonable price tag, fans everywhere win.

Credit: The Athletic