The NBA is a leading sports organization in the world and the frontrunner in everything that has something to do with promotion and access in order to become available to every fan around the world.

With the rise of the cord-cutters and social media, the traditional TV took the back seat and many fans have found questioning which “pay for” television packages they actually need.

This confusion is often high around the NBA’s League Pass, how is it different from NBA TV? What do you actually need in order to get the most enjoyment out of your NBA season? The answer to that will vary for most people. Below we try to go through the noise and get you some answers.

What’s the difference between NBA TV and League Pass?

The Difference between NBA TV and League Pass is significant. NBA TV is in essence just a streaming channel, whereas NBA League Pass is a full streaming service. NBA TV is a live stream channel accessible through NBA League Pass, including expert analysis, documentaries, and more. It features selected NBA games each week. NBA League Pass allows you access to Live Streams and extended highlights of all NBA games in addition to many other features, depending on what package you pay for.

What is NBA TV?

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NBA TV is a pay television channel owned by the NBA and managed by Turner Sports. Dedicated to basketball, the network features an exhibition, regular season, and playoff games broadcast from the NBA and related professional basketball leagues, as well as NBA-related content including analysis programs, specials, and documentaries.

The network is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The network also serves as the national broadcaster of the NBA G League and WNBA games. NBA TV is the oldest subscription network in North America to be owned or controlled by a professional sports league.

The network launched as nba.com TV; the channel, which was renamed NBA TV in 2003, originally operated from studio facilities housed at NBA Entertainment in Secaucus, New Jersey.

The network signed a multi-year carriage agreement with three of the U.S.’s five largest cable providers, Cox Communications, Cablevision, and Time Warner Cable, in 2003. This expanded the network’s reach to 45 million pay television households in the U.S., in addition to distribution in 30 countries worldwide. After Time Warner shut down the sports news network CNN/SI in 2002, many cable providers replaced that network with NBA TV.

The network mainly launched with two purposes; to serve as a barker channel for the league’s out-of-market sports package NBA League Pass, along with featuring statistical and scoring information which was more easily accessible in the pre-broadband age, and it featured mainly archival content from the NBA Entertainment archives in its upper pane to fill programming time. As time went on, the network added more programming, including international basketball leagues and programming from FIBA usually unseen in the American market. The programming mix and channel format changed around the same time as the CNN/SI shutdown.

NBA TV offers news programs devoted to basketball daily, in addition to programs showcasing the lives of individual basketball players, documentaries focusing on a particular NBA team during the season, and archived broadcasts of well-known games.

NBA TV carries at least 90 regular-season games per season, which typically air four days a week during the NBA season, as well as some first-round playoff games. It also carries its own coverage of the NBA Draft.

Live games on NBA TV are subject to local blackout restrictions, since NBA TV despite being owned by the league, does not hold exclusive broadcast rights to any of its games. Games carried by NBA TV are also carried by each team’s local rights holder, either a regional sports network or a broadcast television station.

The network also shows international games, typically on Saturday evenings, with special emphasis on the Euroleague and the Maccabi Tel Aviv team from Israel. In 2005, NBA TV televised the Chinese Basketball Association finals for the first time.

The channel’s flagship program is NBA Gametime Live, a program focusing on news headlines within the NBA and related leagues including the WNBA and G League, highlights, and look-ins at games currently in progress presented by a host and studio analysts. The show airs live six days a week, deferring any TNT game nights outside the playoffs to repeating that evening’s edition of Inside the NBA. An edited 90-minute version of the broadcast is repeated during the overnight and early morning hours.

NBA TV International is a feed of NBA TV available in countries outside the United States, utilizing the same studio for analysis and commentary segments and taped programming (except for FIBA events and highlights), but largely airs a different lineup of games than the U.S. channel.

NBA TV International shows one or two live regular-season games per day, with the delayed coverage of selected playoffs that are not broadcasted live by NBA TV, all-conference semis, finals, and the Finals, as well as All-Star, live games and contests and most nationally televised U.S. games, such as those seen on ABC, TNT, ESPN and US feed of NBA TV; the rights to those games are instead sold to domestic television networks in each territory.

How can I get NBA TV?

NBA TV can be accessed as an add-on to most cable packages in North America. It can also be accessed via NBA League pass, either as part of a League Pass package or simply by paying for NBA TV on its own. Other streaming packages also carry NBA TV, such as Sling TV, YouTube TV, Fubo TV, and Direct TV Stream. If you have the internet and a credit card, you can get NBA TV.

What is NBA League Pass?

NBA League Pass is a sports television service that features all NBA games. The service is operated by Turner Broadcasting System on behalf of the NBA. It was made available prior to the start of the 1995-1996 NBA season. It is available to viewers in the United States and as an international package for all other countries.

