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Anaheim Ducks will move local games to free TV on Fox's KCOP
The Anaheim Ducks will broadcast 65 of the team's NHL games on Fox Television Stations' Los Angeles outlet KCOP starting with the 2024-25 season.
The deal announced Tuesday is the latest by a major league sports team to put local telecasts on a free over-the-air channel that consumers can watch with a TV antenna. The games also will be available on a new ad-supported streaming service called Victory+, launching next month.
The move toward broadcast TV reflects how team owners are concerned that cord-cutting — canceling cable subscriptions in favor of streaming platforms — is limiting the exposure of their teams' games in their local markets.
“It is a significant organizational priority to connect Ducks fans with our entire market and for every fan in our region to have the opportunity to watch Ducks games without cost across multiple, accessible platforms," Ducks President Aaron Teats said in a statement.
The reach of over-the-air TV was clearly a factor in the NBA's decision to award its new TV contracts to NBCUniversal and the Walt Disney Co., which both have broadcast stations in their portfolio, while making Amazon Prime Video its primary streaming platform.
One reason the NBA's longtime incumbent Warner Bros. Discovery lost in the bidding for the new contract is its dependence on cable networks. (The company is suing the NBA, claiming it had the right to match the Amazon deal.)
KCOP reaches 100% of the 8 million homes in Los Angeles and Orange County. Victory+, which is operated by A Parent Company Inc., will give viewers a streaming option and expand the team's reach into markets outside of Los Angeles including San Diego, Santa Barbara and Hawaii.
For more than 20 years, a majority of Ducks games aired on the regional sports network Bally Sports West, formerly known as Fox Sports West. The network's parent company, Diamond Sports, filed for bankruptcy in 2023.
Diamond has reorganized but had to relinquish a number of its sports rights deals, leaving a number of sports franchises without a local TV platform.
KCOP, which has never been affiliated with a major network, has a long history of broadcasting live sports. It carried games of the Los Angeles Clippers from 1991 to 1996, the Los Angeles Dodgers from 2002 to 2005 and the Los Angeles Angels from 2006 to 2019.
KCOP is now known as 11 Plus, a nod to KTTV, Fox's flagship in Los Angeles on Channel 11. The station is still found at its longtime dial position, channel 13.
Fox Television Stations, like other TV ownership groups, have been looking to add sports to their lineups again as viewers move to streaming platforms to watch scripted movies, dramas and sitcoms.
While teams that go the free TV route lose the subscriber fees they get from pay TV services, they can see an increase in other revenue sources such as stadium and arena advertising signage, which reach a wider audience on broadcast.
Fox recently added a slate of New York Liberty women's basketball games to its New York station WWOR, cashing in on the increased popularity of the WNBA.
Last season, Nexstar's KTLA showed 11 Clippers games while CBS-owned KCAL showed six Los Angeles Kings contests.
Other franchises have taken a similar approach to the Ducks'. The Las Vegas Golden Knights have most of their local telecasts shown on a Scripps-owned TV station in the market.
The NHL has always been the weakest draw on TV among the four major U.S. sports leagues. But ratings have been on the upswing nationally and have gained in relative strength as other TV genres have been in decline.
This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
