TL;DR: National NBA games this season live on NBC and Peacock, ESPN and ABC, and Amazon Prime Video, so the cheapest full national setup is Peacock plus Prime plus an antenna for ABC, with ESPN's own app or a live TV bundle if you also want the Wednesday and Friday games. Your own team's local games are a separate problem, solved by a regional sports network, your team's direct-to-consumer app, or NBA League Pass if you live out of market.
That's the whole answer if you're in a hurry. Everything below is for the person who wants to know exactly which door to knock on for which game.
I spend most of my year tracking where movies land once they leave theaters, and somewhere along the way I started thinking about the NBA the same way. A game has a theatrical window, which is the live broadcast, and then a long tail of condensed replays and highlights. The difference is that no studio has ever spread a single slate across this many storefronts. So here's the map.
Who has what: the national schedule by night
The league's current TV deals started with the 2025-26 season and run for eleven years, so this arrangement is going to feel permanent for a while. TNT is gone after decades, which still looks wrong to me when I type it, and the Inside the NBA crew moved over to ESPN as part of the shuffle.
NBC and Peacock. NBC carries Sunday Night Basketball once the NFL season winds down, plus a regular run of Monday and Tuesday night games. A chunk of those, including a Monday night package, streams only on Peacock, and everything NBC airs simulcasts there too. NBC also fronts a big opening week and the All-Star Game. Peacock Premium runs about $10.99 a month with ads. Premium Plus is $16.99 and mostly buys you fewer ads on the library, not on live games, so I wouldn't upgrade just for basketball. The app itself is fine, though I find the live sports rail buried under a wall of Bravo tiles.
ESPN and ABC. Wednesday and Friday nights belong to ESPN. ABC takes Saturday primetime and Sunday afternoons deeper into the season, keeps the Christmas Day showcase, and has the NBA Finals every single year. ESPN launched its standalone streaming app in 2025. The Unlimited plan is about $29.99 a month and includes everything on ESPN's linear channels plus the old ESPN+ library. If you already have a cable or live TV login, the ESPN app works with that at no extra cost.
Amazon Prime Video. Amazon has roughly 66 regular season games, mostly Thursday nights once Thursday Night Football wraps up in December, plus Friday and Saturday windows. It also owns the NBA Cup knockout rounds, the play-in tournament, a share of the first two playoff rounds, and a conference finals series in alternating years. It's included with Prime, which is $14.99 a month or $139 a year, or you can take Prime Video alone for $8.99. Honestly, Amazon's live sports presentation is the best of the three. Clean stat overlays, no login friction, and the app never asks me to sit through a promo for a reality show.
The night-by-night assignments shift a little from season to season, so confirm on NBA.com's national TV schedule before you plan a subscription around one specific night of the week.
Three realistic ways to build your setup
I've stopped thinking about this as 'which service' and started thinking about it as 'which combination.' Here are the three that actually make sense.
1. The cheap national package (about $26 a month). An antenna gets you NBC and ABC over the air for free in most of the country. Add Peacock for the exclusives and Prime for Amazon's slate. You'll miss ESPN's Wednesday and Friday games, which is a real gap, but it's a lot of basketball for the price of two streaming subscriptions.
2. Everything national, no cable (about $56 a month). Same as above plus ESPN Unlimited. This is the setup I'd pick if I only cared about the marquee matchups and the playoffs. Every national window is covered.
3. A live TV bundle (about $83 a month and up). YouTube TV and Hulu + Live TV both carry NBC, ABC and ESPN, and both unlock the ESPN app with your login. Fubo carries all three as well. DirecTV Stream costs more but has the widest set of regional sports networks, which matters for the next section. Sling Orange is the budget option at around $46, but it only gets you ESPN, with NBC and ABC available in a limited number of markets. One catch that trips people up: even with a full bundle, you still need Peacock and Prime for their exclusive games. The bundle doesn't replace them.
Your local team is the hard part
Roughly 60 of your team's 82 games aren't on any of those national networks. They're on whatever your team sold its local rights to, and that's where the real headaches live.
Most teams still run through a regional sports network. FanDuel Sports Network (the former Bally networks) covers a big chunk of the league, NBC Sports has regional channels in the Bay Area, Boston and Philadelphia, Spectrum SportsNet has the Lakers, MSG has the Knicks, YES has the Nets, and so on. These channels come bundled with DirecTV Stream, Fubo in some markets, and traditional cable. YouTube TV and Hulu carry some but nowhere near all of them.
The good news is that direct-to-consumer options have spread fast. FanDuel Sports Network sells a standalone app for around $19.99 a month. MSG+ and Spectrum SportsNet+ do the same for their teams. And a growing group of teams, including the Suns, Jazz and Pelicans, moved their games to free over-the-air local broadcasts paired with an optional paid streaming app. If your team is one of those, an antenna is the whole answer.
My honest advice: every team has an official 'how to watch' page on its website, and it's more accurate than any general guide, including this one. Check it once in October and you're set for the year.
League Pass and the blackout rule
NBA League Pass is the out-of-market product, and it's excellent for what it is. Every team, every non-national game, with the home and away broadcast feeds and no-commercial condensed replays. Pricing has hovered around $16.99 a month or about $110 for the season, with a Premium tier near $22.99 a month that adds multi-device streaming and fewer ads. Check the NBA app for the current numbers, since they tend to nudge upward each fall.
The catch is in the name. If you live in your team's market, their games are blacked out live on League Pass, and the national windows are excluded no matter where you live. League Pass is for the fan in Chicago who grew up loving the Grizzlies, not the fan in Memphis. The league usually opens a free preview during the first week of the season, which is a good way to find out whether the blackout hits you before you pay.
Free and nearly free options
An antenna is the big one. NBC and ABC are free over the air, and that includes the NBA Finals. A decent indoor antenna is a one-time $25 to $40 purchase. Beyond that: Peacock and Prime both run periodic free trials, Amazon occasionally streams select games free to non-members, the ESPN app is free with any pay TV login you already have, and the NBA app itself has free highlights and condensed game recaps about an hour after the final buzzer. That last one is how I watch most West Coast games, if I'm being honest.
The 2026-27 specifics (this part will age)
The season tips off in late October 2026, with NBC and Peacock carrying opening week. Amazon's NBA Cup group stage runs through November with the knockout rounds in December. Christmas Day is on ABC and ESPN as usual. All-Star Weekend lands in February on NBC and Peacock. The conference finals rotate, with ESPN and ABC taking one series every year and NBC and Amazon alternating the other, so confirm which one has which when the playoffs arrive in April. The Finals are on ABC in June.
FAQ
Is any NBA game still on TNT? No. TNT's deal ended after the 2024-25 season. If your habit is to flip to TNT on Tuesday nights, retrain it toward NBC and Peacock.
Do I need Peacock if I have YouTube TV? For the Peacock-exclusive games, yes. YouTube TV gives you NBC's broadcasts, but the streaming-only Monday package never touches the NBC channel.
Can I watch the Finals without paying for anything? Yes. The Finals air on ABC, which is free with an antenna.
Does League Pass include national games? Generally not. National games are carved out and go to their assigned network. League Pass covers the local broadcasts of out-of-market games.
That's the season's release map. Bookmark the nights that matter to you, and I'll be back to redraw it when the playoffs start hopping between apps.
Rachel
— Rachel Ortiz