The E. W. Scripps Company is bolstering its portfolio of locally-televised sports by partnering with the Tampa Bay Lightning to bring premium hockey to broadcast TV in Florida.
Starting with the 2025-26 season, Tampa Bay Lightning games will be free to watch on WXPX (Channel 66). Currently, the station offers programming from Ion, but Scripps said WXPX will convert to a full-time independent with sports and entertainment programming, plus news produced by sister-station WFTS (Channel 28, ABC).
A spokesperson for Scripps confirmed to The Desk that Ion programming will be distributed in high definition on a digital sub-channel of WXPX when the station relaunches as an independent outlet in July.
Tampa Bay Lightning games were previously offered on FanDuel Sports Network, which rebranded from Bally Sports last year after parent company Main Street Sports (formerly Diamond Sports Group) emerged from bankruptcy. During that process, Main Street Sports released a number of teams from their contractual obligations to partner with its regional sports channels by terminating or not renewing those agreements.
Even when Tampa Bay Lightning games were on FanDuel Sports Network, the reach of the regional sports channel was limited to the cable and satellite companies that offered it. Some cable platforms do not carry FanDuel Sports Network in the Lightning’s broadcast area, requiring fans of the team to shell out $20 per month for the online version on FanDuel Sports Network.
Bringing the Lightning to broadcast TV has the added benefit of also making the games available on cable and satellite platforms that carry WXPX. Many do, including Frontier, Comcast’s Xfinity, Charter’s Spectrum, Dish Network and DirecTV.
For hockey fans who prefer to stream Lightning games, Scripps Sports will work with the team to develop a new direct-to-consumer streaming app in partnership with ViewLift. Scripps previously worked with ViewLift to develop a streaming experience for fans of the Vegas Golden Knights, according to our prior reporting.
The companies did not say whether the service will cost anything to access, or if it will be free to stream within the Lightning’s broadcast area. Fans outside the Lightning’s broadcast market can stream games on ESPN Plus, which has out-of-market TV rights through a separate partnership with the National Hockey League (NHL).
“The Tampa Bay Lightning are one of the best teams in the NHL, and Bolts fans deserve easy access to all their games via cable, satellite, free over-the-air and streaming,” said Brian Lawlor, the President of Scripps Sports. “The complement of broadcast television and streaming guarantees that fans can follow the games from their living room or wherever they are in their busy lives. We look forward to sharing many winning moments with one of the league’s most loyal fan bases.”
The addition of live Tampa Bay Lightning games is part of Scripps’ broader strategy to leverage live sports rights in order to attract viewers and advertisers to its local TV stations and national networks.
Two years ago, Scripps CEO Adam Symson called the formation of Scripps Sports “one important component of the reorganization we began” in 2023, and a cornerstone of the broadcaster’s evolving distribution and revenue strategy.
Over time, Scripps has partnered with the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) to bring live athletic events to Ion, making games free to watch on broadcast TV and free streaming platforms like The Roku Channel, Xumo Play, Pluto TV and Samsung TV Plus.
The deal with the WNBA came at a particularly critical moment: Last year, the Indiana Fever drafted college basketball sensation Caitlin Clark, and one of the first games of her professional career aired on Ion. (The network shares WNBA rights with ESPN and a few other broadcasters.)
In the early part of the WNBA’s season last year, the five highest-rated games all involved Clark, with one double-header game seeing an average audience of 1.6 million viewers, per Nielsen ratings.
Overall, Scripps Sports on Ion attracted nearly 23.4 million viewers with WNBA games and 20 million unique viewers with NWSL games last season.
On a local level, Scripps has inked deals with the NHL to bring live hockey games to fans in Las Vegas and Tampa Bay, as well as college sports events and shoulder programming.
