I love NBA basketball. Every year, I get really excited around the beginning of September because I know tip-off is approaching. This year, I also had to figure out how I’m going to watch the Bulls (lose almost every game) with a combination of streaming packages.
That’s fun. And slightly depressing.Fortunately, you can benefit from my hours of research—I’ve done pretty much all the legwork for every streaming package, so you can pick which one works best for you. We’re basically best friends, so I don’t mind sharing it with you.
Before we get into the details, though, let’s talk about who carries these games on normal TV. Basically, the NBA is broadcast on five primary channels:
- ABC: The home of The Finals. You may not watch many games through the regular season here, but The Finals aren’t something you’re going to want to miss—especially if you’re a Cavs or Warriors fan (for the next several years, anyway).
- TNT: NBA on TNT! It’s as classic as the game itself. Basically.
- TBS: Again, there aren’t a lot of games here, but it does happen, so you may want this.
- ESPN: The de facto sports channel gets several NBA games spread throughout the year, so it’s a must-have. Plus, you’ll get all sorts of extra NBA action, like highlights and specials.
- Your Local Station(s): If you want to watch your local team (aka the team from the city you currently live in), many games are probably broadcast on local stations, like FOX Sports Detroit for the Pistons, or NBC Sports Chicago and WGN-TV for the Bulls. You’ll probably have to Google the TV schedule for your local team to find out which channels broadcast these games, and then look up streaming options for those channels. Not all local affiliates offer streaming, though—thankfully, you can make up any holes with an inexpensive TV antenna.
But even if you choose a streaming package that has all of those channels, you’re still going to miss out on a bunch of games—there are 30 different teams, each of which play 82 games in just the regular season. That’s a lot of games, and there’s no way every single one of them is going to get a live broadcast. Especially if your team is, like my Bulls, bad. At least I still have the Wolves, which is almost like watching the Bulls in blue and white at this point.
But I digress. If you want all the games, NBA League Pass will give you access to every game that isn’t broadcast nationally or in your local area (aka “blacked out” games). So, if a game is available on broadcast TV in your area, it won’t be on League Pass.
That’s still a ton of games that League Pass does have, though—way more than you get with the above channels. They’re just less high profile, or for out-of-your-state teams.
In addition, League Pass only covers the regular season. All post-season games come on TV anyway, so you still won’t miss anything if you pick the correct streaming package.
So, with all that, let’s talk about pricing, starting with League Pass.
League Pass Pricing and Streaming Options
Since League Pass is a must-have for NBA fans who never want to miss a game, let’s start there. Since we’ve already talked about what League Pass does (and does not) include, we can just straight into the dollars. Basically, League Pass is broken down into three different packages with two pricing plans for each:
- All Teams + In Arena ($250/year or $40/month): This gives you access to all 30 NBA teams, as well as their in-arena entertainment during halftime and whatnot. There are no commercials or advertisements during in-game breaks, which is neat, I guess.
- All Teams ($200/year or $29/month): This gives you access to all 30 teams—every game, save for the blacked out games mentioned above. You will have to deal with advertisements during game breaks though, like time-outs, and halftime.
- One Team ($120/years or $18/month): If you only want to follow one team, this is your package. Again, keep in mind that you still won’t be able to watch your local team on League Pass, regardless of which package you choose, so this is mostly useful for fans who follow an out-of-state team.
That’s pretty straightforward. The pricing structure is pretty steep if you ask me, but I buy it every year regardless, so whatever. I like ball.
Thankfully, pretty much every platform…
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