A mere 106 miles southwest of Tulsa, the Oklahoma City Thunder will raise their first championship banner Tuesday night. They’ll also receive their rings and begin their title defense against a familiar face in Kevin Durant and the Houston Rockets.
But as the expectations for the Thunder rise, so do the barriers for Tulsans trying to watch the state’s only major-four professional team.
With the NBA’s newest TV deal expanding games to more networks and OKC’s success, the team will be featured on national television 34 times this season. Those will be spread across six networks: NBC, Peacock, ESPN, ABC, NBA TV and Prime Video.
For fans in Tulsa, that means more subscriptions. FanDuel Sports Network will show 67 Thunder games this year. You’ll need cable to watch those since, as of Tuesday’s tipoff, the network isn’t available on YouTube TV or Hulu.
You can get a FanDuel subscription for the season for $109, which is the cheapest option. Fans can also select the channel as an Amazon Prime add-on. It’s $15 per month for the first 30 days, then $20 per month for the rest of the season.
For the add-on, you need to have an Amazon Prime subscription. That’s going to cost you $9 a month if you just sign up for video.
Then there’s Peacock. Four Thunder games will be shown exclusively there. You’ll need a premium level Peacock membership that will cost $11 per month. That’s about $70 over the course of the six-month regular season. The Thunder’s last game is on April 12, 2026.
As for the other national game, you need a streaming service — if you don’t have cable — to watch the ESPN, ABC, NBC and NBA TV games. We went with YouTube TV’s base plan (since it includes NBA TV), which will end up costing you $84 per month after the trial period ends.
All told, a non-cable customer is looking at more than $700 to legally stream all 82 of the Thunder’s games. When asked earlier this year about the rising cost of supporting teams, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver gave a response that drew ire from fans.
“There’s a huge amount of our content that people essentially consume for free. This is very much a highlights-based sport, so Instagram, TikTok, Twitter (now X) … YouTube, another example that is advertising-based that consumers can consume,” Silver said.
He later walked back those comments, saying he doesn’t want highlights to be a substitute for watching a real game.
Rob Davis, manager at downtown Tulsa sports bar Elgin Park, told The Oklahoma Eagle he thinks the high cost for individuals will help business this year.
“People recognize we have the packages to stream all the sports,” Davis said. He said they’re talking about building specials around Thunder games, though there’s nothing set in stone yet.
Ahead of the season opener, Davis said he’s hopeful to draw a big crowd since there are no NFL games and the World Series hasn’t started yet.
During the Thunder’s title run last season, Fassler Hall transformed into Thunder Hall. Fassler told The Eagle they have no plans to convert during the regular season, but they’ll still be showing games.
