 | |
| Launched | December 15, 2022 |
|---|---|
| Division of | E. W. Scripps Company |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Key people | Brian Lawlor (President) [1] |
| 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. [2]
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." [3]
In April 2023, Scripps Sports announced its first broadcast contract, a regular season package of Friday-night WNBA basketball games for Ion. [4] [5]
The following month, with AT&T SportsNet winding down, Scripps Sports reached an agreement for regional rights to the Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL. The games would 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+. [6] [7] [8] In October 2023, it also reached an agreement with the Arizona Coyotes, after Bally Sports Arizona rejected its contract with the team [9] and subsequently shut down not long afterward. [10] After initially airing on the Antenna TV-affiliated KNXV-DT2, [9] KASW moved its The CW affiliation to that channel and similarly converted to an independent station to accommodate Coyotes games (Scripps would later relinquish its CW affiliation entirely, with majority owner Nexstar Media Group taking over KAZT-TV under a time brokerage agreement, and moving The CW to it in February 2024). [11] [12] [13]
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. [14] [15]
In April 2024, the NHL deactivated the Coyotes franchise and their players and personnel were transferred to a new Salt Lake City-based expansion team. Scripps' KUPX-TV in Salt Lake City, which had been televising Coyotes and Golden Knights games, will continue to carry the former's games, but now as the Utah Hockey Club's flagship station. [16] The team's telecasts are being produced in-house by team owner Smith Entertainment Group. [17] [18]
In July 2024, the Florida Panthers announced a deal with Scripps Sports to move its games from Bally Sports Florida, with WSFL-TV in Miami as flagship station. [19]
On August 18, 2024, Ion aired the finals of the Manhattan Beach Open beach volleyball tournament as part of a one-off deal with the Association of Volleyball Professionals. [20]
| 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 [2] |
| |
| Florida Panthers (2024–present) | NHL | WSFL-TV/Miami, Florida | ||
| Utah Hockey Club (2024–present) [24] | NHL | KUPX-TV/Provo, Utah |
| |
| Vegas Golden Knights (2023–present) | NHL | KMCC/Laughlin, Nevada [26] |
|
| Team | League | Flagship station | Affiliates | OTT subscription outlet |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arizona Coyotes (2023–2024) | NHL | KASW/Phoenix, Arizona KNXV-TV/Phoenix, Arizona (former) |
|
The Florida Panthers are a professional ice hockey team based in the Miami metropolitan area. The Panthers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Atlantic Division in the Eastern Conference. The team initially played its home games at Miami Arena before moving to the Amerant Bank Arena in 1998. Located in Sunrise, Florida, the franchise is the southernmost team in the NHL. The team's local broadcasting rights were held by Bally Sports Florida from 1996 to 2024 when they made a new broadcast deal with Scripps Sports. The Panthers are primarily affiliated with two minor league teams: the Charlotte Checkers of the American Hockey League (AHL) and the Savannah Ghost Pirates of the ECHL.
The Arizona Coyotes are an inactive professional ice hockey team based in the Phoenix metropolitan area. They 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. The organization was established on December 27, 1971, as the Winnipeg Jets, a charter franchise of the World Hockey Association (WHA). After seven WHA seasons they were one of four organizations enfranchised by the NHL on June 22, 1979, when the WHA ceased operations. Due to financial troubles, the Jets were sold to American owners who moved the team to Phoenix on July 1, 1996, where they were renamed the Phoenix Coyotes. The franchise was renamed the Arizona Coyotes on June 27, 2014. Alex Meruelo became the majority owner on July 29, 2019, later becoming the franchise's sole owner following the arrest of minority owner Andrew Barroway.
The E. W. Scripps Company, also known as Scripps, 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. In terms of audience reach, Scripps is the second largest operator of ABC affiliates, behind the Sinclair Broadcast Group, and ahead of Hearst Television and Tegna. Scripps also owns a number of free-to-air multi-genre digital subchannel multicast networks through its Scripps Networks division, including the Ion Television network and Scripps News.
KASW, branded 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. Such channels often focus on one or a few teams who currently play in Major League Baseball, National Basketball Association, and/or National Hockey League. Minor league sports, College sports, and High school sports, may also be shown on such networks and are less commonly a focus of a channel such as the Longhorn Network and a few defunct Spectrum Sports channels such as Spectrum Sports and Spectrum Sports (Wisconsin).
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.
Bally Sports Arizona (BSAZ) was an American regional sports network (RSN). The channel broadcast professional, collegiate and high school sports events, with a primary focus on Phoenix-area teams. It was available on most cable providers throughout Arizona and available nationwide on satellite provider DirecTV.
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 primarily owned by Black Knight Sports and Entertainment, a consortium led by Bill Foley, with Adrienne Maloof holding a minority stake. Their home games are played at T-Mobile Arena on the Las Vegas Strip in Paradise, Nevada.
The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) is a professional women's soccer league owned by the teams, and under a management contract with the United States Soccer Federation. At the top of the United States league system, it represents the sport's highest level in the United States. The NWSL was established in 2012 as a successor to Women's Professional Soccer (2007–2012), which was itself the successor to Women's United Soccer Association (2001–2003). The league began play in 2013 with eight teams, four of which were former members of Women's Professional Soccer.
Main Street Sports Group LLC is an American media and entertainment company. The company operates FanDuel Sports Network, a group of regional sports channels that was formerly known as Fox Sports Networks and Bally Sports. The company also has a stake in YES Network.
FanDuel Sports Network is a group of regional sports networks in the United States owned by Main Street Sports Group. The networks carry regional broadcasts of sporting events from various professional, collegiate, and high school sports teams. Through its owned-and-operated networks and several other affiliates, its programming is available to all or part of at least 33 states.
Vladislav Anatolevich Kolyachonok is a Belarusian professional ice hockey defenseman currently playing for the Utah Hockey Club of the National Hockey League (NHL). He was drafted by the Florida Panthers, 52nd overall, in the 2019 NHL entry draft. He previously played for Dinamo Minsk of the Kontinental Hockey League, and made his NHL debut in 2022.
The 2024–25 NHL season is the ongoing 108th season of operation of the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season started on October 4, 2024, when the Buffalo Sabres and New Jersey Devils played 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. This season is the first for the expansion Utah Hockey Club, who were established with the hockey assets of the Arizona Coyotes following the latter team's deactivation.
The Utah Hockey Club is a professional ice hockey team based in Salt Lake City. The team competes in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division in the Western Conference. The franchise joined the league as an expansion team for the 2024–25 season. The team plays its home games at Delta Center, an arena they share with the Utah Jazz of the National Basketball Association (NBA).
Scripps stations in markets with Big Sky schools will broadcast football games and men's and women's basketball games ... The Big Sky Conference will retain rights to digitally distribute and stream programming via the ESPN+ app both within and outside the league's footprint, and these broadcasts on Scripps will not be subject to any blackout restrictions.