How to Watch NBA Finals 2026 and the 2026-27 Season in the UK

Watching the NBA from Britain is an act of consensual sleep deprivation. The Finals Game 1 in two days' time tips off at 8:30 p.m. ET on the East Coast, which is 1:30 a.m. in London. A British NBA fan has, in effect, signed up to be selectively nocturnal from October to June. The compensation is that the league is genuinely on the up in the UK — viewership of the Finals has roughly doubled since 2020, and the London game each January at the O2 has gone from curio to fixture. The 2026 NBA Finals begin on Thursday 4 June, with Game 1 tipping off at 1:30 a.m. UK time on Friday 5 June. The series runs through mid-to-late June. The 2026-27 regular season then begins in late October and runs through April, with the playoffs starting in mid-April. This guide walks through the Sky Sports and TNT Sports rights split, the NBA League Pass standalone, what free options exist, and the cheapest workable subscription combination for the full season.

The NBA in the UK is split across two paid broadcasters. Sky Sports holds the main rights through the 2026-27 season [verify: rights window], carrying around 170 live regular-season games plus the All-Star weekend and most of the playoffs and Finals on Sky Sports Arena and Sky Sports Mix. TNT Sports (formerly BT Sport) carries a parallel slate of NBA games including the In-Season Tournament knockout rounds and selected Finals coverage [verify: TNT Sports NBA package details]. Sky Sports Complete on its own costs £46/month [verify: £46/mo Sky Sports complete] via Sky Stream or Sky Q, with all Sky Sports channels included. The cheaper standalone route is NOW Sports Membership at £34.99/month [verify: £34.99/mo NOW Sports] — the streaming-only version of Sky Sports, no contract, cancellable any time. TNT Sports via Discovery+ runs at £30.99/month [verify: £30.99/mo TNT Sports]. The combined Sky + TNT route at around £65/month gets you every NBA game broadcast in the UK.

NBA League Pass — the league's own streaming service — is available in the UK at £14.99/month or £119.99 for the full season [verify: League Pass UK pricing]. It carries every regular-season game, the In-Season Tournament group stage, the All-Star Saturday night, the play-in tournament and the entire playoffs and Finals. The catch: League Pass in the UK is subject to UK-only blackouts on the games Sky Sports or TNT Sports carry exclusively. In practice this means the marquee fixtures — the Christmas Day games, primetime national TV matchups, the Finals — are blacked out on League Pass and must be watched on Sky or TNT. League Pass still works for the night-in-night-out 7 p.m. ET tip-offs (midnight UK time) that Sky and TNT don't carry exclusively, which is most of the regular season. For a UK fan whose primary interest is following a single team (whether the Celtics, Warriors, Lakers, Knicks or any other), League Pass at £119.99 for the season is the better-value pick. For a fan who wants the marquee national TV games and the Finals broadcast without blackouts, Sky Sports or NOW Sports is the answer.

There is no free-to-air live NBA coverage on BBC, ITV, Channel 4 or Channel 5 in the UK. The BBC Sport website carries written match reports and occasional highlight clips, but the live rights are entirely behind the Sky and TNT paywalls. The NBA's official YouTube channel posts free highlight packages — typically two-to-three minute condensed games — within an hour or two of the final buzzer, available worldwide including the UK. The full library of NBA TV documentary content, classic games, and the popular "Inside the NBA" studio-show clips also stream free on the NBA app and on YouTube. The London Game each January — usually a regular-season matchup played at the O2 Arena — has historically had limited free coverage, with the BBC running highlight packages but no live free TV. The 2027 London Game (date and teams confirmed in late summer 2026 [verify]) is expected to follow the same model: Sky and TNT live, BBC for short post-game highlights.

