Bucks Video games Returning To Free TV For 2026-27 Season » Urban Milwaukee

Milwaukee Bucks followers will now not want a cable package deal or paid streaming subscription to look at many of the workforce’s video games.

The Bucks introduced Friday that their regionally televised preseason and regular-season video games will air on MY24 through the 2026-27 season, marking the franchise’s first full season on free, over-the-air tv in 31 years.

The broadcasts will even be carried by a yet-to-be-announced community of stations throughout Wisconsin. The workforce is individually creating a direct-to-consumer streaming service, with pricing and availability particulars to be introduced later.

Nationally televised video games may nonetheless seem completely on the NBA’s nationwide broadcast companions.

“This season marks an exciting return to our roots as we bring Bucks basketball back to full-season over-the-air television for the first time in more than three decades,” mentioned Josh Glessing, workforce president, in a press release. “We’re grateful to our partners at Rincon Broadcasting Group for helping us make Bucks games more accessible to our fans throughout Wisconsin.”

MY24 beforehand served because the Bucks’ native broadcast residence from 1988 by way of 1994. In the Milwaukee market, the station is offered over-the-air on digital channel 24.1 and thru most main cable techniques and YouTube TV.

The deal represents a serious change from the regional sports activities community mannequin that carried the overwhelming majority of Bucks video games for many years.

The workforce’s longtime cable residence operated as Fox Sports Wisconsin earlier than turning into Bally Sports Wisconsin in March 2021. The title change adopted Sinclair Broadcast Group’s 2019 acquisition of the previous Fox regional sports activities networks from The Walt Disney Co. for about $10.6 billion.

Disney had obtained the channels by way of its acquisition of a lot of twenty first Century Fox, however federal regulators required the corporate to promote them as a result of Disney already owned ESPN.

Sinclair positioned the networks underneath a subsidiary, Diamond Sports Group, and later entered right into a naming-rights settlement with on line casino operator Bally’s Corp.

The closely indebted regional sports activities community enterprise struggled as customers canceled conventional cable packages and distributors dropped or demanded decrease costs for the channels. Diamond filed for Chapter 11 chapter safety in March 2023.

The channels had been renamed FanDuel Sports Network in October 2024. Diamond subsequently emerged from chapter underneath the title Main Street Sports Group, with its debt diminished from practically $9 billion to roughly $200 million and possession transferred from Sinclair to the corporate’s lenders.

But the restructuring didn’t produce an enduring restoration. Main Street started lacking funds to skilled groups in late 2025 and early 2026 whereas pursuing a possible sale. Major League Baseball groups, together with the Milwaukee Brewers, terminated their agreements after scheduled rights funds had been missed. The firm additionally missed funds to a number of NBA groups in January.

FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin nonetheless accomplished its protection of the Bucks’ 2025-26 common season earlier than the Bucks joined the opposite NBA groups exiting Main Street’s community.

The Bucks had already experimented with returning video games to broadcast tv. Eight regular-season video games aired by way of Weigel Broadcasting stations through the 2025-26 season, following smaller over-the-air packages within the previous two seasons. The new MY24 settlement will cowl each Bucks sport out there for native distribution quite than a restricted package deal.

Rincon Broadcasting Group acquired MY24 and sister station CW18 from Sinclair in July 2025 as a part of a $29.4 million, five-station transaction.

“This is more than a television partnership,” mentioned Rincon CEO Kern Dant. “It’s the return of a Milwaukee tradition. Welcome home, Bucks fans.”

Good Karma Brands, which operates ESPN Milwaukee and the Bucks Radio Network, will lead promoting and media gross sales and assist assemble the statewide tv affiliate community.

The partnership will start earlier than the common season. MY24 will air the Bucks’ NBA Summer League video games from Las Vegas, beginning Sunday, July 12, at 8 p.m. in opposition to the San Antonio Spurs.

Milwaukee will even face the Phoenix Suns on Monday, July 13, at 9 p.m. and the Charlotte Hornets on Wednesday, July 15, at 6:30 p.m.