Pacers-Bucks being on NBA TV is a prime example of NBA marketing issues

On Tuesday night, at 7:30 pm EST, the Oklahoma City Thunder will tip off against the Memphis Grizzlies for Game 2 of their first-round series on TNT, a widely available cable network. Millions will likely tune in to watch, even though the likelihood of a blowout Thunder win akin to the one that happened on Sunday is high.

Tipping off 30 minutes earlier will be Game 2 of the Indiana Pacers vs. the Milwaukee Bucks series, a juicy matchup in which Damian Lillard is returning from deep vein thrombosis. It also features MVP finalist Giannis Antetokounmpo and one of the most exciting young stars in the league in Tyrese Haliburton.

Unfortunately, the only channel to catch that matchup on will be NBA TV, which is typically an add-on channel that costs more for cable or streaming options. It will also be competing in the same window as that Thunder-Grizzlies game on TNT, which will only hurt its viewership more.

This becomes another entry into a growing list of issues the NBA is running into. Backlash on the presentation and availability of NBA games has gained more prominence than ever this season, and the numbers are beginning to show it. NBA games that were nationally televised on TNT, ESPN and ABC this season averaged 1.53 million viewers, a drop from 1.56 million last year and almost 300,000 less than the pre-pandemic 1.8 million in 2018-19. This is despite Luka Doncic’s move to the Los Angeles Lakers causing a massive uptick in viewership to end this year.

The issues stem partly from the league’s inability to properly promote its rising stars. Players like Doncic and Haliburton have grown into marketable faces for the league. With a new generation of fans coming into their own, the NBA needs to do a much better job of promoting those types of players on the same level as their established stars. If it fails to do so, the numbers will see an even sharper drop when the established stars finally ride into the sunset.

Another factor is the failure to give proper attention to small market teams such as the Pacers. Since the calendar flipped to 2025, Indiana has the sixth-best net rating in the NBA at 5.4 and made a mad dash from eighth to fourth in the Eastern Conference standings. Yet, until the playoffs started, very little national attention was given to them. No "First Take" segments, no think-pieces on The Athletic, no MVP odds for Haliburton or co-star Pascal Siakam. Because of that, one of the most exciting teams in the NBA to watch has been put on the back burner during the first round.

Luckily, there seems to be a light at the end of the tunnel. A new TV rights deal with NBC promises to bring more regular season games to antenna channels, decreasing the paywall to watch. Ratings from the first weekend of this year’s playoffs also came back positive, with commissioner Adam Silver saying the ratings were the highest in 25 years. If the NBA can run with this momentum and prop up its young stars while also refraining from pushing down small markets as it has in the first round, it could pull itself out of the rut it's are currently in.