The Dallas Mavericks basketball team have inked a new broadcast television agreement with TEGNA that will move dozens of regular season games to over-the-air stations in Texas this season.
The announcement comes about two weeks after the former telecast rights holder, Diamond Sports Group, revealed a new multi-year agreement with the National Basketball Association (NBA) to continue offering games in several markets, while ending its contracts with the Mavericks and one other team, the New Orleans Pelicans.
On Friday, TEGNA and the Mavericks said around 70 non-nationally televised basketball games will air for free on KMPX (Channel 29), which currently offers Spanish-language programming from Estrella TV. TEGNA said the Estrella TV affiliation will move to another station in the Dallas-Fort Worth market at the start of the Mavericks season, at which point KMPX will become a locally-produced, full-time independent TV station.
In addition to KMPX, around 15 Mavericks games will simulcast on TEGNA-owned ABC affiliate WFAA (Channel 8) throughout the season. Those games are expected to be announced at a later date.
Beyond the Dallas market, TEGNA-owned stations throughout Texas are also expected to carry Mavericks games, including:
- KAGS-LD (Channel 23, NBC) in College Station
- KCEN (Channel 6, NBC) in Waco
- KIDY (Channel 6, Fox) in San Angelo
- KWES (Channel 9, NBC) in Midland
- KXVA (Channel 15, Fox) in Abilene
- KYTX (Channel 19, CBS) in Tyler
“We are looking forward to giving Dallas Mavericks fans every opportunity possible to watch our exciting team build on the momentum of its incredible run to the NBA Finals last season,” said Patrick Dumont, the Governor of the Mavericks. “Our new agreement with TEGNA helps meaningfully deliver on that goal by broadcasting more games to more local homes than in any period in franchise history. Through our new partnership with TEGNA and our expanded relationship with WFAA, more Mavs fans than ever before will be able to watch the team they love.”
“This is an incredible day for Mavs fans and our partners across Texas, and we are grateful to the Mavericks organization for their partnership and trust,” said Brad Ramsey, the Senior Vice President of Media Operations at TEGNA. “Mavericks fans, our audience, and our advertising partners had an unbelievable reaction to the 10 games we made available last season, and we are thrilled to build off of that momentum and make every game, home or away, available to more fans, in more homes.”
“We are excited to tip off the new season by bringing our games to more MFFLs (Mavericks Fans for Life) across Texas,” Dallas Mavericks CEO Cynt Marshall sad in a statement. “It was a pleasure working with TEGNA last season to deliver additional viewing experiences for ten games. Building on the overwhelmingly positive feedback received, we look forward to providing millions more Mavs fans access to watch our games throughout the entire season. Stay tuned and let’s go Mavs!”
The Mavericks become the latest professional sports franchise to move their games to free broadcast TV, at a time when the regional sports network model appears to be collapsing, spurred in large part by the Chapter 11 bankruptcy case filed by Diamond Sports last year.
Last April, Gray Television said it reached a deal to bring games from the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury basketball teams to its television stations in Arizona. Earlier this year, it aired five games from the Cleveland Cavaliers on its CW affiliate in that Ohio market, and executives have affirmed plans to pursue additional sports deals in the future; this summer, it revealed the formation of the Rock Entertainment Sports Network and Palmetto Sports & Entertainment that will add more live sports to its broadcast stations in Ohio and South Carolina.
Last year, the E. W. Scripps Company announced a plan to offer nationally-televised games from the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) on its Ion television network, which is in the process of rebranding around live sports. The pact has already proven to be immensely successful for the new Scripps Sports franchise, with five games from the Indiana Fever driving over one million viewers to Ion this season. In addition to WNBA games, Scripps-owned stations broadcast games from the Vegas Golden Knights hockey team, and previously offered games from the now-shuttered Arizona Coyotes hockey team.
