DAZN has a chance to be the NBA rookie of the year. Whether it makes it to a second season is anyone’s guess.
Exactly 11 teams will appear on the platform, available at an app store near you, but it’s a clear case of teams using DAZN and DAZN using teams during a most peculiar bridge season. As of 2027-28, the NBA is expected to launch a centralized streaming hub to house the local broadcasts of anywhere from 20 to 29 teams. YouTube is the front-runner, Amazon may outbid them and DAZN — not yet a household name in the U.S. — is the perceived third option. Except it has one fortuitous advantage: this season all to itself.
With the Cavaliers, Grizzlies, Pacers, Spurs and Timberwolves airing games there exclusively — and the Knicks, Nets, Pistons, Magic, Hornets and Wizards housing only direct-to-consumer platforms there — DAZN is essentially a centralized hub for a third of the NBA’s franchises, with a chance to gain credibility with the league before bidding perhaps $1 billion-plus annually for the 2027-28 hub.
“What I’ll say is we can only control what we can control,” said Walker Jacobs, global chief revenue officer and president, USA, at DAZN. “We’re worried about executing at a really high level and doing a great job so that we become a very logical partner for more NBA teams, if not all NBA teams \[next season\] … Everyone else can talk about what they can do, but we actually are in a unique position where we can show them what we can do this year.”
Around the rest of the league, 12 teams will be deploying an over-the-air linear blueprint through a local channel, with the Pistons, Magic, Hornets, Heat, Bucks, Hawks and Thunder joining the Jazz, Suns, Mavericks, Trail Blazers and Pelicans from last season. It is this season’s other test case — hoping free games lead to ancillary revenue.
“All those teams that are on broadcast, the ratings are up over 50%,” said Playfly Sports CEO Craig Sloan. “Your fans are happy. You’re using it as a marketing platform. You may have a smaller rights fee but, with the larger advertising rates, they can make up the difference.
“But I love it right now because I don’t think anyone thinks that someone has cracked the \[local TV\] code. The teams are all trying these new things. And then the best plan will win.”