NBA postseason split across platforms
This year's NBA postseason is split across ABC/ESPN, NBC/Peacock and Prime Video, while the NBA Finals remain exclusive to ABC under the current deal. The regular season ends today (April 12), the Play‑In Tournament runs April 14–17 and the full playoffs begin April 18 — notably, all six Play‑In games will stream exclusively on Prime Video. (sportingnews.com) (nytimes.com)
The National Basketball Association postseason starts this week with a new rule for viewers: no single channel has the whole bracket anymore. (nba.com) The regular season ends Sunday, April 12, the SoFi Play-In Tournament runs April 14 through April 17, and the first round opens April 18. Game 1 of the 2026 National Basketball Association Finals is set for June 3. (nba.com) All six Play-In Tournament games will stream only on Prime Video, including the April 14 games at 7:30 p.m. Eastern and 10 p.m. Eastern and the April 17 win-and-in games in both conferences. (nba.com) After that, playoff games are divided among ABC and Entertainment and Sports Programming Network, National Broadcasting Company and Peacock, and Prime Video under the league’s new 11-year media agreements. Those deals began with the 2025-26 season and run through 2035-36. (nba.com) The biggest constant is the Finals. ABC remains the exclusive broadcaster for every Finals game under the current package, with potential games scheduled for June 3, June 5, June 8, June 10, June 13, June 16 and June 19. (nba.com) The split is part of a broader remake of the league’s national schedule. During the regular season, Peacock carried Monday doubleheaders, National Broadcasting Company and Peacock aired Tuesday games, Entertainment and Sports Programming Network stayed on Wednesdays, and Prime Video took Friday games and added more windows later in the week. (espn.com) The league said the new contracts would put about 75 regular-season games on broadcast television each year, up from a minimum of 15 under the previous agreement. Commissioner Adam Silver said in 2024 that the goal was to expand reach across broadcast and streaming at the same time. (nba.com) For fans, that means the postseason is now a subscription puzzle as much as a bracket. The play-in round requires Prime Video, later rounds rotate across three rights holders, and the Finals still end where the old television map says they should: on ABC. (nba.com)
