The Minnesota Lynx are expanding the local distribution of their games through a new partnership with TEGNA and Victory Plus that will bring three July contests to free over-the-air television across the Twin Cities and surrounding markets.
The agreement will simulcast three Lynx games on KARE (Channel 11, NBC) while continuing to stream the contests free on Victory Plus. The partnership extends the team’s existing streaming distribution to approximately 1.5 million households throughout the Lynx’s local television territory.
The first simulcast is scheduled for July 15 when the Lynx host the Los Angeles Sparks. Additional broadcasts will air July 18 against the Portland Fire and July 22 against the Seattle Storm. Victory Plus will continue to produce the game telecasts, while KARE will provide locally produced postgame coverage featuring player interviews and analysis.
The broadcasts will continue to feature Sloane Martin on play-by-play alongside analyst Lea B. Olsen. Outside of nationally televised games, Victory Plus remains the local streaming home of Lynx basketball.
The partnership comes at a time when sports leagues are turning to broadcast stations and independently-built streaming platforms to reach fans, largely due to the demise of major regional sports networks that once offered those games exclusively on cable and satellite TV.
In recent years, TEGNA and its peers, including Gray Media and the E. W. Scripps Company, have inked telecast deals that have brought more professional basketball, baseball and hockey games back to broadcast TV.
