To watch your local team, you’ll also need access to a regional sports network, which typically runs about $20/month for seven months. That brings the total to $75.97/month, or $617.75 for the year.
The NBA returns on Tuesday, not only for a new season but to NBC for the first time in 23 years. Under the league’s new media agreement, games will now air across NBC, ESPN, ABC, Amazon Prime Video, and Peacock.
In other words, it’s now significantly more expensive to watch professional basketball.
To stream every nationally televised game this season, fans will need paid subscriptions to the following services:
- ESPN DTC (includes ABC games): $29.99/month
- Amazon Prime Video: $10.99/month
- Peacock Premium (includes NBC games): $14.99/month
That totals $55.97 per month for eight months, plus one additional month of ESPN DTC for the Finals in June, for a total of $477.75 for the year.
But there’s a catch. That price only covers nationally televised games. To watch your local team, you’ll also need access to a regional sports network, which typically runs about $20/month for seven months. That brings the total to $75.97/month, or $617.75 for the year.
And even then, you still won’t have access to every game. To watch out-of-market matchups not shown nationally or locally, you’ll need NBA League Pass at $109.99 for the season.
Depending on viewing preferences, the total cost to stream the NBA this year will range between $500 and $700. And while a cable or satellite package will give you games on ESPN, ABC, and NBC, those now cost about $100/month.
Remember when Mark Cuban criticized the NFL for expanding into Thursday nights? He said the league was greedy and predicted fans would respond by tuning out. A) The NFL has never been more popular. B) We’d be curious to know his thoughts on the NBA’s decision to fragment an already struggling product.
It will never be easier to find NBA games than it was over the past few decades, when games aired only on ESPN, ABC, and TNT. And yet, during that period, the league lost around 50 percent of its audience.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. – Bronny James #9 and LeBron James #23 of the Los Angeles Lakers high five after the game against the Golden State Warriors on October 12, 2025 at Intuit Dome. Copyright 2025 NBAE (Photo by Adam Pantozzi/NBAE via Getty Images)
In addition, four of the five lowest-rated Finals in the past three decades have occurred within the last four years. The Pacers–Thunder Finals this past June was the second-lowest on record and included the lowest-rated Finals Game 7 on record.
Now, the NBA is asking fans to pay more for a product they were already watching less. CNN made a similar gamble with CNN+. It lasted less than a month.
The NBA will undoubtedly lose fans as part of the new agreement. The prediction here is that the league’s partners will also come to regret the investment—if they don’t already.
This week, NBC executives admitted to The Wall Street Journal that the network likely overpaid for NBA rights and expects the deal to be a “money loser.” As OutKick reported earlier this year, that outcome was predictable.
NBC and Amazon are not just paying for their current subscribers to watch NBC. They are also paying in hopes that the league will attract new ones. That’s the entire point of bringing live sports to a streaming platform.
To us, the idea that people who weren’t watching the NBA for free are about to pay for multiple new streaming services seems unlikely. What say you?
Minnesota Timberwolves All-Star Anthony Edwards dunking the ball vs. the Denver Nuggets at Target Center. (Photo Credit: Jeffrey Becker-Imagn Images)
Further, no major sports league is more suited for paid subscriptions than the NBA. Of all the regular seasons, the NBA’s is the least meaningful. For reference, 16 of 30 teams make the playoffs, and 20 have postseason opportunities with the Play-In Tournament.
The issue is compounded by star players choosing to sit out games randomly. On any given night, fans may learn an hour before tip-off that a player is inactive due to “load management” or “soreness.”
It’s a bold ask for the league to expect fans to pay to watch games when the players themselves don’t care enough to participate.
Finally, the NBA’s new media agreement runs for the next 11 seasons. With the cost of streaming seemingly increasing every six months, the price of watching the NBA will continue to rise. Forget $600 this year. By the end of this rights agreement, it could cost more than $1,000 a year to watch the NBA.
Anyway, look for fanboys like Bill Simmons and Ryen Russillo to caterwaul over this article on their podcasts later this week.
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