{"id":939783,"date":"2026-07-16T22:33:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/939783\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T22:33:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T22:33:15","slug":"espns-jimmy-pitaro-says-network-is-interested-in-nba-local-broadcast-hub","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/939783\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN’s Jimmy Pitaro says network is interested in NBA local broadcast hub"},"content":{"rendered":"

One day after a report surfaced naming YouTube as the front-runner<\/a> to land a future NBA local broadcast hub planned to launch prior to the 2027-28 season, ESPN is making sure its intentions are known as well.<\/p>\n

At an event hosted by CNBC and Boardroom on Thursday, ESPN chairman Jimmy Pitaro said his network is interested in hosting a centralized local broadcast product for the NBA and any other league that is looking towards a similar solution. Per The Athletic\u2019s Mike Vorkunov, Pitaro said: \u201cWe\u2019ve made our intentions very clear with with every league, including the NBA, that we want to be part of the solution here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

ESPN is interested in NBA\u2019s centralized local broadcast package. Jimmy Pitaro said, at CNBC\/Boardroom event, he wants ESPN to help fix local TV issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve made our intentions very clear with with every league, including the NBA, that we want to be part of the solution here.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 Mike Vorkunov (@MikeVorkunov) July 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

CNBC\u2019s Alex Sherman, who interviewed Pitaro at the event, added that ESPN did not know anything about YouTube\u2019s discussions with the NBA and that the network would also be open to a non-exclusive product shared with another partner.<\/p>\n

\n

Jimmy Pitaro tells me on stage at Game Plan that he doesn\u2019t know anything about YouTube talking to the NBA about a local rights streaming product and reiterated ESPN is very interested and would do a non-exclusive product with another partner(s)<\/p>\n

\u2014 Alex Sherman (@sherman4949) July 16, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The Sports Business Journal report<\/a> initially tying YouTube to the future hub indicated that any product would likely coexist with Prime Video\u2019s NBA League Pass. The local broadcast hub would offer in-market fans access to their local team\u2019s games, while League Pass would continue to offer out-of-market fans an option to view games outside of their local team. It\u2019s unclear if this is what Pitaro is referring to when he says ESPN would do a \u201cnon-exclusive product,\u201d or if there are other possibilities in mind.<\/p>\n

There are reasonably at least 22 teams that would welcome the NBA\u2019s aggregated local broadcast hub: the 13 teams formerly under contract with the now-defunct FanDuel Sports Networks, the four teams still on deals with NBC Sports RSNs, and the five teams that were on over-the-air deals prior to this offseason. Of course, the more teams the NBA can bring on board, the more valuable the product would be to a streamer.<\/p>\n

MLB, for instance, is looking to centralize local broadcast rights (and associated revenue<\/a>) for all 30 of its clubs as part of a major overhaul to its collective bargaining agreement, including the implementation of a salary cap and salary floor. This year, ESPN began licensing MLB\u2019s out-of-market product, MLB.TV, on its new direct-to-consumer app. The network has a similar arrangement with the NHL, though those out-of-market games are included with ESPN Unlimited, while MLB.TV requires an additional subscription.<\/p>\n

Suffice it to say, ESPN is serious about its desire to become a go-to destination for local sports broadcasts. Pitaro\u2019s public comments are good news for the NBA, which seems to have itself a bidding war brewing among some heavy hitters in sports media.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One day after a report surfaced naming YouTube as the front-runner to land a future NBA local broadcast…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":939784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[30],"tags":[171,126111,128114,173,67,132,68],"class_list":["post-939783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-entertainment","tag-jimmy-pitaro","tag-nba-on-espn","tag-tv","tag-united-states","tag-unitedstates","tag-us"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116932038503451430","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=939783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}