NBA viewership is up this season, the first in a new, 11-year broadcast rights deal with Disney, Amazon, and NBC Universal. Despite the usual debates about load management and tanking, fans are clearly continuing to engage with the basketball product the league is putting out.
But Charles Barkley is worried.
The legendary commentator jumped last offseason — along with all of his teammates on Inside the NBA — from TNT Sports to ESPN, as TNT lost the NBA broadcast rights and was replaced by Prime Video and NBC/Peacock. That leaves Barkley front and center in the NBA broadcasting ecosystem, but he believes fans are struggling to adjust to the new platforms and schedule.
In an appearance on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption on Friday, Barkley said the league and its new partners have “done a disservice to the fans and to the game” by switching up their routine.
“It is so difficult for fans to find the games now. I think we’ve done a disservice to the fans and to the game,” Barkley said — echoing a recent point made by PTI‘s Michael Wilbon.
“We’ve got to find a way to let these fans know, because the fans are the backbone, and we want to support these networks. I’m so honored to be on ESPN … but people don’t even know when the NBC games are on NBC, when they’re Peacock. They don’t know when the game’s on Amazon.
“And we’ve got to be very careful, because we’ve got an 11-year deal, and it’s a team deal. The players are going to be successful, but we want the networks to be successful also. I think the number one thing we’ve got to do is let the fans know when the games are on.”
“I think we’ve done a disservice to the fans and to the game.”
Charles Barkley says the NBA’s new media deal has made it harder for fans to watch pic.twitter.com/xMy95U941j
— Awful Announcing (@awfulannouncing) February 27, 2026
Altogether, the league added one new platform this season. Rather than just checking if a game is on ESPN, ABC, TNT, or NBA TV, fans must now look at ESPN, ABC, NBC, Peacock, and Prime Video. If they want to watch their local team, that adds another one or two networks to the mix.
From a scheduling standpoint, ABC still owns Saturday nights and Sunday afternoons. NBC has created a new national window on Sunday nights, continuing the rhythm of Sunday Night Football in the fall. Peacock games land on Mondays, and NBC is back on Tuesday nights with its Coast 2 Coast doubleheaders.
Prime Video has bounced around the most. The streamer started the season with Friday-night doubleheaders, but has moved to Thursdays since the NFL season ended. Amazon also airs regular Saturday afternoon games targeting European primetime audiences.
The NBA would argue that, even with these fluctuations, its games are now more accessible on more platforms. Far more people have access to NBC’s broadcast network and Prime Video than to TNT, a cable network.
Heading into the All-Star break, NBA regular-season viewership was at an eight-year high. During the break, commissioner Adam Silver said young fans were finding games on streaming “in record numbers.”
The league likely saw some issues coming. It launched a “Tap to Watch” feature across the NBA App, NBA social channels, and even sponsors’ platforms, through which fans who click an icon are taken straight to the app to watch that night’s games.
Some fans (a handful of whom appear to be in Barkley’s friend group) likely have struggled to adjust to the new schedule. But the NBA’s national windows are trending strong, as are tentpoles like Christmas Day and the All-Star game.
