INDIANAPOLIS — The Pacers are one of 13 teams the NBA has told to seek new local and regional television rights deals for the 2026-27 season due to the winding down of Main Street Sports Group, the company that owns the FanDuel regional sports networks, according to Tom Friend of the Sports Business Journal.
A statement from a Main Street Sports group spokesman confirmed the news.
“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,” the statement said. “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.”
Mel Raines, the CEO of Pacers Sports and Entertainment, confirmed that the Pacers are in search of a new broadcast partner.
“We have known for several weeks that we would need a new local partner for the 2026-27 season and we are actively working on who that will be,” Raines told the IndyStar on Friday.
The remaining games in this year’s season will still be broadcast on FanDuel Sports Network Indiana. According to the story, Main Street will wind down operations this month after the end of the NBA regular season and the first round of the NHL playoffs unless it reaches a “strategic transition” which would mean a buyer for the company. Raines said the Pacers are considering a variety of options as they are trying to make sure Pacers broadcasts are available to as many fans as possible as the media landscape has become much more fragmented with many fans getting television via streaming options but some still watching on basic broadcast and cable.
According to the story, the NBA is urging teams to sign one-year deals with regional broadcast partners or deals with one-year exit clauses as the league is working on a national streaming platform for regional TV broadcasts and is hoping to be able to launch that in time for the 2027-28 season.
“We’re throwing a very wide net and looking to both potential over-the-air partners and direct-to-consumer partners and looking at every possible option to reach as many of our fans as we can next season over local television,” Raines said.
Raines did want to drive home that the Pacers expect that they will have one or more broadcast partners to fill the void left by Main Street and FanDuel.
“There will be a new way for (fans) to watch the Pacers in 2026-27 in our local market,” Raines said. “We’re looking forward to identifying a local partner who will provide a great experience for our fans to watch.”
Main Street Sports took its name in January of 2025 after its successor company Diamond Sports Group came out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which it initially filed in March of 2023. Diamond was the Pacers’ broadcast partner when its regional broadcasts were on the Bally’s Sports Networks.
Earlier this season, it was reported that Main Street Sports was missing rights fees payments to teams, which was seen as a sign that Main Street was also on its way to collapse. According to the Sports Business Journal story, teams were not paid any rights payments this year, but the NBA has told teams that they will be reimbursed in some form for their lost rights fees.
This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Pacers CEO: ‘There will be a new way to watch the Pacers in 2026-27.’ What to know
Reporting by Dustin Dopirak, Indianapolis Star / Indianapolis Star
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