For NBA Finals 2026 only: NOW Sports Day Membership at £14.99 for a 24-hour pass [verify: £14.99 NOW Sports Day]. Buy a day pass for each of the Finals games (typically four-to-seven games over two-to-three weeks). Total cost for a six-game Finals: roughly £90. Or take a single NOW Sports Monthly Membership at £34.99/month to cover the full Finals series for one month. The monthly route is the cheaper option once the Finals goes to four-plus games. For the full 2026-27 regular season: NBA League Pass at £119.99 for the entire season is the best value pick for fans willing to live with blackouts on marquee Sky/TNT-exclusive games. For full UK access without blackouts, NOW Sports at £34.99/month × 8 active NBA months (October through June) = £279.92. The combined NOW Sports + TNT Sports route covers every UK-broadcast game at roughly £526 for the active season. For the cheapest workable approach to following the NBA in the UK: League Pass at £119.99 for the regular season, then a single month of NOW Sports at £34.99 to cover the playoffs and Finals in May and June. Total: roughly £155 for an entire NBA season including playoffs.

NBA games tip off in the evening on the US East Coast — typically 7 p.m., 7:30 p.m. or 8 p.m. ET, with some 10 p.m. ET West Coast late games. UK time runs five hours ahead of ET in winter and four hours ahead during US daylight saving (March to November). The standard ET game schedule translates to UK time as: 7:00 p.m. ET = midnight or 1:00 a.m. UK. 8:00 p.m. ET = 1:00 or 2:00 a.m. UK. 10:00 p.m. ET West Coast late games = 3:00 or 4:00 a.m. UK. The NBA Finals 2026 Game 1 on Thursday 4 June tips at 8:30 p.m. ET = 1:30 a.m. UK time Friday 5 June. Subsequent games follow similar Eastern primetime slots, typically 8:00 or 8:30 p.m. ET. The Saturday and Sunday games are the more workable slots for UK viewers — Saturday 8:00 p.m. ET = 1:00 a.m. Sunday UK; the kids can sleep, the work week is over, the fixture is at least somewhat civil. Most dedicated UK NBA fans operate on a hybrid schedule: live for the Saturday late and the marquee weekday games, recorded-and-watched-over-breakfast for the weeknight 7 p.m. ET tip-offs. Sky Sports and NOW Sports both support cloud DVR and on-demand replays, with games typically available to stream from 5 a.m. UK time the morning after.

The Sky Sports and TNT Sports NBA packages between them cover every major in-season event without exception. The NBA Cup (formerly the In-Season Tournament) group stage and knockout rounds are carried across both broadcasters [verify: NBA Cup UK rights split]. The All-Star Weekend in February — the All-Star Game itself, Saturday night's Skills Challenge, Three-Point Contest and Slam Dunk Contest — airs in full on Sky Sports Arena. The play-in tournament in mid-April airs in full. The conference quarter-finals, semi-finals, conference finals and the Finals all air live and without UK blackout on Sky Sports. NBA League Pass is the gap: the In-Season Tournament knockouts and the Finals are blacked out in the UK on League Pass and require a Sky or TNT subscription instead. The regular-season slate of 1,230 games is the part League Pass UK can serve without blackout in full.

Sky Sports streams natively via the Sky Stream box and the Sky Q box. NOW Sports streams via the NOW app on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Chromecast, smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Vizio and Hisense, the Xbox and PlayStation, and the web. TNT Sports via Discovery+ supports the same device range. NBA League Pass streams via the NBA app on iOS, Android, Apple TV, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, smart TVs and the web. For pub viewing, the long-established London pubs that show NBA include the Sports Bar & Grill chain (Marylebone, Old Street, Victoria branches), Belushi's in Bayswater and Borough, and the various Doghouse and Pitcher & Piano venues across the city. Manchester's Lass O'Gowrie and Bristol's Smoke & Mirrors are among the regional venues running NBA viewing nights for the playoffs and Finals. Most of these venues open until 3 a.m. or later for the big NBA Finals matches. If you are travelling outside the UK and want to maintain access to your Sky Sports or NOW Sports subscription, geo-restrictions apply on Sky and NOW outside the UK and Ireland. Within the EU, EU portability rules allow temporary access for active subscribers using their UK accounts.