A Streamer Now Carries 8 of the 13 NBA Teams That Lost Their Cable Home

Welcome back. When the Pacers host Dallas on October 23rd, fans in Indianapolis can watch on WTTV with an antenna. It is the first of 15 games Nexstar will air under a new deal with DAZN, the team's streaming partner. Today's feature covers the 13 NBA teams that needed new local TV deals this year.

Suns owner Mat Ishbia went on Arizona Sports' Burns & Gambo show the day after his franchise's media day last month and talked about local TV. He called the Suns the city's team and said other owners have started following Phoenix onto free broadcasts. "You can't be a fan of a team you can't watch," he told the hosts.

Ishbia bought the Suns and Mercury in February 2023. Within months, the Suns left Bally Sports Arizona, their cable home since 2003, and both teams moved to Gray's Arizona's Family stations, where anyone with an antenna could watch every locally televised game free. The teams and Gray called it the first modern local broadcast partnership in the NBA and WNBA to go over the air, and Ishbia led a campaign that gave away more than 10,000 antennas across the state. In 2025-26, Suns broadcasts averaged more than 110,000 viewers a game, which put them in the top four in the NBA for local household viewership, according to the teams and Gray.

Main Street Sports Group, owner of the FanDuel Sports Network channels, announced in April that it would carry games through the end of the NBA regular season and then wind down operations unless it reached a sale or other deal. Neither happened, leaving 13 NBA teams, from Atlanta to Los Angeles, needing a new local home before the 2026-27 season.

The 13 Teams

Six of the 13 will put every locally televised game on free broadcast stations in their home markets. Detroit went first, announcing a deal with Scripps' WMYD TV20 on May 13th, and Miami followed on June 8th with WPLG Local 10. Milwaukee returned to MY24, the station that carried the Bucks from 1988 to 1994, in a July 10th agreement with Rincon Broadcasting Group that brings full-season over-the-air games back "for the first time in more than three decades," Bucks and Fiserv Forum president Josh Glessing said in the team's announcement.

Good Karma Brands, the Milwaukee company that took over advertising sales for the ESPN Radio Network and ESPN's podcasts in 2023, now sells the Bucks' media and advertising and is building a statewide network that includes stations in Green Bay, Madison, La Crosse-Eau Claire and Wausau-Rhinelander. The team also started its own streaming service, Bucks+, at $99.99 for the season, and its first game was the October 5th preseason opener against Minnesota at Fiserv Forum.

Atlanta signed with Gray's WANF on July 16th, after a 13-game simulcast last season averaged more than 1.5 times the ratings of the Hawks' other local games, according to Nielsen data cited in Gray's announcement. Cox Media Group added Charlotte and Orlando on August 12th.

DAZN signed Minnesota on July 30th and then became the primary local home for Indiana, Cleveland, San Antonio and Memphis. It charges $119.99 for a season of each of those four teams and makes a smaller package free, on the app in Indiana, Cleveland and Memphis, and over the air in San Antonio, where the station has not been named.

The Pacers announced on August 20th that 22 games would be free on the app, and Nexstar picked up 15 of those games for its stations in Indianapolis, Evansville and Champaign, Ill., on October 1st. DAZN is also the streaming partner for Charlotte, Detroit and Orlando alongside their broadcast deals, which puts it in 8 of the 13 markets.

Cleveland's September 1st deal with DAZN moved production of Cavaliers telecasts in-house to Rock Entertainment Sports Network and raised the camera count from six to 19. DAZN Group CEO Shay Segev called the United States "a key growth market for DAZN" in the announcement. Sports Business Journal reported the agreement at around $20 million a year over five years, down from about $35 million under FanDuel Sports Network. Gray signed on two weeks later to put 15 Cavaliers games on WOIO and WUAB, and Rock Entertainment Group CEO Nic Barlage said the team was "proud to triple the number of games available for free."

Oklahoma City expanded its partnership with Griffin Media, which had aired select Thunder games for three seasons, and put most of its schedule on Griffin channels carried by cable and satellite providers. The team also launched a Thunder+ streaming service inside the NBA App and scheduled 10 games on free TV. The Clippers have announced 10 games on KTLA, but as of October 6th they had not named a home for the rest of their local schedule. Their opener is October 21st.

The League's 2027 Platform

Speaking to reporters after the NBA Board of Governors meeting in Las Vegas in July 2025, commissioner Adam Silver said "streamers largely have not been in the local business" and predicted that would change. He also raised the idea of an aggregated local network that teams could join.

