Adam Silver: Fixing Local Broadcasts Bigger Priority Than NBA Expansion

NBA commissioner Adam Silver said that resolving local broadcast issues must take precedence over league expansion, as relayed by Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal.

Silver made the comments during a conversation with ESPN analyst Bob Myers at the Sports Business Journal’s CAA World Congress of Sports.

Silver said that regional sports networks (RSNs) and cable television are “legacy media” in rapid decline, noting that younger viewers have largely never subscribed to cable. He added that collective RSN rights fees have fallen by roughly 25 percent in recent years, and in some markets, declines approach 50 percent.

Two‑thirds of NBA teams now rely on RSNs that have emerged from bankruptcy under new ownership — such as Main Street Sports Group — or on networks that were previously defunct, including AT&T SportsNet, Silver said. He argued that teams “are losing significant revenue by being trapped on cable.”

As a solution, Silver proposed creating a national streaming RSN platform while reaching distribution agreements with services such as Amazon, YouTube, Apple TV+, ESPN+ and Roku. He suggested the transition to streaming could occur over the next two off‑seasons.

“Until those broadcast and rights‑fee issues are sorted out, expansion is not a foregone conclusion,” Silver said.

He acknowledged that Seattle and Las Vegas are leading candidates for future franchises, and noted that Vancouver has renewed its interest in obtaining a team.

Silver also addressed the NBA’s long‑term plan to establish a standalone European league. He said the league would consist of 12 permanent franchises alongside four additional clubs that would qualify on an annual basis, drawing from established EuroLeague teams.

He stressed that the European league would initially operate independently of the NBA, though a future merger of clubs into the NBA “could be possible.”