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Local broadcast station WTHR-TV Channel 13 and its sister station will carry nearly half of the Indiana Fever’s regular-season games in 2025 as part of a multiyear deal announced Thursday.
The distribution agreement between the Tegna-owned NBC affiliate in Indianapolis and Pacers Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Fever, is the first of its kind for the franchise. While specific terms of the deal—including financials and exact length—were not disclosed, WTHR and WALV-CD are set to carry a combined 18 games in the Indianapolis television market this coming season.
WALV-CD Channel 46 is is 13.3 on digital services and known locally for its MeTV programming.
The partnership stems from a similar agreement for the 2024 season, in which the stations broadcast 17 games.
“With our team’s powerful roster of veteran talent and young stars, we’re positioned to have an unforgettable season, and we look forward to having more fans follow our journey,” Pacers Sports & Entertainment CEO Mel Raines said in written remarks. “WTHR and Tegna continue to be incredible partners, and together, we’re going to deliver more exciting, fast-paced Fever basketball to households in the Indianapolis region than ever before.”
In 2025, the Fever club will have a franchise- and WNBA-record 41 regular-season games shown on national networks of the 44 total on the team’s schedule.
According to WTHR, the agreement to extend its partnership for Fever games stemmed from data that showed the terrestrial network’s broadcasts had a major edge over national broadcasts for the same games, with 63% more spectators tuning into the local version. Many of the national Fever broadcasts were shown on pay streaming channels such as ESPN, ESPN 2, Prime Video and NBA TV, while WTHR is accessible for free locally with a digital antenna.
WTHR also broadcast five Indiana Pacers games during the 2024 to 2025 regular season.
The schedule of the televised games for this season is as follows (all times Eastern):
May 20: Fever vs. Atlanta, 7 p.m., WALV
May 22: Fever at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m., WTHR
May 28: Fever at Washington, 7:30 p.m., WTHR
June 3: Fever vs. Washington, 7 p.m., WALV
June 10: Fever at Atlanta, 7:30 p.m., WALV
June 17: Fever vs. Connecticut, 7 p.m., WALV
June 19: Fever at Golden State, 10 p.m., WTHR
June 24: Fever at Seattle, 10 p.m., WTHR
July 3: Fever vs. Las Vegas, 7 p.m., WTHR
July 5: Fever vs. Los Angeles, 7 p.m., WTHR
July 9: Fever vs. Golden State, Noon, WTHR
July 16: Fever at New York, 7:30 p.m., WTHR
July 24: Fever vs. Las Vegas, 7 p.m., WTHR
Aug. 5: Fever at Los Angeles, 10 p.m., WTHR
Aug. 7: Fever at Phoenix, 10 p.m., WTHR
Aug. 24: Fever at Minnesota, 7 p.m., WTHR
Sept. 2: Fever at Los Angeles, 10 p.m., WTHR
Sept. 7: Fever at Washington, 3 p.m., WTHR
Michael Brouder, president and general manager of WTHR, called the Fever a “one of a kind product,” noting the efforts undertaken by the franchise to bolster its roster in recent years, including drafting Aliya Boston in 2023 and Caitlin Clark in 2024—both as No. 1 overall picks—the re-signing of All-Star guard Kelsey Mitchell and the signing of several veterans who have won multiple WNBA titles.
Brouder said he thinks it was an easy decision to continue the distribution deal to allow more Fever games to be broadcast for free across central Indiana. He said the network didn’t have control over which games it was awarded for broadcast rights, citing the complexities of the WNBA’s media rights agreements.
“The conversation was pretty easy to start up as we got into a multi-year deal,” Brouder said. “We worked very, very well together. … It was a great start to what is now going to be an even longer and deeper partnership with the Fever and Pacers Sports & Entertainment.
“There’s an order by which all of these outlets, including with local rights for WTHR, get to pick those [games],” he said. “I won’t get too much into those details, but I think the point is that this year was more complicated than ever, because there were so many outlets that were interested in bringing the Fever games home” to their networks.
Broudner said discussions are ongoing about whether more networks across the state and the Midwest will have an opportunity to simulcast the WTHR games in a manner similar to what 10 other Tegna networks were able to do last season. He teased that more news could come on that soon.
“It’s certainly in discussion, but the interest is there,” he said.
The deal between the Fever and Tegna was brokered and negotiated by Dan Granik and David Sternberg of Range Sports, division of consulting firm Range Media Partners that has worked extensively with Pacers Sports & Entertainment over the past several years.
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