After the flood of nostalgia from what I heard Roundball Rock on NBC's first NBA broadcast in more than two decades backtracked, fans were left confused and frustrated through the first three weeks of the season. There are more national broadcasts this year, but they are harder to find than ever since the first championship games. Emirates NBA Cup tonight.
It's no longer as simple as turning on the TV and searching through two or three channels to find a game. To watch every national NBA game this season, you need three separate streaming services. Life is hard enough; watching sports should not enhance this feeling.
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The 2025-26 season will be the first under the NBA's new media rights deal, which will end the era of the NBA on TNT and return games to NBC. It also propels the NBA into the streaming era, with games appearing on Peacock and Prime Video every week of the season, as well ESPN's new direct-to-consumer streaming service.
Here's what you need to know about the NBA's new media landscape and where to find which games, on which nights and on which streaming services.
Victor Vembanyama has quickly become a talent to watch, but figuring out how to watch or stream San Antonio Spurs games this season seems more difficult than it should be.
New NBA broadcast partners
This season will be the first in a new 11-year agreement between the NBA and its three media partners: Disney (ABC/ESPN), NBCUniversal (NBC/Peacock) and Amazon (Prime Video). There will be 247 national broadcasts for the trio this season, dwarfing last season's 172 national broadcasts.
Last year you just needed one live streaming service like Sling or YouTube TV, which featured national channels ABC, ESPN and TNT each week of the season. Now, with Peacock exclusive games and the Prime Video tablet, the convenience of a single streamer is as outdated as mid-tier hopping.
Here's a breakdown of national broadcasts:
- ABC/ESPN: 80 regular season games
- NBC/Peacock: 100 Regular Season Games and All-Star Game
- Prime Video: 66 regular season games
Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks will be on national broadcasts 34 times this season.
Weekly schedule for the 2025–26 NBA season.
The NBA National Broadcast will air four nights a week throughout the season:
- Monday: Peacock
- Tuesday: NBC and Peacock
- Wednesday: ESPN
- Friday: Amazon Prime
Beginning mid-season, following the completion of the NFL and college football seasons, the schedule will be expanded to every weeknight and weekend afternoons with the following additions:
- Thursday: Amazon Prime
- Friday: ESPN
- Saturday noon: Amazon Prime
- Saturday Night: ESPN and ABC.
- Sunday noon: ESPN and ABC.
- Sunday Night: NBC and Peacock
Finally, the best studio sports show, Inside the NBA, is moving from TNT to ESPN this season. The 21-time Emmy Award-winning show will still be filmed in studios in Atlanta and will continue to feature Ernie Johnson, Charles Barkley, Shaquille O'Neal and Kenny Smith. What has changed is show schedule. Instead of weekly broadcasts, Inside the NBA will air more sporadically during important regular season games, Christmas Day games and during the playoffs, including the Conference Finals and NBA Finals.
Led by league MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, the Oklahoma City Thunder are the favorites to repeat as NBA champions entering the 2025-26 season.
Three streaming services you need for the NBA season
While you can watch many games on ABC, ESPN and NBC throughout the season via cable or a live streaming service, you'll miss out on the streaming-only games found on Peacock and Prime Video.
For complete coverage, NBA fans will need to subscribe to three streaming services: Peacock, Prime Video and ESPN for a total of $50 per month. (If you're already an Amazon Prime subscriber for free two-day shipping and consider it a sunk cost, then ESPN and Peacock will cost you $41 a month.)
NBA games will return to NBC for the first time since 2002. NBC and Peacock will broadcast 100 regular season games, including Peacock exclusive Monday night games and the All-Star Game. Doubleheaders will air on NBC and Peacock Tuesday night, with the earlier game shown on NBC in the Eastern and Central time zones and the later game shown on NBC in the Mountain and Pacific time zones. Starting Feb. 1, NBC and Peacock will air NBA games on Sunday nights.
You can stream every NBA broadcast on NBC with Peacock's premium plan for $11 per month. Read our Peacock review.
There's nothing new about broadcasting NBA games on ABC and ESPN, but this season you'll be able to watch those games without cable or a live streaming service thanks to ESPN's new direct-to-consumer streaming service.
For NBA fans, an ESPN Unlimited subscription will allow you to watch 80 regular season games, including games shown on ESPN and ABC. There will be Wednesday night doubleheaders throughout the season, followed by the addition of Friday night doubleheaders, Saturday night and Sunday afternoon games midway through the season.
The ESPN Unlimited plan costs $30 per month (or $300 per year) and allows you to stream all linear ESPN networks: ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ESPNews, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network and ACC Network. You also get access to ESPN programming on ABC, ESPN Plus, ESPN3, SECN Plus and ACCNX. Read our review of ESPN Unlimited.
(There's also a $13-per-month ESPN Select plan, which is essentially a rebrand of ESPN Plus. It gives you access to thousands of live games—think small college conferences whose games you can't watch anywhere else—but not the NBA.)
This season, Prime Video will broadcast 66 regular-season games, mostly Friday night doubleheaders that will include the group rounds of the NBA Cup season tournament. It will also feature the elimination rounds and NBA Cup championship game, as well as the Black Friday game and two global games in Europe (Jan. 15 in Berlin and Jan. 18 in London). Also in January, following the conclusion of the NFL and college football seasons, Prime Video's NBA schedule will expand to include games on Thursday nights and Saturday afternoons.
Prime Video is included with an Amazon Prime subscription for $15 per month or $139 per year. You can also only subscribe to Prime Video for $9 per month. Read our Prime Video review.
Local and non-market games
Let's say you're a Celtics fan in Boston, a Knicks fan in New York, or a Lakers fan in Los Angeles and care more about following your local team than watching national broadcasts, then you'll need to subscribe to a TV service that carries your team's regional sports network. Most RSNs are either part of the FanDuel Sports Network or the NBC Sports Network. The two live TV streaming services with the most RSNs are: DirectTV And Fubo.
You can also subscribe to RSN FanDuel Sports Network via Prime Video and RSN NBC Sports via Peacock. Additionally, several teams—the Dallas Mavericks, Lakers, New Orleans Pelicans, Phoenix Suns, Portland Trail Blazers and Utah Jazz—offer streaming option for buyers in the market via NBA League Pass.
Meanwhile, NBA League Pass remains the best choice for serious fans who want to be able to watch every non-market game every night of the season. The basic plan with ads costs $110 per season. The premium plan costs $160 per season and replaces ads with in-arena broadcasts, adds the ability to download games and highlights for offline viewing, and allows you to watch on up to three devices simultaneously.
