If you are in your car you already know to flip the station to Fox Sports 1340/98.9 to hear the Golden Knights, well now we know where to tune your TV to catch the games as well. AT&T Sports Networks, using their Root Sports or ROOT SPORTS as they like to call it (we are not obliging to the caps locks name) brand and the Golden Knights have agreed to a multi year deal to become the official exclusive home of the Vegas Golden Knights.
Under the agreement, ROOT SPORTS Rocky Mountain will be the exclusive television rightsholder for Golden Knights regional telecasts of regular-season games, beginning with the 2017-18 NHL season, for the length of the agreement. The network will have the opportunity to carry preseason and playoff games as well. All games will be produced in high definition and contain a pregame show and postgame show, subject to live event conflicts. -Press Release
Root Sports is channel 683 on DirecTV and 5414 on Dish Network. It is currently not offered by either local cable provider, Cox or CenturyLink Prism.
Cox provides news, sports and entertainment content that appeals to a wide range of audiences. At this time, we have not been contacted by Root Sports, but we review new additions to our channel lineup on an ongoing basis. -Official Statement from Cox Communications
Being available across all providers in the Las Vegas valley was a major priority for the organization in choosing their television partner. While it is alarming that the deals are not in place at the moment and I’m sure any Dodgers fans reading this are having deja vu, it’s too early to panic about Cox and Prism not offering the channels.
Root Sports is offered on Comcast cable in Denver, Pittsburgh, Houston, Salt Lake City, Seattle, and Portland. Verizon FiOS in Pittsburgh. Coastal Link, En-Touch, and Consolidated Communications in Houston. AT&T Sports Networks is owned by DirecTV.
Root Sports Rocky Mountain is currently the home for the Colorado Rockies and the Utah Jazz. Their website says they will have live coverage of 150 Rockies games and “at least 75” Jazz games. We do not have information yet on how they plan on addressing the conflicts between the teams.
This is a landmark agreement for our organization, Golden Knights fans in Nevada and Golden Knights fans all across the Rocky Mountain region. The investment by ROOT SPORTS in cutting edge technology and their background televising the sport of hockey will ensure an enjoyable viewing experience during every Golden Knights game. -The Creator
In addition to the pre and post game shows mentioned Root Sports will also provide “other hockey-related programming with unique access to the team and its players.” How this interacts (or doesn’t) with Behind the Vegas Ice is yet to be seen. The show on Cox is scheduled to run through the first month of the season.
A press conference is scheduled for this afternoon.
006
Good job Knights – way to minimize your potential viewing audience right from the start! I’m sure out West with all of the land and remote dwellings, satellite penetration is higher. Out East, it’s probably 25% at best.
Regardless of local cable providers eventually adding Root (who wants to follow that development on a daily basis?), I’m sure there are many upset fans reading this today.
Ken Boehlke
Just a note, outside of the TV markets specifically zoned for each individual team, NHL games are available on the Center Ice package. If you do not live in a state in which the Golden Knights have TV rights, even if you have Root Sports you would not be able to watch the games without NHL Center Ice.
There is a real concern about this channel being added to Cox and Prism in Las Vegas. But I maintain faith that they will get it done as it literally was priority number 1 for the team in selecting a partner.
But as far as reaching other states, it wouldn’t have made a difference if they went with Fox Sports, Sinclair, or whoever else was in the running. Outside of NV, UT, MT, WY, and ID the games must be viewed using the NHL’s approved packages (Center Ice or NHL.tv streaming)
PhiSig 150
I’m a bitter Dodger fan that’s been waiting for Time Warner to cut a deal with Direct TV for over 3 years now. That rights deal was astronomical I believe 8 billion over 25 years and Time Warner wanted $5 per subscriber. I’m sure Root won’t be asking for anywhere near as much. I’m thinking the 10 million a year for rights figure we heard a while back was fairly accurate. My hope is that the Knights won’t be put on the sports tier on Direct TV that costs an additional $20. I was hoping Fox would get the rights because eventually it would have became available on Sling and other cut the cord options. So I’ll give this deal a C-. I’m assuming Root probably paid on the lower end for rights and currently the channel isn’t available on cable and likely won’t hit streaming services anytime soon. I cut the cord but would be tempted to go back if I could get the Dodgers and Knights at a reasonable price somewhere until then I’ll guess I’ll have to watch the games through other avenues.
