Mike Breen upset that MSG Networks, other regional channels won't get to air NBA playoff games in new TV deal
Knicks broadcasters Mike Breen, left, and Walt 'Clyde' Frazier pose for a photograph before a game between the Knicks and the Indiana Pacers at Madison Square Garden on Feb. 1, 2024. Credit: Jim McIsaac
Mike Breen called it “sad,” but it’s true: When the Knicks’ first-round series against the Pistons is over, MSG Networks’ days of carrying Knicks playoff games will be over, too.
That is because this is the last time local outlets such as MSG will have rights to any postseason NBA games, ending a history of playoffs on local cable TV that dates back more than a half-century.
Under the NBA’s new contracts with ESPN, NBC and Prime Video that take effect in 2025-26, all playoff games will be national exclusives, including the first round, with some games streaming exclusively on Prime Video or Peacock.
“It’s really sad,” Breen, MSG’s lead Knicks play-by-play man as well as the lead national play-by-play man for ESPN/ABC, told Newsday before Game 2 on Monday night.
“I think it’s so unfortunate, because for the fans, they want to hear their local broadcasters, at least for some part of the postseason, because broadcasters often are part of the fans’ family.
“I think it was a bad decision from the league. You can’t blame the rightsholders, because they’re paying all this money. But the league should have said, you know what, we’re going to hold onto that first round.
“I was really disappointed that they didn’t hold onto the first round, because it means something to the fans.”
Currently, local channels such as MSG – known in the business as “regional sports networks” or “RSNs” – can show first-round games other than those set for ABC’s national weekend windows. That is why Knicks-Pistons Game 4 on Sunday will not be on MSG.
All Major League Baseball playoff games are national exclusives, but the NHL still has most first-round playoff games on RSNs in addition to national outlets.
The current NBA arrangement is good news for fans who prefer listening to local announcers over national voices, but it is not good news for national networks, which see some of their audience lost to local channels.
“I say this as someone who does national games,” Breen said. “I understand the importance of what the regional announcers mean to the fans, and you're taking that away from them. I get it later on (in the playoffs), but you can’t give them at least the first round?”
Even for the regular season, the NBA’s new television contracts favor national outlets over local ones, which will hurt RSNs such as MSG.
Knicks fans still will sometimes hear Breen call first-round games in his national job. But his longtime MSG partner, Walt Frazier, likely will be out of the playoff business when the Pistons-Knicks series concludes.
Breen is scheduled to call Games 2, 3, 5 and 6 of the series, if it goes that far.
The NHL could look to join the NBA and go all-national in the first round when its next round of TV contracts is negotiated.
John Buccigross, an ESPN hockey announcer, said recently on Sports Business Journal’s “The Sports Media Podcast” that national outlets should push for first-round exclusives.
“I would think that next time, whether it’s us or TNT, we need exclusive playoff games,” Buccigross said. “I mean, we just can’t sacrifice a round where these big markets can watch on their regional sports network.”
The last time a Stanley Cup Final was available on local cable was 1994, when the Rangers’ Game 7 clincher over the Canucks drew massive ratings on MSG. After that, national outlets made sure to keep late-round playoff games for themselves.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
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