DALLAS — The Mavericks have reached a multiyear local broadcast rights agreement that the team said Friday will triple the number of people that will be able to see most of the NBA Western Conference champion’s televised games over the air for free.
The agreement with TEGNA, which goes into effect for the upcoming season, will allow about 10 million people in more than 3.1 million Texas households to have access to broadcasts of games not exclusively televised nationally. At least 70 games will be available to watch in the Dallas-Fort Worth market, as well as on stations in Waco, Tyler, Midland-Odessa, Abilene and San Angelo.
The announcement came after the Mavericks and financially troubled Diamond Sports Group last month mutually agreed to end their existing rights agreement for games on Bally Sports Southwest. The NHL’s Dallas Stars had already ended their agreement with Diamond, and the MLB’s Texas Rangers‘ current deal to air games on the regional sports network is only through the end of this season.
“Our new agreement with TEGNA helps meaningfully deliver on that goal by broadcasting more games to more local homes than in any period in franchise history,” said Patrick Dumont, the new governor of the Mavericks after an ownership change earlier this year. “Our goal is to make it as easy for as many Mavs fans to watch Mavs games as possible.”
Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall told The Dallas Morning News that the next phase for the franchise’s TV broadcasts is to develop and implement a streaming service. She said there is no timetable, but didn’t rule out it happening during the upcoming season.
Bally Sports Southwest wasn’t available on many popular streaming platforms, and there have been times when Mavericks, Stars and Rangers fans have had issues trying to watch games on an app.
The Stars announced in July that they are taking their local game broadcasts directly to consumers for free after years of fans having issues watching the team’s games on Bally Sports Southwest.
A seven-year agreement with A Parent Media Co. Inc. will have all Stars regional games free of charge on a new VICTORY+ streaming service.
Diamond Sports Group, which distributes the networks under the Bally name, has been in bankruptcy proceedings in Texas since last March.