The NBA’s frustrating media situation may finally implode midway through the 2025-26 season.
The FanDuel regional sports networks that broadcast 13 NBA franchises’ local games, owned by Main Street Sports Group, reportedly may shutter before the end of the year.
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Per Tom Friend of Sports Business Journal, everything hinges on a purchase from sports streamer DAZN, which needs to conclude by January. Main Street whiffed on paying the St. Louis Cardinals for their broadcast rights this month.
The team controls local broadcast rights to a combined 29 NBA, MLB and NHL teams. Other squads could allegedly find themselves in jeopardy of missing out on rights payments from a struggling Main Street.
Friend notes that Main Street intends to “wind down and dissolve” all of its FanDuel networks by the end of the year. The NBA, however, appears to be gearing up for the possibility that it loses FanDuel sooner than that. Were a midseason dissolution to happen, the NBA apparently intends to agree to linear affiliate agreements with its 13 FanDuel-broadcast teams, using its League Pass app.
Obviously, that’s not an ideal situation. An NBA executive relayed to Friend that such a disastrous scenario, mid-season, would be “our worst fear.”
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If Main Street remains unable to make rights payments, it would give itself a vague window for late payments. Should even that not work, teams would reclaim their own local broadcast rights. That has happened already in four NBA markets, including the Chicago Bulls’ Chicago Sports Network.
Ultimately, this could pay dividends for the NBA faithful down the line. As the cord-cutting era builds, local fans experience blackouts for both their own teams’ games and national broadcasts. But with local affiliates potentially shuttering, the NBA might be able to put together a combined broadcast option without so many issues.
Friend indicates that only the Los Angeles Lakers and New York Knicks, thanks to well-paying local agreements already in place, may not be amenable to such a situation. But the rest of the league could be on-board with something new by 2026-27.
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