Local sports on TV - back to the future?

[Cactus Panther]

The Phoenix Suns and their WNBA partner, the Mercury, announced this week that they are immediately leaving the struggling Bally Sports and going to free over-the-air TV. In addition, for those without access to the local TV stations, their games can be streamed for free. I know some followers of this message board do not pay to watch the Bucks or Brewers. We have also occasionally discussed the value of having Panther men's basketball games broadcast over the air in the local market.

Could the Suns/Mercury deal be the start of a trend in other markets? Here is some perspective from an AZ Central media critic:

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The Phoenix Suns and Mercury TV deal is great news for fans. Of course there's a catch
Bill Goodykoontz
Arizona Republic

Everything old is new again.

What goes around comes around.

Or just choose your own cliche and apply it to the deal the Phoenix Suns and the Phoenix Mercury made with Gray Television Inc. to broadcast the bulk of regular-season games.

The Suns and Mercury deal takes Bally Sports Arizona out of the picture, so to speak, and puts the games back on local TV stations. Bally Sports Arizona, formerly Fox Sports Arizona, has carried all the Suns and Mercury games that national networks didn’t have exclusive rights to.

The deal doesn’t solve every viewer complaint (more on that later) but it’s great news for cable-cutters, and it means local fans won’t have to pay for a subscription service to watch.

Just like the old days, when Suns games — some, anyway — were shown on local TV.

The Suns new TV deal is a big win for everyone without cable TV

From 1988 to 2011, local station KUTP televised away games and some home games.

Now, the Mercury's 2023 games will be shown on local Gray stations KTVK (Arizona’s Family 3TV), KPHO (Arizona’s Family CBS5) and the statewide KPHE (AZ Family Sports Network). Starting next season, Suns games will be aired there too. Kiswe, a video-tech startup, will stream the games.

So back to the future, in that regard.

And with TV watching generally. The deal is reflective of that — of people cutting cable and changing their viewing habits. Strange as it may seem to those of us with subscriptions to multiple streaming services, not everyone shells out for TV.

Cable was a monster in the 1990s and early 2000s. Wave of the future and all that. But a lot of people have since grown tired of cable companies bundling networks they don’t watch and struck out on their own, subscribing to a service here and there, according to their specific interests. Or just watching with an antenna.

That hasn’t translated into big savings for some people, but it does give the customer more control.

Regional sports networks like Bally Sports Arizona have made viewing difficult for local sports fans. If you wanted to see nonexclusive Suns or Mercury games, you had to watch on Bally Sports Arizona, which had deals with cable companies and some streaming services.

But not all. For instance, you could watch on AT&T TV, but not YouTube TV, which didn’t have a deal with Bally. Fandom forced your hand and affected your choices.

Diamond Sports Group, which owns Bally, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in March. So far this has not affected Diamondbacks broadcasts. But it’s not exactly a good omen. (It also has accused the Suns of a breach of contract, which the Suns deny.)

Here are the Suns' games that viewers won't be able to watch on free TV

The deal makes a lot of sense for fans. But it’s not going to solve all viewer complaints, particularly when it comes to the playoffs.

Arizona viewers were incensed when Game 3 of the Suns’ Round 1 playoff series was blacked out locally on NBA TV. You watched it on Bally Sports Arizona or you didn’t watch.

That can still happen with the new deal because of local and national broadcast agreements. But at least viewers won't have to subscribe to a carrier to watch. They can watch for free on Gray stations.

Also, after the first round of the NBA playoffs, all the games are carried on national networks — Turner, ESPN or ABC. That won’t change. In other words, if the Suns make it to the second round next year, the games won’t be shown on the Gray stations. You’ll still have to have some way of watching the Turner and ESPN games.

If anything, the deal shines a light on the tumultuous way people watch TV now. Schedules are a thing of the past. It wasn’t that long ago that people made sure they were home in time to watch “Seinfeld” on Thursday nights. Now if you miss an episode of “Succession,” you can just stream it on HBO Max. Though live sports remain appointment TV.

People want what they want, when they want it. The Suns and Mercury deal doesn’t crack that code completely. But at least it can make watching a little cheaper.

Now can the Arizona Diamondbacks please get on board?

[Cactus Panther]

Another major pro sports team to air all games free on local broadcast TV. That's two and counting (I don't count the WNBA):

Vegas Golden Knights Ditch Cable for Free Broadcast TV
Second big deal for new Scripps Sports.
Another local over-the-air channel picks up sports rights.
BY MICHAEL MCCARTHY
MAY 04, 2023 | 06:09 PM

Remember old-fashioned, over-the-air broadcast television? Sports teams struggling with crumbling cable TV partners certainly do.

The Vegas Golden Knights have signed a multi-year deal with Scripps Sports to air their games for free in Nevada and four surrounding states.

The agreement will kick in with the start of the NHL’s 2023-2024 season. It will also include a direct-to-consumer option.

“This deal is a significant win for our fans because they will be able to see our games on television and for free, if they wish,” said Golden Knights president and chief executive officer Kerry Bubolz in a statement. “That was our goal in finding a new TV partner. We wanted to serve our fanbase in the best way possible.”

The games will center around Golden Knights telecasts not in the national TV windows controlled by The Walt Disney Co.’s ESPN and Warner Bros. Discovery Sports TNT/TBS.

It’s the first deal between Scripps Sports (which launched in December) and a pro sports franchise.

A few weeks ago, Scripps inked a deal with the WNBA to air Friday night games on its ION during the women’s basketball league’s new season starting May 26.

The hockey games will air on Scripps’ local KMCC-TV station. Besides the Golden Knights’ home market in Nevada, they will be carried in Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.

The games were previously carried by AT&T SportsNet, a Warner Bros. Discovery Sports unit that’s exiting the RSN business.

