LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Vegas Golden Knights are teaming up with Scripps Sports, the parent company of Channel 13, to bring more games to hockey fans.
Scripps Sports will televise all non-nationally exclusive VGK games on cable, satellite, and over-the-air television, they announced on Thursday.
The Golden Knights are the first professional sports team to reach a deal with Scripps Sports, which launched in December.
"This deal is a significant win for fans because they will be able to see our games on television and for free, if they wish," Golden Knights president and CEO Kerry Bubolz said. "That was our goal in finding a new TV partner. We wanted to serve our fanbase in the best way possible."
The deal makes VGK the first NHL team to announce free over-the-air broadcasts to all fans.
Scripps Sports will air Golden Knights games on its local station KMCC, channel 34, which will be rebranded as an independent station before the 2023-2024 NHL season begins.
Broadcasts will include pregame and postgame coverage for every game and Dave Goucher and Shane Hnidy will remain on the call. The station will also broadcast local and national news, local sports, and additional entertainment programming.
The new agreement will cover five states: Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Utah, and Wyoming. In addition to the Las Vegas valley, cities that will be able to receive those broadcasts include Salt Lake City, Boise, Idaho Falls, Twin Falls, Billings, Butte-Bozeman, Glendive, Great Falls, Helena, Missoula, Casper-Riverton and Cheyenne-Scottsbluff.
The team has previously reached out to those communities as part of their annual Road Trip.
For example, in July 2022, the team visited fans at Lake Tahoe, Boise, Missoula, and Salt Lake City. They hosted meet-and-greets with players as well as hockey clinics to help grow the game.
"We have been impressed by the Golden Knights' commitment to winning and their desire to connect and engage with fans in Vegas and outer markets as well," said Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports. "This is going to be a wonderful partnership and it's the fans who will benefit most. We launched Scripps Sports with the belief that we could help teams reach more fans through our stations, which do not depend on subscriptions and added fees for the consumer."
The Golden Knights were looking for a new TV partner after reports emerged of Warner Brothers Discovery wanting to get out of the regional sports network business.
This affected several teams including the NBA's Utah Jazz, Portland Trailblazers and Houston Rockets, the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins and Seattle Kraken, and MLB's Houston Astros, Pittsburgh Pirates, Colorado Rockies and Seattle Mariners.
Instead of regional sports networks, Warner Brothers Discovery has said they want to focus on premiere events. For example, the media company recently announced they will televise "The Match," a celebrity golf event at the Wynn in Las Vegas featuring NFL stars Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and the NBA's Stephen Curry and Klay Thompson.
Meantime, Scripps Sports has also reached an agreement to broadcast WNBA games, including the Las Vegas Aces.
The multi-year partnership will allow Scripps Sports to televise regular season games on Friday nights on ION, which is available over-the-air and through major connected TV services. That starts on May 26.