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
Fans of the Dallas Mavericks and New Orleans Pelicans are looking forward to a new way to watch home games in the upcoming National Basketball Association season.
Both teams are leaving their regional sports networks owned by Diamond Sports, according to a bankruptcy court filing Friday.
The NBA season is set to begin on Oct. 22. While neither franchise has publicly announced where their home 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 Grey television to broadcast games this season, a person close to the team 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 matchups on Gray's local stations and the Mavericks, who appeared in last season's NBA Finals, signed a 13-game deal with TegnaDallas-Fort Worth stations.
Representatives for the Mavericks and Tegna did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for information about who would broadcast their home games.
The Mavericks and Pelicans are the latest teams to move the bulk of their regular-season games from their Diamond-owned regional sports networks, which are under the Bally Sports brand.
Diamond Sports has spent the past 18 months trying to emerge from 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 refunds from the Mavericks and Pelicans, respectively, as part of the terminations, according to the court filing.
The split of the Mavericks and Pelicans comes as Diamond is signing broadcast and streaming rights deals with the NBA and NHL for next season as part of its bankruptcy proceedings. The deals are subject to court approval.
“We appreciate the continued collaboration and long-term partnerships with the NBA and NHL,” Diamond Sports CEO David Preschlack said in a statement, adding that the agreements with the leagues “are another important milestone” toward emerging from bankruptcy protection.
Diamond Sports has been one of many companies affected by the cable TV downfall. Although it launched a sports-only streaming service for some of its teams in 2022, the company’s $8 billion debt was too overwhelming to stop it from filing for bankruptcy protection.
As the NBA and NHL seasons approach, Diamond has also faced increased pressure in recent months to form a viable business plan and prove he can make the necessary rights payments.
Diamond marked another milestone this summer when it reached an agreement to return its networks to 'Comcast'Bally Sports cable TV customers stopped streaming on Comcast (Diamond's third-largest distributor) in early May.
Disclosure: Comcast is the parent company of NBCUniversal and CNBC.
