 | |
| Launched | December 15, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Division of | E. W. Scripps Company |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Major broadcasting contracts |
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| Official website | scrippssports |
Scripps Sports is the sports division of the E. W. Scripps Company; it is responsible for the broadcasting of sporting events across its broadcast television portfolio, including local stations and co-owned networks (such as Ion Television).
Prior to the formation of Scripps Sports, in May 2022, The E.W. Scripps Company reached an agreement with the Big Sky Conference to air 14 conference football games and as many as eight women's or men's basketball games involving Montana State University and University of Montana on the Scripps owned Montana Television Network. [1]
The formation of Scripps Sports was announced in December 2022. Company president Adam P. Symson stated that the division planned to compete with regional sports networks to pursue local rights to professional sports teams for its stations, and pursue national broadcasting contracts for its Ion Media division (including Ion Television). He argued that the pay television RSN industry was an "old model" that is "not set up to move forward", and that "we are really well-situated to participate in future models with sports teams, leagues, and conferences." [2]
In April 2023, Scripps Sports announced its first broadcast contract, a regular season package of Friday-night WNBA basketball games for Ion. [3] [4]
The following month, amid the winddown of AT&T SportsNet, Scripps Sports reached an agreement for regional rights to the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL. The games will be syndicated to stations within the team's designated market (with KMCC as flagship; the station moved Ion to a digital subchannel and became an independent station), and offered via the subscription-based over-the-top service KnightTime+. [5] [6] [7] In October 2023, it also reached an agreement with the Arizona Coyotes, after Bally Sports Arizona rejected its contract with the team [8] and subsequently shut down not long afterward. [9] After initially airing on the Antenna TV-affiliated KNXV-DT2, [8] KASW moved its The CW affiliation to that channel and similarly converted to an independent station to accommodate Coyotes games. [10] [11]
On November 9, 2023, the National Women's Soccer League announced Scripps Sports as a rightsholder beginning in the 2024 season, with Ion to air Saturday night doubleheaders. Ion will also air the 2024 NWSL Draft. [12] [13]
| Team | League | Flagship station | Affiliates | OTT subscription outlet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Montana and Montana State (2022–present) (Football, Men's Basketball and Women's Basketball) | Big Sky Conference | Montana Television Network [1] | ESPN+ | |
| Utah NHL team (2024–present) [14] | NHL | KUPX-TV/Provo, Utah |
| |
| Vegas Golden Knights (2023–present) | NHL | KMCC/Laughlin, Nevada [15] | KnightTime+ |
| Team | League | Flagship station | Affiliates | OTT subscription outlet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Coyotes (2023-2024) | NHL | KASW/Phoenix, Arizona |
The Arizona Coyotes are an inactive professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area, which competed in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division and the Pacific Division (1998–2020) in the Western Conference, and the West Division (2020–2021). They played at America West Arena in downtown Phoenix from 1996 to 2003, at Glendale's Gila River Arena from 2003 to 2022, and at Mullett Arena in Tempe from 2022 to 2024.
Ion Television is an American broadcast television network owned by the Scripps Networks subsidiary of the E. W. Scripps Company. The network first began broadcasting on August 31, 1998, as Pax TV, focusing primarily on family-oriented entertainment programming. It rebranded as i: Independent Television on July 1, 2005, converting into a general entertainment network featuring recent and older acquired programs. The network adopted its identity as Ion Television on January 29, 2007, and airs programming in daily binge blocks of one program, usually acquired procedural dramas. The network also carries some holiday specials and films before Christmas.
The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps Howard, is an American broadcasting company founded in 1878 as a chain of daily newspapers by Edward Willis "E. W." Scripps and his sister, Ellen Browning Scripps. It was also formerly a media conglomerate. The company is headquartered at the Scripps Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its corporate motto is "Give light and the people will find their own way", which is symbolized by the media empire's longtime lighthouse logo.
KASW, branded on-air as Arizona 61, is an independent television station in Phoenix, Arizona, United States. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate KNXV-TV. The two stations share studios on North 44th Street on the city's east side; KASW's primary transmitter is located on South Mountain.
KUPX-TV, branded Utah 16, is an independent television station licensed to Provo, Utah, United States, serving Salt Lake City and the state of Utah. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside Fox affiliate KSTU. KUPX-TV's offices are located on Lawndale Drive in the southern section of Salt Lake City, and its transmitter is located on Farnsworth Peak in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City.
A regional sports network (RSN) in the United States and Canada is a television channel that presents sports programming to a local media market or geographical region.
KMCC, branded Vegas 34, is an independent television station licensed to Laughlin, Nevada, United States, serving the Las Vegas area. It is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company alongside ABC affiliate KTNV-TV. The two stations share studios on South Valley View Boulevard in the nearby unincorporated community of Paradise. KMCC uses a distributed transmission system, with the main transmitter located near Dolan Springs, Arizona, and a secondary transmitter at the KTNV studios.
Root Sports Northwest, sometimes branded simply as Root Sports, is an American regional sports network owned by the Seattle Mariners. Headquartered near Seattle in the city of Bellevue, Washington, the channel broadcasts regional coverage of sports events throughout the Pacific Northwest, with a focus on professional sports teams based in Seattle and Portland. It is available on cable providers throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, and Alaska and nationwide on satellite via DirecTV.
David Strader was an American sportscaster, primarily known for his play-by-play commentary of ice hockey. During his career, he worked on telecasts for the Detroit Red Wings, Florida Panthers, Phoenix Coyotes and Dallas Stars of the National Hockey League (NHL). He also worked nationally in the United States for ESPN, ABC, Versus, NBC, and NBCSN.
AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain was an American regional sports network owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its TNT Sports unit as part of the AT&T SportsNet brand of networks. Headquartered in Denver, Colorado, the network broadcast regional coverage of sports events throughout the Rocky Mountain region, mainly focusing on professional sports teams based in the Denver metropolitan area, Utah and Nevada.
The Vegas Golden Knights are a professional ice hockey team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Golden Knights compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division in the Western Conference. Founded in 2017 as an expansion team, the team is the first major sports franchise to represent Las Vegas. The franchise is owned by Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, a consortium led by Bill Foley and the Maloof family. Their home games are played at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.
The NHL on TNT is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by TNT Sports, and televised on TNT and streamed on Max in the United States.
The 2023–24 NHL season is the 107th season of operation of the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season began on October 10, 2023 and ended on April 18, 2024. The 2024 Stanley Cup playoffs began on April 20. The Stanley Cup Finals are then scheduled for June, with a possible seventh game to take place no later than June 24.
The 2024 WNBA season is the upcoming 28th season of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), a professional women's basketball league based in the United States.
The 2024–25 NHL season is the upcoming 108th season of operation of the National Hockey League (NHL). Following concerns about an indefinite timeframe on a new arena, the Arizona Coyotes were deactivated and its players and personnel were transferred to a new expansion team in Utah. The regular season is planned to begin on October 4, 2024, when the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils are scheduled to play the first of two games in Prague, Czech Republic, as a part of the 2024 NHL Global Series. The Stanley Cup playoffs are then planned to begin in April 2025, ending with the Stanley Cup Finals in June.
The Utah NHL team is a professional ice hockey expansion team that will be based in Salt Lake City. The still-unnamed team will compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference, and will begin play during the league's 2024–25 season. The team will play its home games at the Delta Center, the home of the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA), with plans being made to remodel the arena to make it more suitable for both franchises.