Key Points
- Main Street Sports Group will shut down its FanDuel-branded regional sports networks after missing rights payments.
- The closure impacts 13 NBA teams and six NHL teams that must find new local broadcast partners.
- The collapse accelerates the shift away from the regional sports network model toward streaming-based distribution.
Main Street Sports Group, the operator of the FanDuel-branded regional sports networks, will wind down operations later this month, marking the end of a troubled chapter for one of the largest portfolios of local sports rights in the United States.
The company, which emerged from the bankruptcy of its predecessor Diamond Sports Group, had been widely expected to collapse after missing rights payments to professional sports teams beginning late last year. Efforts to secure a last-minute buyer, including discussions with London-based streamer DAZN, ultimately failed to materialize.
Main Street is expected to cease operations after airing its remaining slate of regular-season games and first-round coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs later this month.
The shutdown leaves a significant gap in the local media landscape, affecting 13 National Basketball Association (NBA) teams and six National Hockey League (NHL) clubs that relied on the networks for regional distribution. Teams including the Atlanta Hawks, Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs in the NBA, along with the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues in the NHL, will now need to secure new broadcast arrangements ahead of the 2026-2027 season.
One exception is the Los Angeles Kings, whose local rights situation stabilized after the Los Angeles Angels acquired the regional network that carries their games, allowing continued distribution under the FanDuel Sports Network brand.
“FanDuel Sports Network has reached agreements with the NBA and NHL to broadcast games and other programming through the end of the 2026 NBA regular season and the end of the first round of the NHL playoffs,” a spokesperson for Main Street Sports told The Desk by e-mail on Friday. “We are preparing to wind down our operations upon seasons’ end unless we reach a strategic transaction. We’re pleased to finish out the NBA and NHL seasons, and we appreciate the collaborative relationships we have enjoyed with our team and league partners as well as the connections we have fostered with local fans.”
The collapse comes as leagues and teams increasingly rethink the regional sports network model, which has faced mounting pressure from cord-cutting and declining pay TV subscriptions. The NBA, anticipating Main Street’s failure, has been working toward a centralized local rights package that would bundle in-market games across multiple teams and sell them to a streaming distributor.
That effort is now expected to launch no earlier than the 2027–28 season. In the interim, the league is encouraging teams to pursue short-term agreements, ideally one-year deals or contracts with early opt-out clauses, to maintain flexibility ahead of a broader shift to a nationalized streaming model.
According to reports, platforms including YouTube TV have expressed interest in such a package, but only if it includes a critical mass of teams, potentially 20 or more.
DAZN has also started approaching individual teams about interim streaming deals, positioning itself as a potential long-term partner once centralized rights become available. Other digital platforms, including Victory Plus (Victory+) and ViewLift, are also exploring short-term opportunities with displaced teams.
Financially, the fallout remains significant. None of the affected NBA or NHL teams have received local rights payments from Main Street in 2026, though creditors are expected to cover up to 60 percent of those losses once dissolution agreements are finalized.
