The NBA’s 2025-26 season is the first under a new eleven-year rights cycle that runs through 2035-36. The deal split the rights three ways for the first time in two decades, adding NBC and Amazon as new national partners alongside the longstanding ESPN-Disney package. The new structure shifts the broadcast landscape materially compared with the previous TNT-and-ESPN era.
The 2025-26 broadcaster map
ESPN and ABC carry the largest share of national windows. ESPN runs the regular Wednesday and Friday primetime games, plus a Saturday afternoon ABC window beginning in January. ABC carries the Christmas Day broadcasts and the NBA Finals each year. Disney’s package totals roughly 80 regular season games on national television, plus a substantial chunk of the postseason.
NBC and NBC Peacock are the new national partners as of 2025-26. NBC carries roughly 50 regular-season games on the linear network plus the Peacock streaming companion, with a Tuesday night doubleheader anchoring the package. The Peacock subscription at $13.99 monthly carries the streaming simulcast plus exclusive Peacock-only games on selected Monday nights.
Amazon Prime Video is the third national partner. Prime carries roughly 60 regular-season games plus exclusive postseason coverage, all included with the standard Prime membership at $14.99 monthly or $139 annually. The Amazon package is a meaningful break from history — for the first time, a chunk of the NBA national broadcast lives on a general retail subscription rather than a sports-dedicated tier.
TNT Sports kept a smaller national package for 2025-26 — roughly 30 regular-season games plus selected playoff coverage. The Inside the NBA studio show migrated to ESPN as part of the rights transition.
NBA League Pass at $14.99 monthly or $99 for the full season carries every out-of-market game live, with the full out-of-market replay library. League Pass Premium at $19.99 monthly adds in-market streaming for one team plus commercial-free viewing.
Regional Sports Networks carry the in-market broadcasts for each team — Spectrum SportsNet for the Lakers, MSG for the Knicks, NBC Sports California for the Warriors, and so on. RSN access varies by cable provider; the standalone direct-to-consumer pricing for the major RSNs runs $19.99 to $29.99 monthly depending on the network.
What the subscription stack looks like in 2025-26
For a single-team fan in the team’s home market, the local RSN subscription (roughly $25 monthly) plus the occasional national broadcast on linear ABC or NBC covers most of the season. For an out-of-market fan, NBA League Pass at $99 for the full season is the right answer — every game live, full replay library.
For the casual viewer who wants the marquee games, the combination of ABC (free over-the-air), NBC (free over-the-air on Tuesday nights), and Amazon Prime (which the household likely already has for shopping) covers the headline national broadcasts without any sports-specific subscription cost.
A practical postseason plan
The 2026 NBA postseason is currently mid-cycle as of this writing in May 2026. The conference finals air across ABC and TNT under the previous rights split — the new rights deal takes full effect starting with the 2025-26 regular season but the playoff distribution honored the legacy structure for this final year. The 2026 Finals are on ABC.
From the 2026-27 season onward, NBC and Amazon will be in the postseason rotation alongside ESPN and ABC, ending TNT’s twenty-five-year run as a postseason broadcaster.
For the broader US sports broadcasting landscape, see the broadcaster directory. For specific NBA coverage on partner editorial guides, see the NBA streaming guide on Methstreams and Sportshub’s NBA broadcaster page.