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Lakers, Warriors, Thunder lead the way with 34 nationally televised games apiece
Brett Siegel: Number of National TV games for 2025-26 NBA season (ESPN, ABC, NBC, & Amazon): Atlanta: 13, Boston: 25, Brooklyn: 2, Charlotte: 3, Chicago: 3, Cleveland: 24, Dallas: 23, Denver: 26, Detroit: 16, Golden State: 34, Houston: 28, Indiana: 9, Los Angeles Clippers: 21, Los Angeles Lakers: 34, Memphis: 10, Miami: 5, Milwaukee: 18, Minnesota: 28, New Orleans: 2, New York: 34, Oklahoma City: 34, Orlando: 14, Philadelphia: 14, Phoenix: 9, Portland: 8, Sacramento: 9, San Antonio: 22, Toronto: 2, Utah: 2, Washington: 2
NBA Communications: Where to watch NBA action this season ⬇️ Season-long national games: ▪️ Mon: Peacock ▪️ Tue: NBC/Peacock ▪️ Wed: ESPN ▪️ Fri: Prime Video Additional weekly national games starting midseason: ▪️ Thu: Prime Video ▪️ Sat: ABC | ESPN | Prime Video ▪️ Sun: ABC | ESPN | NBC/Peacock
Reigning NBA Champion Oklahoma City Thunder, Plus New York Knicks, Golden State Warriors, Denver Nuggets, San Antonio Spurs, Cleveland Cavaliers and Dallas Mavericks to Appear on Opening Week and Christmas Day Presented by State Farm. ESPN and ABC today announced its blockbuster Opening Week and Christmas schedules for the 2025-26 NBA regular season. Opening Week will include two doubleheaders across Wednesday, October 22 and Thursday, October 23. All five Christmas games presented by State Farm on Thursday, December 25, will exclusively air across ESPN and ABC. ESPN enters its 24th consecutive season as the primary broadcast partner of the NBA and the exclusive home of the NBA’s most-marquee events, including the NBA Finals on ABC.
The WNBA All-Star Game audience dropped 36% on ABC this year as Caitlin Clark was sidelined with an injury, but the audience is still the second-best on record for the event. ABC drew 2.2 million viewers on Saturday night, which is down from a record 3.44 million last year. Before 2025 and 2024 though, only two WNBA All-Star Games topped 1 million viewers (1.25 million in 2005 and 1.44 million in 2003). The WNBA All-Star Game is well below other similar events like the MLB All-Star Game, NBA All-Star Game or Pro Bowl. However, the NHL All-Star Game has drawn over 2.2 million viewers just once since 2004 (2.26 million in 2017).
Central to that reticence is the league’s new 11-year, $76 billion media rights deal, beginning next season, with new partners NBC, Peacock – NBC’s streaming service – and Amazon Prime, along with existing partners ABC and ESPN. Warner Bros. Discovery, which had broadcast NBA games since 1989, was left out of the new deal. Several owners would, at present, rather begin collecting and splitting the massive new revenues among the existing teams, rather than bringing in new partners that would also receive a cut of the financial pie.
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To start the week, my colleague Austin Karp has some takes on recent viewership figures: This was the second year that the NBA Draft was a two-day affair, and excluding the pandemic years, it was among the lowest NBA Draft audiences on record (a sharp drop for the first round being the main culprit). The full two nights across ESPN and ABC averaged just under 2.6 million viewers, which is down 5% from last year. Back in 2021, with the draft pushed into mid-July by COVID, it averaged 2.26 million. In 2020, when the draft was in November due to COVID (and without an ABC telecast), it averaged 2.13 million. With records dating back to 2008, no other NBA Draft was under 2.6 million viewers.
Viewers turned out for the top of a stacked NBA Draft class, but did not stick around for the full three-hour show. Wednesday’s opening round of the NBA Draft, in which Cooper Flagg was selected first overall by the Dallas Mavericks, averaged 3.77 million viewers across ABC and ESPN — down 14% from last year, when the draft class was considered particularly low-profile (4.41M).
Andrew Marchand: ESPN/ABC may have to produce Game 2 of the NBA Finals remotely because of a tornado warning in OKC. Mike Breen & company will still be commenting from court side but the production trucks outside the arena may not be available. ESPN would control the pictures and productions from either Bristol or LA.
An overlap of the Women’s College World Series and the NBA Playoffs are providing hotels, restaurants and shops a much-needed boost in business both downtown and throughout Oklahoma City. The influx of visitors is expected to hit a breakneck pace during Game 1 of the NBA Finals with the Thunder playing the Indiana Pacers on national television (ABC) while Texas and Texas Tech battle it out for the women’s softball championship on ESPN.
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2025 Playoffs average 10.6 TV share, highest on record
Entering the NBA Finals, NBA playoff games have averaged 4.20 million viewers across ABC, ESPN, ESPNU, TNT and NBA TV — up 3% from last year (4.10M). With NBA TV and ESPNU excluded, the average of 4.5 million is still up 3% year-over-year. Playoff games have averaged a 10.6 share — meaning that 10.6% of TV homes using television are watching in the average minute — the highest for the playoffs on record. (As linear television usage declines, live sports will tend to make up a greater and greater share of the audience.)
There is one thing that both the NBA and Disney, which owns ABC, can agree on: a longer series benefits everyone. That’s where the teams, league and networks make money. Every incremental game will make each team, plus the league and players, through their revenue-sharing plan, more money. ABC stands to make even more. Networks sell the ads that air during the playoffs months ahead of time. They estimate the cost of those ads, based on projected ratings. If the ratings for the finals are lower than expected, they will offer make-good commercial time to advertisers. But networks usually only sell ads ahead of time for the first four to five games of a seven-game series, the television executive said. “If you get a Game 7 all the money goes right to the bottom line,” the executive said.
'Inside the NBA' expected to lead ESPN pregame, halftime, postgame shows for big events
Inside the NBA will lead ESPN’s pregame and halftime programming. The show will air live during ABC/ESPN’s biggest events, including the NBA Finals, conference finals, and NBA playoffs. They’ll also be featured on opening week, Christmas Day, all ABC games after Jan. 1, and the final week of the season. ESPN’s own NBA Countdown will survive, but it will be strictly second-string.
The final episode of Inside the NBA barely finished airing on TNT Sports before doomsayers like Bill Simmons were predicting ESPN will ruin the show. But I’m hearing from sources that ESPN has zero plans to change the iconic show’s DNA. No, you’re not going to see Charles Barkley riding a Booger-mobile on the sidelines. Or Shaquille O’Neal & Co. wearing canary-yellow vests emblazoned with the ABC logo. TNT will retain full editorial control. So expect to see the same funny, bombastic, basketball show that’s earned 21 Sports Emmy Awards during its historic run.
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