It may or may not be more expensive to watch the NBA in 2025-26

Good morning. We're looking at the streaming packages that can get you all the basketball you need this season.

Welcome to September. One more month until the NBA preseason, and seven weeks until the regular season tips off. It's time to determine just how much basketball you're going to give yourself the option of watching this year in the wake of a new media rights deal.

Remember: TNT is out and Peacock/NBC and Amazon Prime Video are in. That changes the calculus a lot on its own. Plus: ESPN has finally debuted its standalone app. What's all this going to cost?

Starting with Prime Video

Prime Video, Amazon's streaming service, has all the "national TV" Friday games through December, plus the NBA Cup, then Thursday night games once the NFL is done, then a bunch of Saturday matinees after the NFL is done. Prime Video will also have some playoff action.

If you are an Amazon Prime customer, you already have access to Prime Video, so you'll be good there. If not, the current cost is $8.99 per month. At eight months, that's about $72 in direct costs for Prime Video for the season. There's no (legal) way around it. It is not, to my knowledge, included in any other packages out there.

Adding in Peacock

Peacock will have exclusive rights to a lot of Monday games, which is interesting, because Monday has not been a big NBA night at any time in memory. Peacock also has lots of Tuesday games that will be simulcast on NBC. Later in the season, Peacock adds in some Sunday games, many of which will also be on NBC and will definitely hit those nostalgia receptors. (A late Sunday morning is the optimal time to hear "Roundball Rock.") Peacock will also have exclusive rights to some playoff games.

You need Peacock Premium to get NBA games on the service (Peacock Select won't do it), and that will run you $10.99 per month. For eight months, that's about $88 for the season.

What About NBC and ABC?

Nothing on the NBA's broadcast schedule is showing as an NBC exclusive as of right now, so if you have Peacock locked in, you shouldn't need NBC on top of that.

ABC is different: it has lots of exclusive games once January hits. You can get ABC through a digital antenna if there's an ABC affiliate close enough to you (one-time cost for the antenna), or through a separate streaming service (like Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV), or through cable (it still exists!), or through the next item on our list.

Getting ESPN and ABC

This is not just the summer that Prime Video and Peacock replaced TNT: it's also the summer that ESPN launched its standalone over-the-top streaming service that includes access to all ESPN sports content. The one you'll need for NBA games is ESPN Unlimited. That gets you all of the ESPN and ESPN2 games (Wednesdays all season, plus Fridays once football ends and some Saturdays) plus ABC games (see above). This includes the playoffs and the NBA Finals. And of course there are tens of thousands of other sporting events along with this, and more Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee than one person can safely consume.

You do not get NBA games with ESPN Select. Just the Estonian dart league and Neptune rules football and Stephen A. Smith and Pat McAfee. Don't buy the ESPN Select package if you want NBA basketball.

If you sign up for ESPN Unlimited, you don't need to worry about getting ABC elsewhere through an antenna or anything else.

ESPN Unlimited is $29.99 per month. That's $270 for the NBA season (nine months since we're counting the Finals in June). [whistle sound] It's a lot of money.

Unlike Prime Video or Peacock, you can also get ESPN and ABC through a streaming bundle. In fact, it looks like Hulu + Live TV includes ESPN Unlimited in the package. (Disney is also offering some special deals to combine ESPN Unlimited with Disney+ and Hulu right now.) The streaming bundles that include ESPN Unlimited will invariably be pricier than ESPN Unlimited itself, but maybe include other content your household craves and crucially something we're going to talk about later in this piece.

And Now For League Pass

NBA League Pass, which is how you get hundreds and hundreds of out-of-market games not on the primetime radar, will be offered exclusively through Prime Video's platform this year. Right now, it's showing as $16.99 per month, or $119 for the season, which is in line with what it's been for recent years. This could change before the season. No word on whether the actual service experience will be the same or improved this year.

Aren't You Forgetting NBA TV?

Nope. There are apparently no live games on NBA TV this season. End of an era.

You do get NBA TV with a League Pass subscription on Prime Video. It appears they will continue to host classic games and NBA-adjacent content.

The Worst Slice: Your Local Team

With ESPN unveiling its (expensive as hell) direct-to-consumer service and TNT going away, this is all pretty easy (though expensive as hell). You can sign up for four services – Prime Video, Peacock, ESPN Unlimited and League Pass – and get almost the entire NBA season including playoffs delivered to your TV or laptop or phone for $549.

Almost.

There's still the small matter of Your Local Team. If you are in the unfortunate position of actually wanting to watch Your Local Team due to parasocial dependency or because they are interesting, you might be in a pickle. Some teams continue to have deals with regional sports networks like NBC Sports or Bally Sports or even more bespoke ones like Altitude TV or Space City Home Network or whatnot. Some teams have moved to over-the-air offerings, which will require the use of a digital antenna or a streaming bundle. Some teams are offering bespoke local-only streaming packages for local cordcutter fans (like ClipperVision).

This is a messy space and potentially an expensive space. It will also be shifting until opening night in all likelihood. For example: I feel like I'm pretty plugged into figuring this stuff out and ... I have no idea what it will cost to add NBC Sports California to my Peacock Premium subscription to get local Kings games this season or how to do it, assuming I drop our streaming bundle (YouTube TV) that already has access to the network. Depending on the results, that might mean keeping the bundle and skipping ESPN Unlimited. I have no idea! And that's with a regional sports network under the corporate umbrella of one of the NBA's media partners. I feel bad for Nuggets fans (who will always get screwed when it comes to this piece of the puzzle) and others with non-NBC RSNs. It's likely to be even more complicated for those folks, if history is any guide.

If you have figured out how to watch your local team's games next season, drop a note in the comments. We'll try to put together a comprehensive guide before the season.

Last season, in many cases, the big cable-substitute streaming bundle (costing around $80 per month, or about $500-700 or so for the season) would get you just about everything but League Pass. You'd usually have TNT, ESPN and ABC, and maybe NBA TV depending on the service, plus in many cases your local RSN (plus some amount of other networks depending on the service). This year, you can still do the big streaming bundle for $80 or so a month, but you'll have to add Peacock and Prime Video on top at minimum if you want access to all of the games excluding League Pass exclusives.

It could cost less this season simply because, depending on Your Local Team, the big fat streaming bundle may no longer be necessary. For example, if I can add NBC Sports California to my Peacock package for like $15 per month, I'll break even by dropping YTTV, if I can convince the rest of the household to let the serendipity of something akin to cable go. But Your Local Team could definitely derail any savings you'll find. And for those who were on so-called skinny bundles with the RSNs, the price is definitely higher now.

Alright, that's Monday. Be back on Tuesday with some EuroBasket takes and more.