A Fan
They had better get it added to Cox, or they’re going to have a lot of pissed off people, including me.
Phisig150
Everything with this club seems to require our patience. Name. Jersey. Marketing. TV deal. Are we 100% the first game in October isn’t getting pushed back until January? Cox and Century Link deals will get done but can’t anything in this org not hit a snag right out of the gate?
Willy
This makes no sense. So say Root gets added to local providers, but there will be Jazz games and Rockies games that cannot be shown in Las Vegas because this is territory for other teams. So every night these two teams are sort of the “slotted” content they have to show reruns or whatnot. Maybe they promised VGK they could flood the airwaves with their produced shows during these blackout periods, especially during the overlapping NBA season. Plus now its safe to assume Fox Sports channels will have many nights of going dark on content because presumably they will no longer be able to show Kings or Ducks games in the market.
So if all goes as planned you get 4 sports channels now in Las Vegas, with most other than Time Warner having to black out games all the time. Really nonsense, this is how people get upset and decide to cut the cord.
PhiSig 150
Is it confirmed we’re losing the Kings and Ducks in our market? What are the NHL rules regarding this? When I had Direct TV I wasn’t able to get Dodger games due to the Time Warner fiasco but I did get Giants, Padres, Angels, and Diamond Backs games. I believe that the MLB let multiple teams claim Las Vegas as part of their territory. Not sure if the NHL would allow a similar arrangement.
Willy702
Highly unlikely since part of the fee was to supposedly buy the market and compensate the two teams for the loss of the market. Yes MLB does things a lot different than the others because while my directv gives me all kinds of sports channels it’s goes blackout for NBA and NHL games other than the LA teams.
Ron Murphy
I have Directv and will be watching to see if Root Rocky Mountain becomes a “basic” channel…if not, I have to go from the “Ultimate” package at $91 a month to the “Premier” package at $151!..and if I have to jump $60 a month, what will the cable providers hit you up…I’m all for being a “regional” team but how ’bout some love for the locals.
Willy702
It will be basic, it’s part of the fee you will pay for regional sports team channels.
PhiSig 150
On Direct TV to get Root currently I believe you have to pay an additional 13.99 per month for the Sports Pack.
Willy702
Only because they have no local teams currently. Directv charges a fee for regional sports networks no matter if you want them or not, even on basic packages. They are like local channels, you will get them and you have to take them and pay. The fee which I saw was $7 a month currently could go up as a result, but no way they make you get another package to watch Knights games in the teams home markets. Maybe cutting off the Kings and Ducks will offset the fee so it doesn’t change.
Phisig150
When I had direct TV to get the Lakers I thought I had to sign up for the Sports Pak in order to get the Lakers Time Warner channel I could be wrong though. The key to this deal is what is the bare min. Some one in Law Vegas will to pay to get Knights games on either Direct TV or Cox. Still think Fox Sports would have been better.
PhiSig 150
I think you can just add the Direct TV Sports Pack for 14 dollars which sucks because if they went with NBC or Fox Sports I think those are part of the basic package There’s always the Kodi option worst come to worst.
PhiSig 150
I’m assuming Cox will have Root as part of the Sports and Info Pak which is an additional $10. It would be nice if we could get the Knights on the basic package which they would have been a part of most likely if they went with Fox Sports. Like to see the spin on why paying an extra $10 to $14 to catch your local sports team is actually a good thing. Maybe they’ll save it when they roll out a cable/satellite independent streaming option.
Shaun
I personally “cut the cord ” a few years back so what cable company carries Knights games is a moot point for me. I do wish however, that NHL.tv did not blackout locals. With more and more people dropping cable all together, local teams are going have to find a better way to get games into the homes of their local fans and potential fans. As for me, I’ll just have to be content with getting my Knights fix from highlights and the 2 or 3 games I’ll be able to attend. And the money I spend on a single team package fome NHL.tv will continue to go to a team other than the Knights, which is a shame.
Lost fan
Well I guess the golden knights are out of sight, and out of mind. I’ll stick with the rangers.