How to watch the NBA in 2026-27: NBC, Amazon, ESPN and League Pass

The 2026-27 NBA season starts on Tuesday, Oct. 20, with three games on NBC and Peacock: Celtics at Pistons, 76ers at Knicks, and Thunder against Spurs. It is the second season of the league's national TV deals with NBC, Amazon and Disney. NBC and Peacock have 100 regular-season games, ABC and ESPN have 80, and Prime Video has 66.

The regular season ends on Sunday, April 11, 2027, when all 30 teams play.

The national schedule by night

Each partner has its own nights. This is the weekly pattern the NBA published for 2026-27:

Night	Where	Notes
Monday	Peacock	Up to two games from Oct. 26 to April 5, also on NBC Sports Network
Tuesday	NBC and Peacock	Doubleheaders from Oct. 27
Wednesday	ESPN	Doubleheaders all season
Thursday	Prime Video	Doubleheaders from January
Friday	Prime Video, some ESPN	Prime from Oct. 23; select ESPN doubleheaders from January
Saturday	ABC and ESPN, Prime Video	NBA Saturday Primetime from Dec. 12; Prime afternoon games from February
Sunday	ABC and ESPN, NBC and Peacock	ABC afternoons; Sunday Night Basketball on NBC from Jan. 24 to April 4

Sunday Night Basketball skips Feb. 14 and Feb. 21. Telemundo has 10 of those Sunday games in Spanish, plus the All-Star Game.

Where each network streams

Every national game streams, but the three partners use different apps. NBC games are on Peacock. Amazon games are on Prime Video, which comes with an Amazon Prime membership. ABC and ESPN games are on the ESPN app, which the NBA says carries all of them through ESPN's direct-to-consumer service.

Prices went up this fall. Peacock Premium went from $10.99 to $12.99 a month on Aug. 18, and Premium Plus from $16.99 to $19.99. ESPN Unlimited went from about $30 to about $32 a month on Sept. 17.

Which subscriptions you need

To see every national game you need three things: Peacock for the NBC games, Prime Video for the Amazon games, and access to ESPN for the ABC and ESPN games. At this season's prices that is $12.99 for Peacock Premium and about $32 for ESPN Unlimited each month, plus an Amazon Prime membership. ABC games are also free over the air with an antenna, which covers the Saturday primetime games, the Sunday afternoon games and the Finals.

Most fans need less. A Knicks fan, for example, gets most games from the team's local TV partner and only needs the national services on the nights the Knicks are on them. Check your team's schedule for how many Peacock, Prime and ESPN games it has before paying for all three.

The NBA's own tools help with this. Tap to Watch in the NBA App and on NBA.com links each game to its national, local, international or League Pass telecast, and the league publishes a calendar at nba.ecal.com with the same links.

Big dates this season

The Emirates NBA Cup returns with 60 group games from Oct. 30 to Nov. 27, played on Cup Nights across all three partners. Every knockout game is on Prime Video: the quarterfinals on Dec. 4 and 5, the semifinals on Dec. 8 or 9, and the final on Dec. 11 at Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis.

NBC has Holiday Hoops, seven games across four nights between Dec. 21 and Dec. 29. Christmas Day belongs to ABC and ESPN, with five games on Friday, Dec. 25:

• Spurs at Knicks, noon ET
• Heat at Celtics, 2:30 p.m. ET
• 76ers at Lakers, 5 p.m. ET
• Thunder at Timberwolves, 8 p.m. ET
• Nuggets at Warriors, 10:30 p.m. ET

In January, Prime Video has both regular-season games in Europe, and both are Spurs against Pelicans: Paris on Thursday, Jan. 14, at 2 p.m. ET, and Manchester on Sunday, Jan. 17, at 10:30 a.m. ET. The AWS NBA Rivals Week runs Jan. 26-30 with 12 national games. NBC also has quadrupleheaders on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents' Day.

All-Star weekend is Feb. 19-21, 2027, in Phoenix. Peacock streams the Rising Stars game, and NBC and Peacock have All-Star Saturday Night and the All-Star Game.

Play-In, playoffs and the Finals

Prime Video has all six games of the Play-In Tournament. In the playoffs, Amazon has the Eastern Conference Finals for the first time, exclusively. The Finals stay on ABC; the NBA calls ESPN the exclusive home of the NBA Finals on ABC.

What NBA League Pass covers

League Pass is the NBA's out-of-market package. It shows games that are not on a national channel and are not in your local market, and you can buy it in the NBA App, on NBA.com, through cable and satellite companies, or through Amazon, which the league calls its main third-party digital seller.

There are two main plans. The standard plan has commercials and plays on one device. Premium removes commercials, shows in-arena feeds during breaks, allows offline downloads and plays on up to three devices. Both plans let you watch up to four games at once, include extra broadcast options and carry live radio for every game. There is also a Team Pass for one team.

Two rules catch people out. National games on ESPN, ABC, NBC, Peacock and Prime Video are blacked out on League Pass, and they show up there after 6 a.m. ET the next day. Games in your home market are blacked out too, because the local TV partner has them. Students can get 40 percent off in eligible markets through UNiDAYS, and monthly plans can be paused or cancelled at the end of a billing cycle.

NBA outside the US

Prime Video is also carrying the NBA in Canada for the first time this season. Elsewhere, League Pass is priced by country, and NBA.com shows the local price.

Finding tonight's games

CrackStreams lists the day's games and tip-off times on its NBA page. Use it to see who plays, then match the night to the table above. If you follow hockey too, our NHL guide covers ESPN, TNT and Sportsnet.