The NBA has let its teams know that there’s a chance it will introduce a streaming hub for local broadcasts as soon as next season, sources tell Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal. Many clubs’ local broadcasts have been thrown into disarray due to the fact that Main Street Sports Group, which has regional TV agreements with 13 NBA teams, is likely headed for insolvency.
That group of 13 teams – which includes the defending champion Thunder, along with the Spurs, Pistons, Cavaliers, Clippers, Heat, Timberwolves, Magic, Hornets, Hawks, Pacers, Grizzlies, and Bucks – would be the most likely candidates to be involved in the NBA’s new streaming hub.
As Friend points out, there are a few more teams (the Suns, Jazz, Trail Blazers, Mavericks, and Pelicans) who have already abandoned their respective regional sports networks and could be candidates for the new venture as well. On top of that, Friend’s sources suspect the four teams who have deals with NBC Sports – the Celtics, Warriors, Sixers, and Kings – could be in play due to a sense that NBC may want out of the regional sports network business.
The other eight teams broadcast games on their own networks, which doesn’t necessarily rule them out, but would make it more complicated for the league to negotiate deals with each of them.
While it remains unclear exactly what the new setup will look like, Friend hears that the NBA has engaged in talks with potential partners like YouTube TV, DAZN, Amazon, and ESPN as it considers a package that might resemble NFL Sunday Ticket.
The total number of teams that opt in figures to be a major factor in determining the viability of this new streaming hub, Friend writes, citing sources who think the NBA would need to guarantee a broadcast partner a certain threshold of clubs in order to secure a significant deal. With enough teams involved, industry insiders believe an agreement would be worth billions, Friend adds.
Due to its financial woes, Main Street has missed payments to its teams on January 1, February 1, and March 1, per Sports Business Journal. The NBA originally didn’t plan on launching this sort of streaming hub until down the road, Friend writes, but it has become a higher priority in order to help teams make up for those lost rights-fee payments.
Although the league has informed its teams that it’s trying to get something together for the 2026/27 season, there’s no guarantee that will happen, so Main Street clubs have been advised to explore lining up a bridge deal for their local broadcasts. Those teams are exploring both linear and streaming options, Friend notes.
Friend also points out that, since a new league-wide streaming hub may overlap with League Pass, the NBA may need to either restructure League Pass or eliminate it all together down the road. Amazon currently distributes League Pass as part of its national broadcast agreement with the NBA, so those negotiations would be simpler if the league ultimately strikes a deal to make Amazon its partner on a new streaming RSN.
So the NBA want to test out a new way of stealing more money from fans. SMH
Very bay area take of what’s actually going on here.
The biggest crime is that this is going to kill League Pass which has been the biggest bargain amongst the big 3 sports for years now.
Its about squeezing more money out of each fan. Do you think they care that ticket prices have risen 10x faster than inflation in the last 10 years? NO What the NBA doesn’t getis soon only those well off will offered anything.
Do you think the NBA league office is setting ticket prices??
And just so we are clear, no the NBA doesn’t care about inflation. Are you under the impression that inflation is only affecting you as a consumer? Or somehow a problem that only manifests in Warriors ticket pricing?
Please lay out to me how this is squeezing more money out of fans. I’m almost positive you’re not fully grasping what this piece is talking about.
they are not setting prices but in all sports the ticket price is taking away the casual fans. baseball used to be more popular because the tickets were cheap. Now the price went up. The same ticket that i bought about 15 years ago has doubled in price. If you need to start paying for local games on TV it is squeezing more money out of you. like showing games on Amazon prime ONLY. Forcing fans to buy prime to watch their favorite team. You do know every product with a logo on it NBA gets money for that. Sounds like you do not understand streaming hub meaning you are going to need to pay a monthly fee to watch your favorite team.
Baseball is more popular now than it has been in many years. Tickets aren’t the only thing that has gone up in price and to be very blunt about this – if ticket pricing is your biggest indicator of being negatively impacted by inflation, then you truly don’t have a dog in this fight.
You should stop trying to put words in peoples comments when they never said that. Where did I say only ticket prices went up? I didn’t so next time don’t assume things.
You have used ticket prices as your exclusive example while ignoring that the product is also more expensive to produce because of the same exact inflation you’re crying about.
You read that the MSSG teams haven’t been paid in 3 months right? But you don’t care because teams make money regardless right?
MSSG is for the people!! Let’s put the games on PBS!!!
Very bay area take? What does that even mean. If this would kill league pass, which has been a bargain, isn’t that just a new way of having your consumer pay more for the same product?
Is MSSG not forcing the leagues hand to a certain extent? Pretending the NBA is acting in a vampiric manner when they’re making choices that are both good for business and fixing a problem they didn’t create is what bay area take means. Victim mentality. Nobody is forcing you to pay for anything.
ok mister corporate. I appreciate your honesty. Speak proud for those corporate businesses trying to one up the people. Regardless if their bankruptcy is forcing the leagues hand, the NBA can make games more accessible to viewers. You said it yourself, this will possibly disband league pass. Prices will go up and content will be more difficult to access. Oh yeah big bay area take, you sound so silly lil country kid. But keep standing up for the big businesses, maybe one day you’ll be a billionaire too
So I’m a country kid but I’m also a corpo shill? You people don’t even know what point you’re trying to make lmao.