The pricing structure and services on offer are different, depending on where the viewer is located. NBA League Pass is an out-of-market sports package that allows its subscribers to watch up to 40 out-of-market National Basketball Association games a week. Videos of the games come from local stations and regional sports networks.

League Pass comes in three varieties in the United States: NBA League Pass TV, which plays the games through a cable or satellite TV provider; NBA League Pass Broadband, which uses high-speed Internet connection to stream videos to a computer and NBA League Pass Mobile which is for mobile devices.

Customers outside the United States can sign up for NBA International League Pass.

Blackout restrictions

If a local team is playing and the game is televised in the home market, the associated feed on League Pass is blacked out and unavailable for viewing.

Per the NBA.com website: “Games will also be blacked out when they are appearing on national television. This applies to games being televised on ABC, ESPN, TNT, and NBA TV. You may view these games simply by switching to the designated channel.”

NBA International League Pass is available to users living outside the United States and differs from the US version of the product in its content, packaging, and pricing. While both the US and international products feature games available for live or on-demand viewing, the major distinction between the two products is that International League Pass provides access to all NBA games played during the regular season, All-Star Weekend, Playoffs, and Finals, free from blackout restrictions.

International users have the option of subscribing to several package options, varying by region: NBA League Pass, League Pass Premium, Team Choice, Game Choice, and 3-Game Choice. Subscribers to all packages are able to watch NBA games from Summer League, preseason, regular season, All-Star Weekend, Playoffs, and Finals live or on-demand from a variety of devices, including desktop computers, iPhones, iPads, Android phones and tablets, and TV-connected devices like Apple TV, Android TV, Google Chromecast, Xbox, and PlayStation consoles.

During the off-season, both International League Pass and International League Pass Premium subscribers have live and on-demand access to Summer League games and certain games or scrimmages played by the USA Basketball team in preparation for or during the Olympics and the FIBA World Cup tournament, in addition to continued access to past NBA regular seasons in archives. This summer content has also been sold as a stand-alone package.

How can I get NBA League Pass?

The best and simplest way to get an NBA League pass is to purchase it through the official NBA League Pass website. There is usually a free trial running to give you a taste and plenty of subscription options so you can choose the package that works for you.

What NBA League Pass package do I need?

There are 4 main options available with NBA League Pass. League Pass, League Pass Premium, Team Pass, and 3-Game Choice. Below we will go through the benefits of each one, starting with the total package – League Pass Premium.

NBA League Pass Premium is the top NBA League Pass  package and comes with the below features:

• Get access to every live and on-demand game for all teams, plus NBA studio shows.
• Every live HD game
• Plus
• Listen to select games in alternate languages
• NBA TV studio shows including Game Time and Basketball Stories
• Classic and archived games available on-demand
• Home and Away team broadcast feeds
• Live audio for every game of the season
• Access to full length and 10-min condensed replays of every game
• Download games for offline viewing
• Stream on 2 devices at the same time

NBA League Pass

This is the most popular choice, due to its lower cost and breadth of content. The two BIG things you won’t get here that you do with the NBA League Pass Premium package are the ability to stream on 2 devices at the same time and access to the full-length condensed replays of every game. If you plan to share your account with a family member then you should seriously consider paying the extra for Premium.

NBA Team Pass

Watch your favorite team’s games live plus NBA TV studio shows.

This package option mirrors the standard option above, with the important note that it is specifically for ONE TEAM. Perfect for die-hard fans of a particular franchise. Be careful of local game Blackouts. You don’t want to pay for your local team only to find out that all the games are blacked out and you have to pay again to watch them on cable anyway! At almost half the price, it’s a great option if you only wanted to follow one team anyway. It’s important to note that with this package you will not get access to any NBA TV Live games.

NBA 3-Game Choice

Choose any three live games to stream each month. This is a great package for those with busy schedules. If you only get time to sit down a few times a month and watch a full game, this package could be perfect for you. Game credits roll over as well, so if you don’t use any for a month you can double up next month! It’s important to note that with this package you will not get access to any NBA TV Live games.

NBA TV – only

Residents of North America can sign up to NBA TV without a full League Pass package. This costs around $6.99 a month or $59.99 a year and can be accessed in many different ways

What games are on NBA TV?

Around 90 NBA Games will be shown on NBA TV each year. As you would expect most of the premier matchups that are guaranteed to draw the most attention are picked up by the national broadcasts.

Are the NBA Playoffs on NBA TV?

Yes. Usually, during the first 2 rounds of the NBA Playoffs, a series from each conference will be shown on NBA TV. This is usually the one projected to draw the least attention and therefore hold the least value to National Broadcasters like ESPN.