Indiana Pacers guard Tyrese Haliburton
Credit: Kyle Terada-Imagn Images
The Indiana Pacers are the second NBA team to announce an exclusive local media rights agreement with DAZN.
The Pacers were one of the twelve NBA teams that previously had an agreement with FanDuel Sports Network. While many NBA teams in the same position have announced agreements to broadcast local games over the air, the Pacers, along with the Minnesota Timberwolves, will move in another direction, airing every game through DAZN.
The vast majority of games will air on a Pacers-branded streaming service on DAZN. However, 22 regular-season games and four preseason games will be available for free in the DAZN app, and 15 of those games will be simulcast on over-the-air television. That is different from the Timberwolves announcement, which revealed that 15 games will be free in the DAZN app, but did not announce any plans for over-the-air simulcasts.
Another difference from the Timberwolves announcement is that the Pacers announced pricing. The subscription service will cost $19.99 a month or $119.99 a season. The Pacers are also offering an “Early Bird Season Pass” for $59.99 if you subscribe by October 15. It is not clear if subscribers will also need to maintain an additional subscription to the base DAZN streaming service in order to subscribe to the Pacers-branded one.
According to Sports Business Journal, the Pacers will have an $8 million guarantee from DAZN, in addition to a 50-50 ad sales revenue share. The deal is a multi-year agreement, with a mutual exit clause after the first year, allowing the Pacers to leave after the 2026-27 season to join the NBA’s centralized streaming hub. If the Pacers stay with DAZN for the 2027-28 season, they will receive $7 million-$8 million more.
Obviously, the ad revenue is not yet clear, but the Pacers will need significant ad revenue to match their previous $17 million rights fee with FanDuel.
Making up revenue has become a key issue for the teams leaving FanDuel.
“It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster,” Indiana Pacers CEO and President Mel Raines told SBJ. “It has been for everybody. Obviously, we’ve been talking to the other 12 [former Main Street] teams on a regular basis, and if there was an easy, quick, obvious solution, everybody would’ve picked that and announced a long time ago. And so I think we got to a point probably two months ago where I pulled everybody into a conference room … and I said, ‘What are we actually trying to accomplish here, guys?’ And the answer was we want to get our basketball games in as many of our fans’ hands as we can. That may be in their home or literally in their hand.”
In addition to the Timberwolves and Pacers, the Nets and Knicks have also joined through an agreement with DAZN to replace the Gotham Sports app. The Orlando Magic and Charlotte Hornets have agreed to over-the-air broadcast deals while DAZN will be their streaming home. DAZN is also expected to announce exclusive deals with a number of other NBA teams.