{"id":675270,"date":"2026-03-23T22:02:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/675270\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T22:02:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T22:02:37","slug":"pacers-2025-26-national-tv-games-reduced-to-3-after-six-schedule-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/675270\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacers 2025-26 National TV Games Reduced to 3 After Six Schedule Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>ESPN\u2019s remote set in Indianapolis for the NBA Finals.<\/p>\n

For the second consecutive season, the Pacers were initially scheduled for nine national TV appearances in an 82-game season (11%).<\/p>\n

But amid injuries and mounting losses, six of those games were ultimately dropped by the league\u2019s broadcast partners.<\/p>\n

The latest \u2014 and final removal \u2014 came for their April 7 home matchup against Minnesota. The network instead opted to air Hornets at Celtics (47\u201324), a team regularly featured on national broadcasts and now the favorites in the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

As a result, just three Pacers games (3.6%) reached a national audience. That still exceeds their typical exposure over the previous several seasons. Following their first NBA Finals appearance since 2000, national viewers saw Indiana host Oklahoma City on opening night and Boston later in the season, along with an NBA Cup game in Cleveland.<\/p>\n

Oct. 23 vs. Oklahoma City | ESPN<\/p>\n

Nov. 21 at Cleveland | Prime Video<\/p>\n

Dec. 8 vs. Sacramento | Peacock \u2192 replaced by Suns at Timberwolves<\/p>\n

Dec. 26 vs. Boston | Prime Video \u2192 replaced by 76ers at Bulls<\/p>\n

Jan. 12 vs. Boston | Peacock<\/p>\n

Jan. 23 at Oklahoma City | Prime Video \u2192 replaced by Nuggets at Bucks<\/p>\n

Feb. 2 vs. Houston | Peacock \u2192 replaced by 76ers at Clippers<\/p>\n

Mar. 13 vs. New York | Prime Video \u2192 replaced by Cavaliers at Mavericks<\/p>\n

Apr. 7 v Minnesota | NBC \u2192 replaced by Hornets at Celtics<\/p>\n

The changes also meant additional broadcasts shifted to the local side, with FanDuel Sports Network Indiana <\/a>carrying more games featuring Chris Denari, Quinn Buckner and Jeremiah Johnson on the call.<\/p>\n

2024-25: 9 (scheduled)
2023-24: 1
2022-23: 1
2021-22: 1
2020-21: 3<\/p>\n

Leave a comment<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ESPN\u2019s remote set in Indianapolis for the NBA Finals. For the second consecutive season, the Pacers were initially…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675271,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3774],"tags":[7,113,126,3866,6,114],"class_list":{"0":"post-675270","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indiana-pacers","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-indiana","10":"tag-indiana-pacers","11":"tag-indianapacers","12":"tag-nba","13":"tag-pacers"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116280751244994227","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675270","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675270"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675270\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675270"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675270"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675270"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}