NBA on television
National Basketball Association (NBA) games are televised nationally in the United States, as well as on multiple local channels and regional sports networks. Beginning with the 2025-26 season, broadcast channels ABC and NBC, pay television network ESPN, and streaming services Peacock and Amazon Prime Video will nationally televise games. ESPN continues to show doubleheaders on Wednesday nights, and Amazon Prime Video will air games on Friday nights for most of the season. Peacock will stream an NBA game on Monday nights, while NBC will air two regionalized games on Tuesday nights: one at 8 p.m. Eastern Time (on NBC stations using Eastern and Central Time Zones) and another at 8 p.m. Pacific Time (on stations using Mountain and Pacific Time Zones). During the second half of the season, ABC continues to show a single game on Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons, whereas Prime Video will stream Thursday night games. Prime Video will also stream selected Saturday afternoon games, and ESPN continues to air games on Friday nights, albeit on selected weeks. There are some exceptions to this schedule, including Tip-off Week, Christmas Day, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day. More games may be shown as the end of the regular season approaches, particularly games with playoff significance. Coverage of the first two rounds will be split between ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video, while the conference finals will be alternated between these platforms every year. The entire NBA Finals will continue to be shown nationally on ABC. The NBA Finals is one of the few sporting events to be shown on a national broadcast network on a weeknight.
More recently, ABC, ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV aired nationally televised games until the 2024–25 season. TNT aired games on Tuesday nights, as well on Thursday nights later in the season. ESPN aired Wednesday and Friday night games throughout the regular season. During the playoffs, the first round was split between TNT, ESPN, NBA TV, and ABC on mostly weekends, and the second round was split between ESPN, TNT and ABC on weekends. The conference finals were alternated between ABC/ESPN and TNT every year.
Games not televised by its national partners are instead broadcast by local broadcast stations and regional sports networks, televising their respective local team within their respective region. A number of nationally televised games are also non-exclusive, meaning that the national telecasts may also air in tandem with those of the game by local broadcasters.
With the Toronto Raptors being the only NBA team in Canada, television rights differ in that country. Games exclusively televised south of the border by an American national broadcast network may be simulcast by a Canadian network, but all contests involving the Raptors are non-exclusive north of the border.
In addition to the English-language television broadcasts, select NBA games also have Spanish-language broadcasts since 2002.