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NBA TV Unsolved Mysteries

Like other league-owned channels, the 26-year-old NBA TV was ravaged by cord-cutting, and left with little bargaining power in a bundled and streaming world. Now, without any exclusive games of its own, its future is a mystery.

nba Russell Westbrook clippers
The speed with which the league-owned networks lost subscribers is astonishing: Before Tuesday’s games, NBA TV was averaging just 545,000 viewers for its playoff games—peanuts compared to the 6.7 million viewers that the playoffs have averaged on ABC. Photo: Harry How/Getty Images
John Ourand
May 1, 2025

The Celtics’ decisive 31-point win over the Magic on Tuesday night marked the end of a sports media era, and I’m not talking about the Banchero–Suggs–Franz Little Three. Instead, it will go down as NBA TV’s final live playoff game, and maybe even the last exclusive NBA game to ever appear on the cable channel. So far, the NBA’s head honchos haven’t set a schedule, developed a plan, or even assigned a budget for the network next year.