Will the Wolves change their TV plans next?

The Minnesota Timberwolves games will be broadcast locally on Bally Sports North this season, but their future with the regional sports network is unclear as Diamond Sports Group remains in bankruptcy court.

After the Minnesota Twins and Major League Baseball announced Tuesday that they are moving forward with Bally Sports North and launching an independent streaming plan that will include the production and distribution of their games on MLV.TV (also on cable, streaming and satellite provider available), Timberwolves insider Dane Moore suggested that Minnesota's NBA franchise could follow suit.

“I've heard there will be a change in the distribution of Wolves games too,” Moore wrote in a post on “”

The leasing of local team broadcasting rights to Diamond Sports Group via the Bally Sports Regional Network has been hit or miss in recent years as the company has been in arrears with numerous providers. Last summer, Twins games were unavailable to Comcast customers for two months because they were unable to agree on a deal that both sides felt was fair.

Diamond Sports Group is trying to recover from Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and a major hearing will take place in mid-November that could pave the way for Diamond to separate from Sinclair Broadcasting and operate as a separate entity. According to Awful Annancing, Diamond would then be looking for a new sponsor for its regional network (presumably FanDuel).

Awful Annancing reports that Diamond owes the 12 NBA teams it oversees, including the Timberwolves, a total of $253 million in rights fees for 2024-25. It's possible that Diamond's situation doesn't improve, and if that's the case, the court could decide that Diamond owes the NBA between $163.7 million and $187.9 million, rather than $253 million, which of course would result in lower revenue for the Timberwolves.

We'll see how everything develops. For now, the Wolves' next televised game will be on Sunday, October 13th, when they face Karl-Anthony Towns and the Knicks in a preseason game. This will be televised on ESPN at 5:00 pm CT.

The October 16-17 preseason games against the Bulls and Nuggets will be televised on Bally Sports North. The regular season opening game on October 22 against the Lakers will be broadcast nationally on TNT