Bucks Games Returning To Free TV For 2026-27 Season
For the first time in 31 years, you won't need cable TV to cheer the deer.
A Milwaukee Bucks playoff game at Fiserv Forum in April 2025. Photo by Jeramey Jannene.
Milwaukee Bucks fans will no longer need a cable package or paid streaming subscription to watch most of the team’s games.
The Bucks announced Friday that their locally televised preseason and regular-season games will air on MY24 during the 2026-27 season, marking the franchise’s first full season on free, over-the-air television in 31 years.
The broadcasts will also be carried by a yet-to-be-announced network of stations across Wisconsin. The team is separately developing a direct-to-consumer streaming service, with pricing and availability details to be announced later.
Nationally televised games could still appear exclusively on the NBA’s national broadcast partners.
“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,” said Josh Glessing, team president, in a statement. “We’re grateful to our partners at Rincon Broadcasting Group for helping us make Bucks games more accessible to our fans throughout Wisconsin.”
MY24 previously served as the Bucks’ local broadcast home from 1988 through 1994. In the Milwaukee market, the station is available over-the-air on virtual channel 24.1 and through most major cable systems and YouTube TV.
The deal represents a major change from the regional sports network model that carried the overwhelming majority of Bucks games for decades.
The team’s longtime cable home operated as Fox Sports Wisconsin before becoming Bally Sports Wisconsin in March 2021. The name change followed Sinclair Broadcast Group’s 2019 acquisition of the former Fox regional sports networks from The Walt Disney Co. for approximately $10.6 billion.
Disney had obtained the channels through its acquisition of much of 21st Century Fox, but federal regulators required the company to sell them because Disney already owned ESPN.
Sinclair placed the networks under a subsidiary, Diamond Sports Group, and later entered into a naming-rights agreement with casino operator Bally’s Corp.
The heavily indebted regional sports network business struggled as consumers canceled traditional cable packages and distributors dropped or demanded lower prices for the channels. Diamond filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March 2023.
The channels were renamed FanDuel Sports Network in October 2024. Diamond subsequently emerged from bankruptcy under the name Main Street Sports Group, with its debt reduced from nearly $9 billion to approximately $200 million and ownership transferred from Sinclair to the company’s lenders.
But the restructuring did not produce a lasting recovery. Main Street began missing payments to professional teams in late 2025 and early 2026 while pursuing a potential sale. Major League Baseball teams, including the Milwaukee Brewers, terminated their agreements after scheduled rights payments were missed. The company also missed payments to several NBA teams in January.
FanDuel Sports Network Wisconsin nonetheless completed its coverage of the Bucks’ 2025-26 regular season before the Bucks joined the other NBA teams exiting Main Street’s network.
The Bucks had already experimented with returning games to broadcast television. Eight regular-season games aired through Weigel Broadcasting stations during the 2025-26 season, following smaller over-the-air packages in the preceding two seasons. The new MY24 agreement will cover every Bucks game available for local distribution rather than a limited package.
Rincon Broadcasting Group acquired MY24 and sister station CW18 from Sinclair in July 2025 as part of a $29.4 million, five-station transaction.
“This is more than a television partnership,” said 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 advertising and media sales and help assemble the statewide television affiliate network.
The partnership will begin before the regular season. MY24 will air the Bucks’ NBA Summer League games from Las Vegas, starting Sunday, July 12, at 8 p.m. against the San Antonio Spurs.
Milwaukee will also 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.
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