A sellout crowd saw the Pacers defeat the Golden State Warriors on Apr. 5.
It took some time — and wins — for this Indiana Pacers team to convince fans that it was for real, but once they got a look, fans fell for them.
FOX Sports Indiana’s ratings of Pacers games for the 2017-18 regular season garnered an average household rating of 3.5, up 18 percent from the previous season, according to Nielsen. That equates to a typical audience of about 35,000 households in Central Indiana.
On top of that, streaming of games on FOX Sports GO increased 142 percent over last year.
The networks two highest-rated regular-season games were both home games (and wins) over LeBron James’ Cleveland Cavaliers on Dec. 8 and Jan. 12, respectively.
The Pacers went 48-34, winning six more games than last season. They clinched the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference and are paired with Cleveland in round one.
Nationally, the NBA did very well. Every broadcast partner saw a gain in viewership this season, according to SportsBusiness Daily. Ratings for national games on ESPN were up four percent over last year, averaging 1.628 million viewers. TNT telecasts drew an average audience of 1.7 million with its total viewership gaining 13 percent.
Moreover, NBA League Pass digital subscriptions globally were up 63 percent.
Meanwhile, attendance at Bankers Life Fieldhouse ranked 25th leaguewide, in terms of percent of capacity filled. They finished ahead of Memphis, Brooklyn, Charlotte, Detroit, and Atlanta. That’s down from 20th last season, per ESPN’s database. They averaged 16,051 fans per game and recorded 14 sellouts.
The Fieldhouse seats 17,923, so they cannot finish in the top half in average attendance. (The Jazz, ranking 19th in percent of seats filled, averaged 17,922 fans during the 2017-18 season.)
FSI will air Games 2, 3, and 4 of the Pacers’ first-round clash against the Cavaliers. ABC owned the exclusive rights to Game 1 Sunday afternoon, preventing any regional sports networks from also showing it.
Chris Denari (12th season), Quinn Buckner (19th), and Jeremiah Johnson (4th) are in their fourth year together. Former Pacers guard Eddie Gill is in his second season contributing to the pre- and post-game show, Pacers Live!