[Windhorst] “In a possible tipping point move, Suns & Mercury become first teams to walk away from their financially-troubled RSN and are putting their games on local TV for free and on a streaming service.”
In a possible tipping point move, Suns & Mercury become first teams to walk away from their financially-troubled RSN and are putting their games on local TV for free and on a streaming service: https://t.co/A4c8Tt5qyq
— Brian Windhorst (@WindhorstESPN) April 28, 2023
by BigButter7
40 Comments
[Link to ESPN article.](https://www.espn.com/nba/story/_/id/36310895/suns-mercury-broadcasts-over-air-tv-streaming)
Have they tried making league pass not dog shit?
All hail ishbia
based
I would wish this for the Nuggets but no way a Walmart affiliated team is going to walk away from Altitude.
Even if it destroys the fan base here. I became a Sonics fan watching OTA basketball and able to watch almost 100% of the games free.
Walking away from my Nuggets season tickets because there isn’t the excitement here and it’s tough to sell the tickets unless it’s certain teams. When they were on all the providers it was much easier.
This is great. Hopefully more teams follow their lead
“We’re not focusing on money. We’re focusing on winning, success and taking care of fans, taking care of the community,” new team owner Mat Ishbia said.
holy shit imagine sarver ever saying anything remotely like this. ishbia’s the man.
Does that mean I can stream Suns game for free from a different state?
Houston next please. My dad is too boomer to learn how to internet stream, so he’s chained to DirecTV for the Rockets.
NBA needs to do this in general
Hell yeah! When can I cancel Bally?
Pels plz
imagine how many more people would watch. NBA games if they could watch their local games on regular TV!
Matt already the GOAT owner
Good for them, maybe other teams will follow suit. It’s about time we stop letting these RSNs take advantage of fans and start making sports accessible to everyone.
when we first got the thunder i was in school in norman and no cable and man we got like one game broadcast locally and i was so excited that i would be able to watch but it was a one-off preseason game. awesome for the locals.
taking care of the community,” new team owner Mat Ishbia said.
This is awesome. Baller move.
@RyanQualtrics
Mat Ishbia, you are the man. Suns fans deserve this after almost two decades of one of the worst human beings on Earth owning the team. I really hope this opens up the floodgates for other teams doing this too.
Just building the existing fanbase up and getting more eyeballs on the team will offset any revenue loss Ishbia might face right now by at least 5x in the future imo.
taking care of the community,”
Yet I couldn’t watch the Knicks/Cavs game on NBA Tv the other day because it was blacked out lol. I don’t even get MSG on Youtube TV so make it make sense
Robert Sarver sucked ass
good. fuck cable.
I hope Ballmer does this next
that’s because cable TV is struggling in this economy. Good move to re-brand it as a fan-driven decision though.
In an era where corporate greed could not be any more obviously negative to consumers, this is very welcome to see. More eyes on the game will bring back money
Fuck bally sports all my friends hate bally sports. Altitude tv as well
What becomes of the local on air talent? Will they have to take a huge pay cut? I don’t imagine many will want to stick around and work for local free TV wages.
yoooo lucky bastards. Fuck Bally
Please Cavs, I can’t take Bally or our lack of bench depth anymore
Please let this be a fucking trend.
As a blazers fan I can’t wait for this to be a league wide thing. Fucking hate black outs and only or two providers to get games on.
I live in Portland and would be a blazers fan if I ever got to watch them play.
Wish the Lakers did this. I hate having to pay a million dollars per month for spectrum sportsnet
Fuck yes. This needs to start happening nationally for all teams..
LOOKING AT YOU, DENVER
Good. Hopefully future streaming deals like this aren’t territory locked either.
I live in Orlando, and in Florida we have two different Bally (formerly Fox Sports Net) channels. Between the two, they carry the Marlins, Rays, Heat, Magic, Panthers and Lightning.
Both Marlins and Rays games air in Orlando. But Panthers and Heat games don’t, they only show the Bolts and Magic. Luckily ESPN+ has out-of-market regional broadcasts so I can watch almost all of the Panthers games. But I’ve been able to watch hardly any Heat games since I moved up here.
Obviously there are nights where there is overlap and they can’t show both on TV state-wide, but on the Bally app it doesn’t give you the option to watch the other games because it’s geo-locked based on your cable provider.
Blackouts like this of any sort are stupid, but ESPECIALLY when you are PAYING for a service via streaming or cable subscription.
Please! I couldn’t watch Cavs games all year without cable. Bailey Sports + can suck it.
Matt Ishbia already more liked by Suns fans than Sarver was
this should be the standard