NBA teams lost about $453 million in local TV revenue over two seasons, according to Forbes estimates, even as the league's national TV money hit record levels. The average team collected about $33 million from local TV rights in 2025-26, down from $48 million in 2023-24, mostly because the company behind FanDuel Sports Network collapsed. National money is up, but it hasn't covered the local hole, and the 16 teams once tied to that network took the biggest hit.
The NBA is having a huge year on the national stage and a bad stretch at home. Both things are true at once.
The NBA's $76 billion TV deal is paying off at the national level
Start with the good news, because there's a lot of it. The 11-year, $76 billion package with ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Amazon Prime Video began last season. Estimates are that it paid each team close to $150 million in 2025-26, up 40% from the last year of the old ESPN and Turner deals.
The audience is showing up. LeBron James' first game with the 76ers, a 106-100 win over the defending champion Knicks at Madison Square Garden on October 20, averaged 7.71 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, according to the NBA. That's the most-watched prime-time opening night game on record, and it peaked at 9.1 million.
Team values reflect it. The average NBA franchise is at $6.1 billion this fall, up 147% from 2021, with the Warriors on top at $13.5 billion.
How the FanDuel Sports Network collapse cost NBA teams local TV revenue
Local TV is where it falls apart. Main Street Sports Group, the company formerly known as Diamond Sports and the operator of the old Bally Sports networks, stopped paying NBA teams in January. In April it announced it would shut FanDuel Sports Network down after the regular season. According to Sports Business Journal, none of its 13 NBA partners received a local rights payment in 2026.
The Forbes numbers show how deep the drop runs. Average local TV income fell 25% in one year, from $44 million to $33 million. Local TV went from about 13% of total NBA revenue in 2023-24 to roughly 7% last season. For the 16 teams that were partnered with the Bally and FanDuel networks, Forbes estimates local TV money fell about 66%, from roughly $40 million to under $14 million.
The worst case is Dallas. Forbes estimates the Mavericks' local TV revenue fell from $96 million in 2023-24 to $15 million last season, an 84% drop.
This isn't only a FanDuel problem, either. Forbes notes the Knicks took a 28% cut in their local rights fee when Dolan-controlled MSG Networks refinanced its debt in 2025. Cord-cutting is hitting the whole cable model. The FanDuel collapse just made it impossible to ignore.
What the Pelicans, Mavericks and Pistons did after leaving regional sports networks
The Pelicans moved early. New Orleans left Bally in 2024 for a multiyear deal with Gray Television, putting games on free over-the-air TV across a three-state territory. Phoenix, Utah, Portland and Dallas made similar moves.
This season, the rest had to improvise. Detroit went to Scripps-owned WMYD. Miami signed with WPLG with an option for 2027-28. Cleveland, Indiana, Memphis, Minnesota and San Antonio signed exclusive regional streaming deals with DAZN, according to Sports Media Watch, and Forbes says DAZN is carrying games for 11 teams in total. Fans in those markets pay $20 a month or $120 a season.
Here's the trade every one of these teams made. Over-the-air TV reaches far more homes than a cable channel losing subscribers every month. But broadcast stations and streamers don't pay anything close to what cable companies used to pay per household. Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith has said the team lost nearly half its local TV revenue going over-the-air, and he still wouldn't go back. I think he's right. Reach builds the next generation of fans. The old money was never coming back anyway.
Who pays for the NBA's local TV losses
Owners pay first. Lost local money comes straight off the top line, and in a business valued on revenue multiples, that's not a small thing.
Players pay too. The salary cap is tied to league revenue, so missed rights payments show up on their side of the ledger. ESPN reported the league cut its 2026-27 cap projection by $1 million to $165 million, largely because of the Main Street losses.
Fans get a mixed result. More of them can watch for free over the air. Others now need another streaming subscription to follow their own team.
And FanDuel, the sportsbook, ends up with its name attached to a network that went dark. That brand deal was supposed to put the sportsbook in front of local fans every night. Instead it's tied to the reason 13 teams had to scramble.
Can the NBA's 2027-28 local streaming platform fix the problem?
The league's answer is to take local TV into its own hands. For 2027-28, the NBA plans to bundle the local rights of at least 20 teams into a single streaming platform, according to Forbes. It hired former NESN executive Matt Volk to run a new local media group, and Sports Business Journal has reported YouTube is in advanced talks to host it.
I like the idea. One national-scale product with local games should be worth more than 20 small ones. But I wouldn't expect it to restore the old numbers. Cable used to charge every subscriber whether they watched or not. A streaming product only earns from people who actually pay. That's a healthier business, and probably a smaller one.
The NBA can absorb it. National TV money, rising valuations and real estate revenue cover a lot. The teams that feel it most are the mid- and small-market clubs that leaned hardest on cable checks, and they're the ones counting on this platform to work.
