After two years of being the first NBA team to break with their troubled regional television network partner, the Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix Mercury are celebrating a success with a new local media rights deal that has revitalized their revenue. The Suns and Mercury have agreed to a two-year extension with Gray Media to broadcast their games for free in Arizona through the 2027-28 season. This agreement, valued at over $30 million per season, according to sources close to the matter, recovers the revenue they stopped receiving when their partnership with Diamond Sports, which was then in bankruptcy, ended in 2023. This lucrative contract was boosted by the fact that the Suns’ local audiences more than doubled, while the Mercury, in addition to an overall increase in WNBA audiences, experienced a 425% growth.
At the time, it was an aggressive and unusual move, which led Diamond Sports to sue the team for breach of contract. The lawsuit was eventually settled, and the Suns moved forward by producing their own broadcasts and airing them over the air, running promotions to give away free television antennas to fans. They also launched a streaming service for their games called Suns+. Several NBA teams, also dealing with regional sports network (RSN) issues, followed Phoenix’s lead by airing their games for free on local stations, including the Utah Jazz, Charlotte Hornets, and New Orleans Pelicans. The decline of RSNs as a result of cord-cutting is one of the biggest financial problems currently facing the NBA. Although a new 11-year, $77 billion national media rights deal begins this season, which ensures revenue growth, reductions in local television revenue resulted in the league slightly reducing its projected salary cap numbers for this season. NBA teams are expected to receive around $145 million each from rights deals this upcoming season, according to sources, but some teams are dealing with reductions in their local television deals. For example, earlier this year, the New York Knicks agreed to reduce their local television deal by $41 million for the 2025-26 season as part of a restructuring plan with MSG Networks. Ishbia has been in contact with several owners who are exploring how to handle changing market conditions and hopes that the initial success of the Suns and Mercury can continue. In the next two years, 18 teams will have their RSN deals expire, and the NBA is looking for ways to create options both on broadcast television and streaming platforms.It’s been a win-win situation. It was about doing the right thing for the fans and making the games more accessible. And when you grow the fan base, good things happen.
Mat Ishbia, Suns and Mercury owner
Everyone wanted to wait and see, it’s important to take less money [from local television] or even have no money and rely on it. Let’s hope it can be a model for other NBA teams. You do the right thing for the customer and good things tend to happen.
Mat Ishbia, owner of the Suns and Mercury