SBJ has reported that the league urged teams to sign one-year deals or include a one-year exit. Cleveland's contract has an opt-out tied to a league platform that could launch as early as 2027-28. The NBA heads toward that launch with national regular-season viewership at its highest in 13 years, up 35% in 2025-26 across ABC/ESPN, Prime Video, NBC/Peacock and NBA TV, according to league figures.

In May, Gray and the Suns extended their agreement through 2030 and moved the teams' Suns+ and Merc+ streaming into Gray's new Arizona's Family Sports app.

Our Fan Sentiment Index fell 16 points this week to 93, below its Q3 baseline of 100. Ticket pricing accounted for 35% of fan conversation about the business of sports, with streaming at 31%. Fees drew the sharpest complaints. One Ticketmaster buyer posted a $661 service fee, and SeatGeek presale seats bought for $69 turned up on resale at $250.

The Orlando Magic earned the most praise for $20 ticket drops at every game and concessions priced at $2 to $7.

Zane Collings → Senior Vice President, Live Entertainment, Jacksonville Jaguars
Collings will run booking and event management for the Jaguars' renovated stadium and the Daily's Place amphitheater, reporting to chief operating officer Chad Johnson. He leaves the Florida Panthers, where he was senior vice president of live entertainment and events for Amerant Bank Arena and the Fort Lauderdale War Memorial. Before the Panthers he spent 23 years with ASM Global and SMG, its predecessor, including 2014 to 2021 as assistant general manager and Southeast regional booking director, a job that covered Jacksonville venues. Daily's Place is closed for the 2026 and 2027 seasons and reopens in 2028, the year the $1.4 billion renovated stadium debuts.

Alyssa Marks → Vice President of Partnerships, TMRW Sports Flag Football
Marks spent more than a decade at the NBA, where she led partnerships for the NBA 2K League and worked in team marketing and business operations. She comes to TMRW from the LPGA, where she was senior director of global business development and partnerships and worked with sponsors including UKG, Ford and BDO. TMRW and the NFL plan to launch women's and men's professional flag football leagues before the sport makes its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Mike Verna → Chief Commercial Strategy Officer, Scarlet Knight Enterprises (Rutgers)
Verna runs corporate partnership sales, activation and operations for Scarlet Knight Enterprises, the company Rutgers set up to handle its athletics media rights, sponsorships, ticketing and NIL business. Verna was vice president of partnership marketing for the New York New Jersey host committee for this year's World Cup. Before that he managed partners for the Islanders and UBS Arena, Madison Square Garden, where he spent nearly 11 years, and the Nets.

Blaine Tamez → Assistant Athletics Director for Productions, University of Houston
Houston hired Tamez to lead its athletics productions after three seasons as director of video production at Tarleton State. There he produced and directed every Tarleton broadcast on ESPN+, wrote the scripts, built the graphics packages and trained student interns. As a freelancer for L2 Productions in Austin, he worked Big 12 golf championships and Major League Rugby, and at Texas he directed softball for SEC+.

Raleigh Duffer → Vice President of Ticket Sales and Service, Salem RidgeYaks
Duffer started with Salem as an inside sales representative and has been promoted four times in five seasons, most recently from director of ticket sales. The Boston Red Sox's Single-A affiliate played its first season as the RidgeYaks this year after 16 seasons as the Salem Red Sox. Diamond Baseball Holdings has owned the club since 2023.

Nellie Kemp → Assistant General Manager, Everett AquaSox
Kemp first worked for the AquaSox in 2019 on the concessions staff at home games. The Seattle Mariners' High-A affiliate hired her full time in 2021 as director of community relations and merchandise, and she started the club's Education Day, Recovery Day and Hot Stove Banquet. She also raised money for AquaSox Charities and booked appearances for Webbly, the team mascot. She is a University of Washington graduate from Marysville, just north of Everett.

Director, Partnership Development - Florida Panthers (Sunrise, FL): Runs the Panthers' partnership development team while carrying a personal quota for new business. Sellers work inventory at Amerant Bank Arena, War Memorial Auditorium, Baptist Health IcePlex and the Panthers IceDen. The director helps the VP of Corporate Partnerships build the rate card and represents the department when War Memorial books concerts and other non-hockey events. Learn more and apply here.

Vice President, Venue Operations - Chicago Stars FC (Chicago): Runs every Chicago Stars match and event, plus the outside facilities the NWSL club uses. The VP holds the department's P&L and capital planning and negotiates contracts with venues and vendors. The job also manages the relationship with league operations and broadcast staff, and it leads development of the club's new training facility. Learn more and apply here.

