In a major shakeup to the regional sports landscape, the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury are keeping their games free for fans in Arizona. The teams announced a multi-year extension with Gray Media that will keep Suns, Mercury, and Valley Suns games available over the air through 2030, while also adding a digital streaming option through Arizona’s Family. The Suns say the deal reinforces their fan-first approach and continues what they describe as a groundbreaking shift away from the old regional sports network model.
The move signals a big win for fans as the Suns were one of the earliest NBA teams to make a real bet on free local TV. According to the team’s announcement, the original 2023 deal was the first modern local broadcast partnership in the NBA and WNBA to move away from the traditional RSN setup. Gray Media says the extension makes the Suns and Mercury the first NBA and WNBA teams to offer games under one broadcast partner across both over-the-air television and streaming. The partnership has led to a substantial 500% viewership increase for Mercury broadcasts and 110,000 viewers per game for the Suns, a top-four ranking in local household NBA viewership.
Suns owner says the point is access, not just revenue
Suns owner Mat Ishbia is not pretending this is the most lucrative route. In a recent interview defending the move, he said, “It’s maybe not the most financially successful decision from a business owner, financial [standpoint], but it’s the right decision,” and added that it is the job of NBA owners to do the right thing for fans and the money will follow. In the team’s own framing, Ishbia has consistently described the media strategy as putting fans first
That argument is similar to the one Jazz owner Ryan Smith has made since Utah moved toward free local access. Last year, Smith said the Jazz lost nearly 50% of their media revenue after switching to OTA broadcasts and a direct-to-consumer package, but he still called the new model a success and said he would not go back to the old one. Smith also said the team’s reach expanded dramatically compared with the old RSN setup.
On the court, they may be Western Conference foes, but taken together, Ishbia and Smith are making the case that free or cheaper access may hurt short-term rights revenue, but it can widen the audience, grow the fan base, and make the game easier to find. The owners’ local broadcast push is coming at a time when fans are already dealing with a fractured sports TV landscape.
The Suns are not alone as the RSN model keeps cracking
The Suns extension lands while the old regional sports network system keeps falling apart. Main Street Sports Group, the parent company behind FanDuel Sports Networks, announced it was folding last month, and a combined 20 NBA and NHL teams tied to the RSN were told to find new local homes.
The Hawks, Hornets, Cavaliers, Pistons, Pacers, Clippers, Grizzlies, Heat, Bucks, Timberwolves, Thunder, Magic, and Spurs made up FanDuel’s NBA roster. Notably, the Pistons announced a new local TV deal with Scripps Sports that will return Pistons basketball to free over-the-air television starting in the 2026-27 season. The company says WMYD-TV20 Detroit will be the official local broadcast home, with all locally available preseason and regular-season games airing free over the air.
But the rest of the former FanDuel group is still in flux. Fubo had offered local broadcast deals to the 13 teams, but it later withdrew those bids, saying the deals were not fiscally prudent given uncertainty around minimum guarantees. Plus, the NBA will likely centralize local rights in the future, which means many teams are now leaning toward one-year over-the-air deals or other short-term stopgaps while they wait for the league’s next move.
Why free TV could be in the NBA’s future playbook
This all sits against a larger fight over sports streaming costs. Lawmakers have urged the FCC to crack down on what they call “anticompetitive practices and corporate greed,” arguing that fans are being forced to pay more while games are spread across more and more services. The same report also noted concerns about decreased competition in the sports streaming market. The increased pressure from Washington could help explain why teams and leagues are looking harder at free TV, local affiliates, and simpler distribution models.
While the Suns current deal runs until 2030, the franchise has already positioned itself for where sports media may be headed next. With the anticipation of the NBA’s game plan to centralize in‑market rights as early as 2027–28, that could change with two new teams expected to join the Association in 2028–29. A 32-team league could make 2030 the perfect slam dunk to roll out a massive local rights deal.
If more owners searching for their local media rights deals next season have a fan-forward approach like Ishbia and Smith, cord cutters will see more live games slowly drift back to free OTA television. The challenge is that the path there is still messy, uneven, and highly dependent on each team’s market, ownership philosophy, and willingness to trade revenue for reach.
