The NBA logo before the game between the Detroit Pistons and the Charlotte Hornets at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit on March 11, 2024.
Nic Antaya | Getty Images
Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans fans are looking forward to a new way to watch local games in the upcoming National Basketball Association season.
Both teams are being spun off from their regional sports networks owned by Diamond Sports, according to Friday’s bankruptcy filing in court.
The NBA season is set to begin October 22. While neither franchise has publicly announced where their local games will be broadcast, both teams have a history of televising their games with local broadcasters.
The Pelicans have reached an agreement in principle with Gray TV to air games this season, a team insider told CNBC, confirming earlier media reports. Representatives for Gray and the Pelicans declined to comment on the matter.
Last season the Pelicans aired 10 of their games on Gray’s local stations and the Mavericks, who appeared in last season’s NBA Finals, entered 13-game deal with TegnaDallas-Fort Worth Stations.
Representatives for the Mavericks and Tegna did not immediately respond to requests from CNBC asking who will broadcast their local games.
The Mavericks and Pelicans are the latest teams to carry the majority of their regular-season games from the Diamond-owned regional sports networks, which are under the Bally Sports brand.
Diamond Sports has spent the past 18 months trying to escape bankruptcy, and along the way, several NBA, WNBA and NHL teams have abandoned regional sports networks in favor of local broadcasters. Some MLB teams that have left these networks will now have their games produced by the league.
Diamond Sports will receive $1.3 million and more than $297,000 in payouts from the Mavericks and Pelicans, respectively, as part of the terminations, according to the court filing.
The split with the Mavericks and Pelicans comes as Diamond is entering into broadcast and streaming rights deals with the NBA and NHL for the upcoming season as part of bankruptcy proceedings. The deals are subject to court approval.
“We value the continued partnership and long-term partnerships with the NBA and the NHL,” said Diamond Sports CEO David Preschlack, adding that the deals with the leagues “are another important milestone” in exiting bankruptcy protection .
Diamond Sports was one of several companies crushed by the cable fall. Although it launched a sports-only streaming service for some of its teams in 2022, the company’s $8 billion in debt was too impressive to keep it from filing for bankruptcy.
With the NBA and NHL seasons approaching, Diamond has also faced more pressure in recent months to form a viable business plan and prove it can make the necessary royalty payments.
Diamond marked another milestone this summer when it reached an agreement to return its networks Comcast’cable TV customers. The Bally Sports networks were killed off at Comcast — Diamond’s third-largest distributor — in early May.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
