NBA Embraces Streaming, Adds 75 National Games to 2025–26 Schedule

The 2025–26 NBA regular-season schedule is out, officially solidifying the league’s embrace of streaming services.

The NBA announced 247 national games for the upcoming season, up from 172 last year (a 43.6% increase) as the league begins its 11-year, $77 billion media deal with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon Prime Video. The national games are those that air to all customers on either linear television (ABC, ESPN, NBC) or streaming services (Peacock, Amazon Prime Video, ESPN).

The league says every national game will be available on at least one national streaming service.

The season starts Oct. 21 with a doubleheader on NBC and Peacock, the first NBA games on NBC in more than two decades. The first game will be the Rockets visiting the Thunder, followed by the Lakers hosting the Warriors.

The first exclusively streamed NBA games will come just three days later with a Celtics-Knicks and Timberwolves-Lakers doubleheader on Amazon Prime Video. 

The first Peacock NBA Monday games will be Oct. 27 as the Cavaliers face the Pistons and the Nuggets play the Timberwolves.

The NBA’s season-long national schedule will feature games on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. Once the middle of the season hits—and football season winds down—the NBA will have national games every day of the week.

• Monday: Peacock
• Tuesday: NBC, Peacock
• Wednesday: ESPN
• Thursday: Amazon Prime Video
• Friday: Amazon Prime Video, ESPN
• Saturday: Amazon Prime Video, ABC
• Sunday: ABC, NBC, Peacock

This season, NBC will debut Sunday Night Basketball, akin to its Sunday Night Football coverage during the NFL season. The first Sunday Night Basketball will be Feb. 1. 

Top National Teams

Four teams are tied at 34 for the most national games: the Knicks, Lakers, Thunder, and Warriors. The choices are not surprising, as Oklahoma City is coming off a championship run while the other three are big-market franchises that made the playoffs last year.

Golden State and Los Angeles are still considered the two biggest draws in the league—and their Christmas matchup last year was the most-watched regular-season game in half a decade.

The new-look Rockets—who added Kevin Durant after finishing second in the West last year—are next with 28 games, tied with the Anthony Edwards–led Timberwolves. The Spurs and Victor Wembanyama just missed the top 10 with 22 national games.

Every NBA team will have at least two national appearances this season. Each team had at least one when the schedule was announced last year, but not all finished with a national game. The Wizards, for example, had their one game on TNT replaced by a matchup between the Cavs and Thunder.