Manager, Corporate Partnerships - Dallas Stars (Frisco, TX): Manages a book of Stars partners day to day and makes sure every contracted asset is delivered on time. The manager writes activation plans, coordinates execution across the organization and handles partners at home games and community events. Upsell and renewal conversations for those accounts are part of the job. Learn more and apply here.

Senior Manager, Business Strategy & Analytics - Chicago Fire FC (Chicago): Leads the Fire's Business Strategy & Analytics team day to day and still builds models. Current priorities include ticket demand forecasts and member renewal models for Ticketing, Corporate Partnerships, Soccer Business and Marketing. Learn more and apply here.

Associate Director, Marketing & Fan Experience - Tennessee Athletics (Knoxville, TN): Writes and runs the marketing plans for Tennessee soccer and baseball, with the goal of raising attendance and building a home-field advantage. On football game days, the associate director supports the Director of Marketing/Fan Experience with on-field elements and themed group days. Advertising, email campaigns and third-party partner activation are part of the portfolio, as is helping set creative standards for the unit. Learn more and apply here.

Head of People & Culture - Bay FC (Bay Area): Reports to the President and sets people strategy for both the business and sporting sides of Bay FC. This leader handles hiring, compensation structures and employee relations, and keeps the club compliant with California labor law and NWSL standards. The job also carries the club's Player Safety Officer designation. Learn more and apply here.

Director of Athletics Marketing - Drake University (Des Moines): Directs marketing for all 18 Drake sports and for the Drake Relays, Drake Road Races and Grand Blue Mile. The assistant director of athletics marketing and the cheer head coach report to this director, who also manages a student marketing team. The position belongs to the External Operations leadership group, which advises the Director of Athletics and the Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Operations. Learn more and apply here.

Business Analytics Manager - Pittsburgh Steelers (Pittsburgh): Leads analysis of the Steelers' website, app and social channels, working with the content, sponsorship and marketing departments. A team of analysts and associates reports to this manager, who runs the club's fan surveys and tracks fanbase growth in international markets. The role includes work with the NFL on its United View of the Fan program. Learn more and apply here.

Senior Director, Head of YouTube - NASCAR (Charlotte): Owns NASCAR's YouTube strategy along with the channel's subscriber, view and watch-time numbers. The job also shapes how YouTube supports revenue and sponsor value, and it covers long-form programming and shorts. Whoever takes it will build NASCAR's YouTube staff and recruit on-camera hosts and creators, with original shows and documentaries meant to keep fans watching beyond race day. Learn more and apply here.

Black Box Wines × NHL: Black Box signed a multiyear U.S. partnership with the NHL that makes it the league's first official wine. Starting in 2027, the boxed wine brand will run Wine Wednesdays, a promotion tied to one of the NHL's marquee broadcast nights, with in-arena programming, retail promotions, integrations with select clubs and digital dasherboard ads.

Edward Jones × McLaren Racing: McLaren Racing named Edward Jones its Official Private Wealth Management Partner in a multiyear deal covering the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team and the Arrow McLaren IndyCar Team. Activation starts during the 2026 Formula 1 season and extends to IndyCar in 2027, when the financial services firm will be Primary Partner on Scott Dixon's No. 6 Arrow McLaren Chevrolet at the 111th Indianapolis 500 and select other races.

Bloom Energy × Philadelphia 76ers: Bloom Energy is the Sixers' new jersey patch partner, and its logo will appear on all of the team's uniforms. The company's second-largest manufacturing hub is in Newark, Del., and it will also sponsor the Delaware Blue Coats' jerseys. The deal comes with a seven-figure community investment in the Philadelphia region that will support a court refurbishment and the Jr. 76ers Summer Hoops Tour.

Jersey Mike's × EFL Trophy: Jersey Mike's takes over as headline sponsor of the EFL Trophy under a five-year deal that took effect immediately and runs through the 2030-31 season. The competition for League One and League Two clubs and invited Premier League under-21 sides is now the Jersey Mike's Trophy, its fifth sponsor in seven years.

Santander Bank × Providence College Athletics: Santander Bank is the first jersey patch partner for Providence College Athletics, under a multiyear agreement with the school and Learfield. The bank's logo goes on the men's basketball, women's basketball and men's hockey uniforms. Providence says it is the second Big East school and the first Hockey East school with a corporate jersey patch.

Adobe × NHL: Adobe became an Official Creative, Marketing and AI Partner of the NHL ahead of the 2026-27 regular season. The league and its 32 clubs get access to Adobe's CX Enterprise software, including GenStudio, which the NHL will use to personalize content for NHL.com, the NHL app, social media and digital advertising. Down the line, Adobe Express could let fans make and share their own posts with NHL-themed templates.

See you next Wednesday.