How to Watch the NBA This Season: New Networks, More Games

The NBA season has just tipped off, and this year, watching it on TV will look a little different. This is due to the league signing a new 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal in July 2024, which means big broadcasters will pay billions of dollars over the next decade for rights to air the games on streaming and TV platforms.

This new deal is split between three partners: NBCUniversal, which owns Peacock and NBC, Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN, and Amazon Prime Video. On Mondays this season, Peacock will stream doubleheaders. Tuesday games will be on NBC, while Wednesday games will air on ESPN. Thursday games will be available on Prime Video, and Friday games will be on both Prime Video and ESPN. 

As for weekend games: Saturday games will air on ABC and Prime Video, while Sunday’s games will be on ABC and NBC. 

Special games this season will look a little different, however. The Christmas Day games will be on ABC and ESPN, while the All-Star Games will be on NBC. The NBA Cup, as well as the NBA Playoff games, will be on all three networks. The Finals will air on ABC. 

This means big things for the league, with the total number of nationally televised games rising 44 percent from last year, rising from 172 to 247 games. The Lakers, Warriors, Thunder, and Knicks will have the most nationally televised season games with 34 games. At the bottom are teams like the Raptors, Wizards, and Jazz with only two games each. 

This change also means more money for the players. Last season, the total estimated league revenue was around

$11.3 billion. With this deal, overall national revenue rose to around $16 billion. Players should see this in salary caps and contracts. 

As for the Nuggets, the local TV home for the Denver Nuggets remains Altitude Sports. This is where the majority of games will be streamed. Altitude Sports partners with 9News and broadcasts 20 Nuggets games over the air. The remainder will air on ABC/ ESPN, Prime Video, or NBC/ Peacock.