With the NHL and NBA media deals, a current point of contention is around local broadcasts being made available for playoff games. And when it comes to the new NBA TV deals kicking in next season, the voice of the Finals Mike Breen thinks the league is making a bad decision.
Early round playoff games have been simulcast on local RSNs for years so that fans can have more accessibility to the games and the ability to watch the broadcasts that they have been watching all year.
However, next year as part of the new NBA media deals with ESPN, NBC, and Amazon, all playoff games will become exclusive to those national television partners. And Mike Breen, who is also the lead NBA announcer for ESPN nationally and the lead Knicks announcer for MSG locally, thinks the league is mistaken.
In quotes given to Neil Best at Newsday, Breen called it “really sad” that first round games would no longer be on local networks like MSG.
“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.”
It’s interesting that this is the opposite viewpoint that has been expressed by Breen’s ESPN on the NHL side, John Buccigross.
The longtime ESPN hockey voice has called on the NHL to follow in the footsteps of the NBA when their television deal with ESPN and TNT comes up after the 2028 season and make all playoff games national exclusives. His reasoning is that the networks who are paying astronomical rights fees deserve to have every fan possible watching those playoff games on their network. He specifically cited big markets that can drain the overall viewership number for ESPN.
Judging by the reaction to the Buccigross take earlier this week, fans are appreciative of the opportunity to hear their local announcers at least call a few playoff games and would side with Mike Breen on this one.
You can definitely see both sides of the argument. Local networks that put in the grunt work over an 82 game schedule deserve to have some postseason action. And fans who develop a connection with those broadcasters over the course of a full season deserve the opportunity to hear their people announce some playoff game. But the national rightsholders pay a ton of money and desire the increased audiences that exclusivity will bring.
As the NBA has shown and the NHL likely will soon, whenever these close, tough decisions are made usually it’s the economics that win out.
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