Welcome to NBA opening night, where basketball fans across the country celebrate the birth of a new NBA season. The sights, the sounds, the new places, and the fresh faces are all ready to launch tonight. But so is a new challenge — figuring out where and how to actually watch.
Get your scorecards ready and check those subscriptions. The NBA officially begins its 11-year, $76 billion agreements with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon tonight. Marking the start of a new broadcast and streaming era. After months of chatter about how much more complicated — and expensive — the NBA has become to follow, the journey begins.
For a league that already struggles to attract attention and viewership during much of its regular season, the NBA is now asking even more from its fan base. More in subscription costs, more in patience, and more in effort to find where games are airing. The question is, will fans adapt?
It’s no secret that daily life is getting more expensive. Budgets are stretched thinner than ever. The idea of paying more for anything — especially entertainment — has become a hard sell. Sports networks continue shelling out astronomical rights fees for live play-by-play content, and the only way to offset those costs is through advertising and subscriber revenue.
The NBA Streaming Era Begins
That’s where the NBA’s test begins this season: more games on more streaming platforms than ever before.
According to MarketWatch, fans who want to watch every NBA game online this season — regular season and playoffs — will need to spend roughly $939 across five streaming services. Cable subscribers can still access NBC, ABC, and ESPN, but they’ll miss exclusive matchups on Peacock and Amazon, which will stream games weekly.
So yes, confusion is inevitable.
Take my Chicago Bulls, for example. They aren’t a major national draw this season, with only two games on national TV. Their December 1 game at Orlando will stream on Peacock, while their February 5 matchup at Toronto airs on Prime Video.
Fans of marquee teams like the New York Knicks, Oklahoma City Thunder, Los Angeles Lakers, or Golden State Warriors aren’t much better off. Each team will have 34 of their 82 regular-season games on national networks — nearly half the schedule — scattered across various streaming platforms.
Is that fair? Is that right? Is that worth the amount of money fans will need to spend just to watch games from home?
The Product Has Been Damaged
Earlier this year, Commissioner Adam Silver offered an eyebrow-raising defense when asked about the high costs fans will face this season to watch games.
“There’s a huge amount of our content that people can essentially consume for free. And this is very much a highlights-based sport,” Silver said last month. “So, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, you name it—any service—there’s an enormous amount of content out there. YouTube is another example that is advertising-based, that consumers can consume.”
That response was tone-deaf then and remains tone-deaf now. Reading it, you’d think the NBA was built for TikTok rather than television. If the league commissioner is describing basketball as a “highlights-based sport,” why should fans pay premium prices to watch live competition at all?
What the NFL does right is what the NBA continues to miss. The NFL strategically places meaningful matchups on platforms like Prime Video — games that matter in the standings, with storylines attached. Fans might grumble about paying for streaming access, but they do it because the content feels essential. The NBA hasn’t earned that same level of importance for its regular season.
Load management has diluted interest and ticket value, while meaningless midseason tournaments fail to generate genuine excitement. When several teams finish under .500 and still qualify for the postseason, it’s hard to convince fans that every night matters.
Add in the chorus of NBA commentators publicly criticizing the league for chasing broadcast checks over fan accessibility, and it paints a picture of a brand losing touch with its core audience.
Wait for the Results
Make no mistake about it: NBA fans will pay more this season and jump through more hoops than ever before for a product that’s simply not improving. The league isn’t earning the fan’s dollar — it’s expecting it. What was once must-see television has become background noise, and this year, that noise will cost more than ever to hear.
Whether fans adapt remains to be seen. Early viewership figures will tell the story. Last season, the NBA saw a 2% decline overall, with early-season ratings down 20% before rebounding after Christmas. If this year’s trend looks similar — or worse — the message will be clear.
If the NBA is serious about charging more while making games harder to find, it needs to deliver more for its fans. A league should never define itself as “highlight-based,” catering to the collective attention span of a hummingbird. Basketball, at its best, is a competition full of personality, storylines, and emotion — not just clips for social media.
If that essence is lost, fans will eventually make their voices heard.
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John Mamola is Barrett Media’s sports editor and daily sports columnist. He brings over two decades of experience (Chicago, Tampa/St Petersburg) in the broadcast industry with expertise in brand management, sales, promotions, producing, imaging, hosting, talent coaching, talent development, web development, social media strategy and design, video production, creative writing, partnership building, communication/networking with a long track record of growth and success. He is a five-time recognized top 20 program director in a major market via Barrett Medi’s Top 20 series and has been honored internally multiple times as station/brand of the year (Tampa, FL) and employee of the month (Tampa, FL) by iHeartMedia. Connect with John by email at John@BarrettMedia.com.