Ok buddy. Look at all the country knuckleheads defending billionaires left and right, stop acting silly, I know you’re smarter than that. But by all means, if you and your neoliberal viewpoints want more corporate control, then I appreciate your honesty. Need more honesty these days. All these people talk and when it comes time to stand on their words, they freeze up. Proud of you for standing strong!
Brother I lived in Mission for 4 and half years. Acting like I’m some bumpkin from Alabama projecting hate about the city because I need to do so as some political high ground is ignorant beyond belief.
The NBA isn’t Google. It isn’t OpenAi. It isn’t any other villain that people YOU supported allowed to come in and take advantage of the city’s and state’s lax enforcement of justice. Creating an all in one hub for teams without broadcast partners to use to let fans see their games isn’t as demonic as you want it to be.
I understand that every story needs a villain and it’s easy to find one when you’re always the hero but sooner or later story time has to end and you need to come to reality.
Funny how you said bay area take. How are they fixing a problem? I have not heard anything about there being a problem. Are you making up a problem that doesn’t exist right now?
You haven’t heard of the problem that is literally the point of the piece you’re commenting on? You never cease to amaze me arc
The smaller cities always complain. That is why the new CBA restricts going over the cap so hard. You want to see a broadcast problem look at the MLB which is way more problematic than NBA. That is why a few teams have a unlimited supply of TV money.
WTF DOES THE MLB HAVE TO DO WITH THIS?!?
You can’t be a real guy.
The problem you claim is not that big of a problem. Prove explain the problem and why this would fix it. Go ahead explain instead of just complaining about a comment.
How would the NBA creating a streaming RSN fix the issue of 13 teams currently being in deals with an RSN that is headed for the can? Is that an actual question you are asking me? Because I will answer that but I need to be sure that you’re actually asking me that.
Or are you asking me why the NBA doing this isn’t as evil as you’re implying it is?
Why does the NBA need to help out in the deals? Somebody will offer money to take a deal its called free market.
Are you under the impression that every team having their own RSN would somehow be more affordable for consumers?
I think the NBA sees it more as protecting what’s their’s and making sure they get paid for it. If it’s allowed to continue as is it stands, it starts to affect basketball related income, and that trickles down to player’s salaries and the cap numbers iirc. If thirteen teams have missed multiple payments were easily talking hundred(s) of millions in lost revenue for the year that those teams are never gonna see. Five teams have already abandoned this soon to be bankrupted ‘Main Street sports’, which is a laughably dumb name considering they’re just a corporate takeover grift, basically a shell corp. MLB is in the exact same position, so this is bigger than Adam silver..‘fan duel sports network’ was a sham from the word go, and the leagues are just trying to protect their regional rights incomes in an ever changing media landscape. I don’t think they’ll just let league pass go extinct; it’s too popular, and has probably brought in more in revenue this year than all these belly up regional network deals combined lol
I think LP dying would be more of a result of A.) Amazon being the easiest solution for an NBA RSN and B.) It being more expensive and difficult to pass off LP to someone aside from Amazon which would have to happen if A is true
College hoops has been so much more entertaining than the NBA this season. This would be the final push to make me finally have the right answer to “why do I still watch this garbage anyway?”.
disagree, but you do you
You should stop if it’s affecting you to the point where you need to go online and make posts about something you consider ‘garbage’ lol
glad to see, the fdsn prices are ridiculous when compared to league pass. costs nearly the same to watch my team as it does to have access to watch the other 29 teams.
The advantage of living abroad is you get all 30 teams’ games anytime you want on League Pass. Hope they don’t ruin that.
Feels like the NBA is spreading itself thin with all these new ventures, but what do I know. Hopefully it doesn’t result in a bunch of half-baked implementations.
Silver has seemingly had his head in the sand about this issue, just hoping it would work itself out instead of being proactive about this sham of a deal; how are you gonna wait til 75% of the annual product has already been distributed to finally address this issue publicly?? I completely agree that Silvers had his eye on Europe too much recently, and needs to focus on what the NBA does have instead of what it wants in the future.
I know of a Team that has all of their games televised locally & it doesn’t cost their Fans anything extra than what they pay their TV Provider. For quite a few years most Fans of the Team couldn’t watch them play without spending more.
Now they want to either restart RSN’S or put the games on streaming platforms just to steal more money from people who would like to watch the games not surprising that Adam Silver is trying to make it harder for the Middle Class & Low Income people to be able to watch the Games. OH YEAH good luck getting your local team on any Streaming service because of the NBA Blackout Rule
You know that blackouts happen because of RSNs right?
Ok; for most of us it’s $24.99/month to Fan Duel Sports Network to watch a handful of games by my local squad that are blacked out on league pass, which is obviously a lot cheaper and better; said local team does actually have a deal to telecast some games regionaly for free, but if you’re not close enough to pick up the signal you’re SOL 🤷🏼..by my thinking my bill will be cheaper if my local team (one of the 13 mentioned, almost all ‘small market’ teams btw) is absorbed into league pass and these RSN businesses go kick rocks permanently..RSNs have been the predators and it’s time for them to expire like so much of cable culture
Not All Basketball fans can afford $25 a Month to pay for Fan Duel so unless the NBA wants to stop Millions of Basketball Fans from watching their local Team then they will go to all streaming or to RSN’S
Exactly. Just because the league stands to gain profit from being the defacto RSN for its teams doesn’t just mean they are stealing money from fans especially if in the end you are getting more value for that dollar spent.
It gets much more tricky when you’re trying to include the 8 teams who distribute their own games. Can’t imagine they have much of a desire to dissolve their own product to help out fans of other teams.