Watching sports Television has never been easier, and the push toward streaming hasn’t made it any easier or less confusing for NBA fans. The NBA regular season has started, and with 30 teams playing 82 games each, that’s a lot of games to watch. As broadcasters have pieced together a Kafka-esque web of similarities, these have been spread across a range of television networks. But luckily for you, we’ve put together a guide to get you in the game no matter how you cut the cord to avoid paying for traditional cable or satellite TV.
Nationally televised games are played on four networks: ABC, ESPN (for which ESPN2 serves as a secondary station), TNT (for which TBS serves as a secondary station), and NBA TV. But unlike NFL games, not all NBA games are broadcast on national networks. Many games are only broadcast on regional sports channels, such as Bally Sports and AT&T’s SportsNet. They all have coverage deals that vary so much from team to team, region to region, and game to game that it’s impossible to cover them all in this guide.
Check out the NBA schedule to see which games are on which channels for the games you want to watch. Additionally, games broadcast live on national channels are typically blackouts (that is, they cannot be viewed) for viewers who are local to the team playing. While you’re here, check out our guides to the best streaming devices and the best TVs to get the most out of the season.
Updated November 2023: We’ve adjusted details such as season start dates, pricing, and channel availability.
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Best for fans from outside the market
If you follow a favorite team outside your home television market, the choice is simple NBA League Pass for $100 per season. The basic League Pass package lets you watch all the games that are not on the market. Games in your local market are off, so if you’re a Brooklyn Nets fan and there’s a game at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, you’re out of luck. You’ll also miss all the nationally televised games.
You can save $10 per season by choosing NBA Team Pass if you only want to watch one team’s games. League Pass Premium, for $150 per season, eliminates ads and lets you watch on two devices at once, while regular League Pass limits you to streaming on one device at a time. If you subscribe, you also get access to NBA TV.
Best live TV streaming package
Sling TV comes in two different flavors, blue and orange, and each costs $40 per month with different channels. I recommend that you buy orange and skip blue. Orange has TNT and TBS, just like Blue, but also exclusively ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPN3. Neither does ABC, but you can watch national ABC NBA games on Orange’s ESPN3 or via an antenna. You’ll have to spring for the $15 per month NBA League Pass add-on if you want to watch NBA League Pass and NBA TV games.
If you don’t need out-of-market League Pass games, just buy NBA TV as part of the $11 per month Sports Extra add-on. This is the best package as you can watch all NBA games on national television for just $51 per month. The downside is that the Bally Sports and SportsNet regional networks are missing from the channel lineup, so depending on where you are and which teams are playing, you may not be able to watch them live.
Second place
YouTube TV for $73 per month is a little bit more affordable than its closest competitors, FuboTV and Hulu + Live TV, and includes ABC, ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS and NBA TV. However, it costs extra to enable a 4K Add-On. If your only purpose is to watch NBA games, Sling TV (with the League Pass add-on) can get you there cheaper, but YouTube TV is still a good choice if you’re watching the other, non-basketball channels such as Sling TV Orange. does not wear. YouTube TV also lacks Bally Sports and SportsNet, so those in-market games aren’t on the menu for subscribers.
Upgrade choice
DirecTV stream for $65 per month doesn’t require a traditional DirecTV subscription and you’re not tied into any contracts. The entry level, called Entertainment, gives you ESPN, ESPN2, ABC, TNT and TBS. Moving up to the $90 per month Choice level adds NBA TV. NBA League Pass can be added to any package for an additional subscription fee. The big advantage of DirecTV Stream over the other streamers is that if you go to the top, you get regional sports networks, such as Bally Sports and SportsNet, which allow you to watch live games on the market that would otherwise not be available via streaming. The details of this vary widely by market, so you’ll need to parse the details for your team and city.
The bench warmers
We think the above choices are the best options for most people, but here are some other ways you can catch up on basketball.
FuboTV ($75 per month) is the most overtly sports-oriented network of all the live television streaming networks, but falls under coverage of the NBA. The basic level gets you access to ESPN, ESPN2, NBA TV, and ABC. NBA League Pass requires an additional subscription. FuboTV lost access to TNT and TBS in 2020 and has not regained it until now. If you want to watch games on these two networks, you can subscribe to Max (formerly HBO Max) for $10 per month and add the new Bleacher Report Sports Add-On for another $10 per month. However, at that point you will pay $95 per month.