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.
