DAZN's Timberwolves deal puts 15 free games on KARE 11 for 1.5 million homes

The team estimates the KARE 11 simulcasts will reach about 1.5 million homes across the region. Every game also streams free on the DAZN app and at dazn.com/Timberwolves.

This is KARE 11's third straight season as the Wolves' free broadcast home. DAZN is now the team's local media rights partner and its exclusive home across a territory that fully covers Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota, with partial coverage of Kansas and Wisconsin. That raises an obvious question: why would the exclusive rights holder give 15 games away? Part of the answer came from Memphis the same day.

DAZN produces it, KARE 11 airs it

The KARE 11 simulcasts will feature DAZN's full game production. That includes play-by-play and color commentary from the talent roster the Wolves just announced: Kevin Calabro, Michael Grady, Jim Petersen and Marney Gellner, joined by Jon "Boog" Sciambi, Alan Horton, Meghan McPeak, Rebekkah Brunson and Parker Fox. This suggests viewers watching on KARE 11 get the same broadcast that DAZN streams.

The station's job is reach and promotion. KARE 11 adds its own programming around the games, including Timberwolves Extra and pre- and postgame shows.

Memphis got the same 15 games

On October 2, TVNewsCheck reported that the Memphis Grizzlies, WATN/ABC24 and DAZN are widening their arrangement. Under the expanded deal, 15 Grizzlies regular-season games will be simulcast at no cost to over-the-air viewers in the Memphis market. The games also stream free on the DAZN app and at dazn.com/grizzlies. ABC24 is a new broadcast partner for the team.

Memphis goes one step further. TEGNA, which Grizzlies president Jason Wexler named as a partner in the Memphis deal, plans to bring in more stations across the team's extended territory in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Kentucky to widen the games' reach. The station names are expected in the coming weeks.

Taken together, the two deals show a shared design. Both have the same game count, the same station group, the same streamer producing the broadcast and the same free stream on the side. That pattern suggests free broadcast TV could become a regular part of how DAZN packages a team's local rights.

Two deals aren't a league-wide pattern, and the sources don't describe DAZN's other teams. Still, for a station group weighing live sports, Memphis and Minneapolis now give a concrete benchmark for what the free piece of a streaming rights deal looks like: roughly 15 games, produced by someone else, with the station's name on the channel.

The subscription stays exclusive

There's a fair objection to reading too much into the free games. DAZN is still the exclusive home for Wolves basketball, and its team-branded subscription carries the full schedule plus pre- and postgame shows, highlights, behind-the-scenes features and original programming. The free package is a sampler. DAZN CEO Shay Segev framed it as widening access while giving fans a modern streaming experience, which suggests the free games also introduce viewers to the paid product.

Free TV in Minnesota isn't new, either. KARE 11 has played this role for three seasons, so the more meaningful change is the move to a streamer's production feed. In the schedule, which the Pioneer Press's Jace Frederick also published, most games tip at 7 p.m. Central on weeknights, and two are afternoon starts: December 31 against Denver and February 7 against Utah.

First tip-offs and the next station list

The clearer signal will come when TEGNA names the extra Grizzlies stations in Tennessee, Mississippi, Arkansas and Kentucky. DAZN's Wolves territory fully covers five states. If a similar station list shows up for Iowa, Nebraska or the Dakotas, the 15-game package will be reaching well beyond one home-market station.