Last week, the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury also ditched cable TV for free over-the-air TV.

The two basketball franchises signed with Gray Television to broadcast their games to 2.8 million households.

The team’s previous media partner, Bally Sports Arizona, was unhappy with the deal. The network’s bankrupt parent company Diamond Sports, said the teams’ breached their contract.

“This is an improper effort by the Suns to change their broadcasting partner without permitting Diamond to exercise our contractual rights,” Diamond said.

Before the next NHL season starts, Scripps will rebrand KMCC as an independent station.

[Cactus Panther]

The trend continues, this time in Milwaukee:
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Local station WMLW to televise 10 Milwaukee Bucks games starting in February
Emmett Prosser
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

About that ancient TV antenna that you kept in your attic or basement all these years...

If you are a Milwaukee Bucks fan, you might want to find it and dust it off.

Weigel Broadcasting, parent company of area television stations WDJT CBS 58 and WMLW announced that WMLW will carry 10 Bucks games later this season, beginning Friday, Feb. 23.

It's the first time Bucks basketball will be available free and on over-the-air television since 2006-2007.

According to a news release Sunday, the 10 games are being moved from Bally Sports Wisconsin. The same Bally announcing team of Lisa Byington, Marques Johnson, Steve Novak and Melanie Ricks will be calling the games on WMLW.

"We are thrilled to expand our collaboration with the Bucks to bring these games to our local stations for viewers," said Anne Brown, Vice President and General Manager of WMLW and WDJT, in a news release Sunday.

“Broadcasting Bucks games on free over-the-air television is a tremendous opportunity to give even more of our fans easy access to their team,” said Peter Feigin, President of the Bucks and Fiserv Forum.

The latest 10-game deal struck with Weigel is great news for local Bucks fans, especially those who have cut the cable cord and have to purchase the Bally Sports streaming service to watch the Bucks.

"In a media ecosystem that’s only becoming more fragmented, Weigel's broadcast footprint provides unmatched reach for forward-thinking sports teams such as the Bucks,” said Evan Fieldman, Executive Vice President of Weigel in the release.

This isn't the first move involving a Bally Sports restructure this month.

Diamond Sports, the parent company that owns Bally and broadcasts Milwaukee Bucks and Milwaukee Brewers games, filed for bankruptcy in May and has also reportedly reached a collaboration merger with Amazon involving its regional sports networks.

Amazon reportedly invested $115 million for future opportunities to stream NBA, MLB and NHL games on Prime. They had been negotiating with Diamond Sports on a partnership.

It was also reported by USA Today on Jan. 17 that this would limit the flexibility of NBA teams with Bally Sports contracts to negotiate future deals. Here are excerpts from that report:

As more information becomes available, it has become increasingly clear that the NHL, NBA, and MLB were each caught by surprise by news of this deal and are currently weighing all of their options. With Diamond's contracts with the NHL and NBA set to expire after this current season, Amazon was expected to be a major bidder to purchase a package of NBA franchise broadcasting rights. The new agreement with Diamond Sports does not give the NBA as much liberty to shop packages around anymore.

Essentially, Diamond Sports had no bargaining power with any of the pro sports leagues that it was working with in 2024: the NBA, NHL, and MLB. Each of those leagues wanted their contracts with Diamond to expire by the end of 2024 so that they could shop the broadcasting rights to other competitors, of which Amazon was expected to be a major player and likely recipient.

Amazon's agreement with Diamond puts a damper on the leagues' plans. The entity that was likely to bid highest is now in partnership with the company they are currently working with. The NHL, NBA, and MLB have lost most of their leverage in broadcasting negotiations and will likely have to settle for a much smaller sum than they previously anticipated and will likely have to keep working with Diamond Sports beyond 2024."

The current NBA and NHL deals with Diamond Sports are set to expire at the end of the 2023-24 season.

[Pounce Needs Pals]

[Cactus Panther]

For the last several years we have discussed the benefits of airing Panther games on local over-the-air TV ("OTA"). Check out the comments below from a JS Online article regarding news of a local independent pro baseball team airing some of it's upcoming games on OTA TV this summer:

Bryan Giese, the DockHounds' director of marketing, said the partnership represents another way "to grow our brand" in a manner that can reach more people in the region, and even those closer to home.

"This is extremely important for us as an organization and as a league to be able to give our fans an opportunity to engage with us, to be able to see us when they are not able to attend a game, and to see all the excitement and entertainment that DockHound baseball provides to the community," Giese said in an April 10 news conference.

Giese noted that the games also help My24 and its growing sports programming. Rocky Wagonhurst, vice president and general manager of CW18 & My24 Milwaukee, concurred, emphasizing how both companies benefit.

"We are excited to add the Lake Country DockHounds to our growing roster of local sports programming,” Wagonhurst said in a news release. "Our broadcasts reflect our community and providing access to the DockHounds for free over the-the-air is another example of our commitment to serving the Milwaukee area."

In the news conference, Wagonhurst said My24 will make a "grassroots" effort to market the Game of the Month series, including social media strategies to spread the word in a viewership area that includes a million households.

"We don't deal with the big pro sports, but, man, we have a great shot at local community events and local sports," he said. "That's really what we focus on."

It looks like this has the potential to be a good opportunity for Panther men's basketball. The broadcast is already produced. On one hand we have a local OTA outlet looking for local sports programming. On the other we have a program that should be seeking relevance through more exposure. This is something that Marquette and Madison cannot do because of contracted network TV obligations. Milwaukee is not under such contractual restrictions. 

C'mon Milwaukee athletic department! Let's get a deal done!

Here is the full article:

www.jsonline.com/story/communities/west/2024/04/22/lake-country-dockhounds-get-regional-tv-deal-for-3-games-on-my24/73347394007/