Nearly half of NBA teams will continue to have their games broadcast locally on the Bally Sports network next season after a new deal was reached.
Diamond Sports — the parent company that owns the Ballys regional sports network — is in the midst of bankruptcy proceedings but Diamond and the NBA worked out a deal to to continue broadcasting the games of 13 NBA teams (as well as a full slate of NHL teams) report Evan Drellich and Mike Vorkunov of The Athletic.
Diamond Sports on Friday said it has reached agreements with both leagues and that as part of the basketball deal, the broadcaster is stepping away from contracts with two teams: the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans. The Pelicans were already known to have made broadcasting arrangements elsewhere for the 2024-25 season. The deals need to be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge, with a hearing scheduled for Sept. 3...
“We have reached a new agreement with Diamond Sports Group for the 2024-25 season in which Diamond RSNs will telecast local games for 13 NBA teams,” the NBA said in a statement. “The Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans declined to continue distributing their games on Diamond RSNs and will share more details soon on how to watch games for the upcoming season in their respective markets. This new agreement is subject to approval by the bankruptcy court.”
The 13 teams that will continue to broadcast their games locally on the Bally network are Atlanta, Charlotte, Cleveland, Detroit, Indiana, LA Clippers, Memphis, Miami, Milwaukee, Minnesota, Oklahoma City, Orlando, and San Antonio.
New Orleans had already announced plans to broadcast their games over the air in Louisiana (and some surrounding states) through Gray TV. There has been no formal announcement of the Dallas plans, although it is expected to have an over-the-air broadcast portion and a streaming portion.
With both regional broadcasts and the new national television contract, the NBA is trending toward pairing over-the-air game broadcasts — which could be watched with a simple rabbit ears antenna on a television — and streaming as a combination. More and more teams — Portland and Utah this season, for example — are moving toward this model as the number of cable television subscribers continues to decline nationally.
However, for at least one more year, most of the teams on the Ballys network last season will be back.