With the tip-off of the 79th NBA regular season on Tuesday, October 22, the New Orleans Pelicans and Portland Trailblazers, become the latest NBA franchises to drop their regional sports network for another distribution option. The two teams are joining the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz that had also dropped their regional sports network replaced by a combination of local broadcast stations and a direct-to-consumer streaming service. In the near future, several other NBA franchises may be replacing their RSN with an alternative distribution model.

Last week, the Portland Trailblazers announced they would be dropping their regional sports network, ROOT Sports Northwest. The RSN had been televising Trailblazers games for the past three seasons. The agreement had been scheduled to end after the 2024-25 season. A team official said in a statement, “Trail Blazers basketball will no longer air on ROOT Sports, but we thank ROOT Sports for years of great partnership. An exciting announcement on the future television home of Blazers basketball will be made soon.”

Although no announcement was made on a placement for ROOT Sports, Sports Business Journal reports there could be as much as four local over-the air stations interested. Compared to RSN’s television stations broadcast games for free with potentially a larger audience, although rights fees are lower. In the past, preseason Trailblazers games had aired on KPTV 12, a Fox affiliate owned by Gray Television. Besides the likelihood of a local station coverage, a subscription-based sports app is in the works, allowing for viewers to watch games beyond television.

The ratings for local Trailblazer games during the 2023-24 season tumbled as the team finished with a won-loss record of 21-61, finishing at the bottom of the 15-team Western Conference. Portland has not qualified for the postseason since 2020-21 and appeared on national television only four times in 2023-24 (three on NBA TV). Another factor for the lack of viewers was the teams trading away marquee player Damian Lillard. Also, prior to the 2023-24 season, Comcast Xfinity opted to drop ROOT Sports from its roster of standard channels and adding the RSN to their Ultimate package which cost $20 more each month.

Last April, the NHL’s Seattle Kraken announced their games would no longer be televised locally on ROOT Sports. The Kraken had terminated their agreement ahead of schedule. The Kraken announced their games would be available on a local broadcast television station. As a result, only MLB’s Seattle Mariners games will be televised on ROOT Sports.

Earlier this month, the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans announced they would be dropping its RSN, the Diamond Group owned Bally Sports New Orleans. NOLA reported the team signed a new multi-year agreement with Grey Television. Under the agreement, 70 of the teams 82 regular season games will be televised on Gray Television’s WVUE-TV 8, a Fox affiliate with most games airing on “diginet” Bounce TV. Toward the end of last season, ten Pelicans games had been televised on the station. The station is available throughout Louisiana and parts of Alabama and Mississippi.

Sportico reports the Pelicans, which turned down a more lucrative offer renewal from DSG could possibly reach upwards of three million households with its new network footprint improving ad revenue capabilities. With only the Pelicans as a full-time major league franchise on Bally Sports New Orleans, the RSN, in all likelihood could shut down.

With the continued financial uncertainty of the Diamond Sports Group, the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, Memphis Grizzlies, Detroit Pistons and Oklahoma City Thunder and potentially several other franchises may soon be dropping their RSN or be dropped by their RSN. As part of a revised agreement between the NBA and DSG, teams were allowed to televise up to ten games last season. In addition to the Pelicans, in 2023-24, the Mavericks, Pistons and Thunder had secondary deals in place with local broadcast stations.)

In 2024-25 Diamond Sports Group RSN may be televising as few as ten NBA teams; Atlanta Hawks, Charlotte Hornets, Cleveland Cavaliers, Indiana Pacers, Los Angeles Clippers, Miami Heat, Milwaukee Bucks, Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic and San Antionio Spurs. Sports Business Journal reports the DSG rights fees could drop by as much as 30-to-40% (which could still be greater than the fees a local TV station pays.)

Besides the Seattle Kraken, the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights, Dallas Stars and the Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers have all jettisoned their RSN for a hybrid local broadcast station and streaming. distribution model. MLB’s San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks are also no longer televised on a regional sports network but available on other video platforms.

Another decision impacting RSN is the new contract is the new 11-year $76 billion NBA media rights agreement with Disney, NBCU and Prime Video starting in 2025-26. The new agreement call for have more nationally televised and streamed games. The agreement does not have unanimous appeal among NBA team owners. In a letter to the NBA board of governors, obtained by ESPN, James Dolan, owner of the New York Knicks and the regional sports network, MSG Network, criticized the new agreement.

Dolan wrote, “The increased number of exclusive and non-exclusive games means that national partners would have the ability to air nearly half of the regular season and all postseason games. This reduction in available games for (regional sports networks) risks rendering the entire RSN model unviable. The inclusion of streaming partners in the proposal allows fans in all NBA markets to bypass their RSN to watch certain games in their local market. The proposal offers no local protections for RSNs.”