On the heels of reaching a multiyear local TV deal with Scripps Sports, the Vegas Golden Knights have signed off on a streaming pact with the Ted Leonsis-backed platform ViewLift.
Per terms of the new deal, ViewLift will stream the defending Stanley Cup champs’ games to fans throughout Nevada’s four media markets, which are home to 3.18 million residents, as well as in select areas in neighboring states such as Idaho, Montana, Utah and Wyoming.
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The streaming arrangement completes the Knights’ post-RSN media reconstruction. In May, the franchise announced it had extricated itself from its legacy rights deal with the soon-to-be-shuttered AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain.
Financial considerations were not disclosed. The ViewLift service will be up and running by Sept. 24, when the Knights are set to square up with the San Jose Sharks in their first preseason tune-up. The local streaming platform will be branded under the Knights’ own banner.
This marks the second publicly disclosed NHL distribution deal for the privately held ViewLift, which was co-founded by Washington Capitals owner CEO Leonsis and former Sporting News CEO Rick Allen in 2008. ViewLift also provides the streaming apparatus for Leonsis’ Monumental Sports portfolio, which includes the Caps as well as the NBA’s Wizards and WNBA’s Mystics.
(NBC Sports Washington, the local TV home of the aforementioned D.C. franchises, will be relaunched as Monumental Sports Network next month.)
When asked if the tech company had any further NHL deals in the works, ViewLift CEO Allen indicated that such a scenario is not outside the realm of possibility. “We are in broad contact with the league, which is a client of ours, as well as a number of individual teams,” he said in a phone call. While Allen didn’t single out any clubs, the Penguins are keen to secure new linear and digital distribution deals before Warner Bros. Discovery shutters AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh at year’s end.
There may also be opportunities for ViewLift to recruit new partners from the ranks of the various franchises that are currently affiliated with Diamond Sports Group, which filed for bankruptcy in March. While the owner of the Bally Sports RSNs has been working toward restructuring its business, those efforts are likely to be thwarted if the company fails to renew its carriage agreements with Comcast, DirecTV and Charter/Spectrum.
One Diamond-linked NHL franchise that may be in need of a new media partnership is the Arizona Coyotes. As the lone remaining representative of the Big Four leagues with ties to Bally Sports Arizona—Diamond dropped the Diamondbacks on July 18, just days after the Phoenix Suns officially jumped ship—the Coyotes find themselves in an untenable situation. (Aligned with the RSN ever since relocating from Winnipeg in 1996, the Coyotes said they will honor the legacy contract as long as Diamond continues carrying their games.)
As for ViewLift’s Knights deal, Allen said that hooking up with the NHL’s reigning champs is an honor. “We feel very fortunate for our legacy D.C. deals, but to work with the winners of the last Stanley Cup Final is a great, big feather in our cap,” Allen said.
For his part, Knights president and CEO Kerry Bubolz gave Scripps and ViewLift a vote of confidence, saying that the team’s new media partners are well positioned to serve fans across their home markets. “It’s essential that our TV and digital services reflect our … on-ice performance,” Bubolz said in a statement. “I know that, with Scripps Sports and ViewLift, we will achieve this.”
Creative Artists Agency’s merchant bank, Evolution Media Capital, served as an advisor to the Knights on the Scripps and ViewLift deals.
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