MINNEAPOLIS — The Minnesota Timberwolves reached a new local media rights deal with DAZN to distribute their games next season, addressing a pressing need after the collapse of FanDuel Sports Network.The five-year deal was announced Thursday morning and marks a big shift in the way Timberwolves fans will watch games when they are not at the arena. Wolves games will now be streamed exclusively on DAZN’s app and will not be available on cable or satellite television. There is a mutual opt-out after the first year of the deal, but Timberwolves CEO Matthew Caldwell said he hopes this is the beginning of a long-term relationship with DAZN (pronounced da-ZONE).“Getting a more direct relationship with our fans, making it easier to access our games from anywhere — their phones, their tablets, their TVs,” Caldwell said. “At the end of the day, when you look at revenue, when you look at reach, when you look at technology, we felt that DAZN was the best option for us.”The arrangement is the latest move in the shift away from struggling regional sports networks. DAZN is paying the Timberwolves to distribute their games, but Caldwell declined to comment on specifics of the financial arrangement. Main Street Sports Group, which operated the Timberwolves’ local FanDuel affiliate, went out of business this year, leaving more than two dozen MLB, NHL and NBA teams without local broadcast homes. The NBA has said it is aiming to have a streaming hub that aggregates many, if not all, of its teams by the 2027-28 season, and DAZN is one of the possibilities to serve as the primary distributor under that model.DAZN has built a robust sports streaming operation, with partnerships across the NFL, NHL, soccer, auto racing and more, much of it overseas. Aligning with the Timberwolves and several other NBA teams is part of its push to expand its presence in the United States.Below are some questions and answers about the new setup.Where will the games be shown?All of the games that were previously broadcast to the local market under the old FanDuel/Bally Sports system will be available on DAZN’s app, which is free to download. There will be a dedicated Timberwolves hub on the app, which will include live and on-demand game broadcasts, pregame, halftime and postgame shows, and other digital content generated by the team.The NBA’s national broadcast partners can have up to 15 games that are exclusive to their platforms, including Amazon’s Prime Video, NBC/Peacock or ESPN/ABC. Beyond those, another 14 games can be distributed both nationally and locally on DAZN. The remaining games will be on DAZN. With Anthony Edwards, LaMelo Ball and a team expected to be competitive in the Western Conference again, the Wolves are expecting another season with a large number of national games.The DAZN games will not be available through cable or satellite television packages. That differs from a deal announced Wednesday by the New York Knicks, New York Yankees and five other teams in the New York area that moved game streaming from the Gotham Sports App to DAZN. Because of the arrangement there, DAZN will be available to cable subscribers who already pay for YES and MSG.In Minnesota, sports fans will have to pay for three separate platforms to watch the Timberwolves, Wild and Twins.“There’s so much transformation going on right now,” Caldwell said. “If there was a one-stop-shop option, we would have loved to look at it. We know that fans having to access through different platforms can be difficult, but we’re just going to try to make it as easy as possible. We understand some of the frustrations there, but we have to look at everything in totality.”How much will it cost?The Timberwolves and DAZN were not ready to discuss the specific cost of streaming games on the app just yet. Officials for both entities said that information would be available closer to the start of the season.Timberwolves fans who streamed games on the FanDuel app paid $20 per month last season. Some Wolves fans were concerned by DAZN’s $35-per-month fee, but DAZN officials said that number applies only to subscribers who want the entirety of DAZN’s offerings. A Wolves-specific subscription would be lower, said Zander Berlinski, DAZN’s senior vice president of strategy and business development.The Wolves will also have 15 of those local games available for free, on the app and possibly over the air through a partner such as KARE-11 as they did last season. Those 15 free games are significantly more than in any Wolves season in recent memory, when three to five games, at most, were offered for free.Berlinski also said there will be other discounts to help make the app more accessible to fans. He mentioned discounted rates for season ticket holders and promotional rates when the Timberwolves app is first introduced as two ways to address fans’ concerns about the cost.The Timberwolves did look at putting all of their games on over-the-air television or making them all free to stream, as they did for Lynx games this season on Victory Plus, Caldwell said. The Phoenix Suns and Milwaukee Bucks have local media rights arrangements with over-the-air providers, and Caldwell helped arrange a similar deal for the NHL’s Florida Panthers when he worked for them.“When you start looking at the Wolves, you’re considering rights fees, the reach the Wolves have,” Caldwell said when asked about Victory Plus. “The Lynx are still in growth mode. We’re trying to grow more fans in that area. With the Wolves, we’ve got to think about revenue. We’ve got to think about reach. We’ve got to think about distribution. So we were most comfortable going with DAZN.”Who will call the games?The Timberwolves are in the process of finalizing their talent plans for next season. Last year, Michael Grady and Alan Horton shared play-by-play duties, with Jim Petersen serving as the analyst for all of the games and Marney Gellner hosting the majority of the broadcasts.With DAZN, the Timberwolves will have greater influence on all of those decisions, along with choosing the sideline reporter and the analysts for pre- and postgame. The Wolves have contracted with the NBA to handle production of the broadcasts, but they will be heavily involved in all aspects of the show from start to finish.“We wholeheartedly understand the importance of the broadcast having a local feel and your local announcers and whatnot,” Berlinski said. “We’ll take Matt and the rest of the Timberwolves team’s lead on a lot of those decisions. ”Fans complained often about the erosion of quality as FanDuel fell apart last season. Timberwolves owner Alex Rodriguez, a prominent part of Fox’s national baseball broadcast, has a particular interest in this part of the business.“There were frustrations in the past around quality, around talent, around budget,” said Kelly Laferriere, the Wolves’ chief strategy officer. “We’re excited to have a much more hands-on approach.”Grady quickly became a star after Rodriguez led a search to replace Dave Benz in 2022. He moved up to a national role with NBC/Peacock and Prime last season but also did some Timberwolves games. He is expected to have a smaller role next season while remaining involved when his busy schedule allows. Petersen is wildly popular with Wolves fans, and it would be shocking if he did not return in the same role. Horton did all of the television games that Grady did not last season.The Wolves have conducted a search for another television play-by-play announcer that includes Horton and candidates from outside the organization.The Timberwolves said they would have further announcements about the radio broadcasts at a later date.What will the games look like?One of the biggest reasons the Timberwolves said they chose DAZN was the company’s considerable experience streaming live sports. Fans had major frustrations with the reliability and quality of the streaming on FanDuel’s app, but the Timberwolves say DAZN’s technology is far superior and will offer a much smoother viewing experience.“I’d love to do things in-house. That fits with my roll-up-the-sleeves mentality,” Caldwell said. “But there’s no way we could’ve matched their technology and what they’ve done for the last 15 years in the space. They’re a global streaming partner.”With DAZN, the games will be available to stream on smart TVs, tablets, phones, gaming consoles, laptops and desktop computers. There will be alternate broadcast options available, including a live chat function for fans to comment on the action during games.“Our platform is the only streaming service that was built exclusively to stream live sports,” said Walker Jacobs, global chief revenue officer and president of DAZN USA. “The features and technology are really purpose-built for that. We think we can deliver an incredible fan experience. We think that once they get on and get accustomed to start using it, they’re going to be absolutely delighted.”There will be a geographic fence around the app’s distribution similar to the old RSNs’ reach. Fans in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Iowa and Nebraska, along with parts of Wisconsin and Kansas, will be covered. Anyone wanting to stream Wolves games outside that territory will need NBA League Pass.“We’re doing everything we can to make this broadly and widely accessible and be a really, really high-quality thing for people to find to be a reasonable investment of both their time and their money,” Jacobs said.