We’re in a weird and fractured time for TV. Streaming services have made traditional cable packages more obsolete. This has left live sports in a weird spot, specifically in regard to local TV broadcasts.
The Cleveland Cavaliers have been caught in the midst of this change. Their previous cable partner, FanDuel Sports Network, shut down at the end of last season. As a result, the Cavs and four other NBA teams turned to DAZN, a sports streaming company, to carry their local broadcasts. The Cavs announced
a multi-year deal with DAZN earlier in September.
It costs $119.99 to watch the Cavs’ DAZN broadcast this season. There’s also a $139.99 ultimate tier that allows for more streams and alternative angles and feeds. That dollar amount is in line with most other teams that offer a season subscription. However, the lack of over-the-air broadcasts or alternative ways to watch Cavs games locally through cable led Awful Announcing to rank the Cavs last in their local broadcast accessibility rankings.
Awful Announcing’s criteria for ranking all 30 teams were simple and are explained below:
“Methodology: Each team was compared based on the cost of its direct-to-consumer streaming service, the number of major cable providers on which it is available, the number of exclusive national games, the number of over-the-air games, and the number of streaming-exclusive games”
They used that criteria to measure every team’s in-market accessibility and concluded that the Cavs were the least accessible. Here’s their explanation as to why:
“The Cleveland Cavaliers are the least accessible NBA team to watch for the 2026-27 season. The main reason is that they are one of five teams not available on cable, as they signed an exclusive deal with DAZN. What makes them worse than the other four teams? They will have 59 games exclusive to streaming, including DAZN, which costs $120. Then, 10 other games will be on other platforms because they are national exclusives. If the Cavaliers’ local games were on cable, that wouldn’t be such a big problem, since the package would include the national games. But because they aren’t, fans will need to subscribe to another service to watch those 10 games, in addition to the $120 they already spent on DAZN. On the bright side, at least 15 local games will be simulcast over the air.”
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The issue with the Cavs streaming partnership is the exclusivity of the deal. If you want to watch the 59 exclusive DAZN games, you need to buy the subscription package to do so. There’s no option to bundle with cable or anything else. Additionally, it’s cheaper and easier to watch the local broadcasts of the 29 other out-of-market teams through NBA League Pass ($109.99 a season) than it is to just watch the Cavs games in the Cleveland area.
Not all teams have embraced the model that the Cavs have. The Atlanta Hawks will be broadcasting their games on Amazon Prime. While that does require a subscription (roughly $54 for the full season), that subscription comes with other perks as well, including access to other national NBA broadcasts.
Other teams like the Milwaukee Bucks and Phoenix Suns are prioritizing traditional over-the-air broadcasts that just require a TV antenna to access. Both also offer streaming options as well for those who would prefer that.
There’s also a conversation to be had about the increase of national NBA broadcasts. Instead of just ESPN, ABC, and TNT exclusively broadcasting national TV games, there’s now ESPN, ABC, NBC, Peacock, and Amazon Prime doing so. The latter two require subscriptions to access.
Figuring out how to navigate local broadcasts in this increasingly splintered TV world is an unenviable task. It’s not as simple as it used to be when cable was much more prevalent. That said, this is an area the Cavs organization should look to improve. Being the least accessible local TV market isn’t good for fans or the organization.
