The Utah Jazz are following the Phoenix Suns off of cable and on to network television. Fans can see the team’s games on KJZZ-TV in Salt Lake City next season.
After Warner Bros. Discovery decided to get out of the regional sports network business, the Jazz were left searching for a new home. While AT&T SportsNet was no longer an option, The Athletic reports that the Jazz’s deal was already set to expire and the team was looking for a new deal.
Interestingly, KJZZ and KUTV, which will air some Jazz shoulder programming, are both owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which owns Diamond Sports Group. Diamond’s Bally Sports networks are in a state of uncertainty when it comes to their television rights deals following a filing for bankruptcy.
Utah Jazz owner Ryan Smith calls this an “entirely new model” for local broadcast rights distribution in the NBA. The team’s games will be produced in house by the newly formed SEG Media.
Fans will also have a direct-to-consumer option. It is still unnamed, but the product will require a subscription. It will allow fans living within 150 miles of Salt Lake City to stream all Jazz games and content through the team’s website and app. The team’s goal is for the app to be available in other markets, but conflicts with NBA League Pass are being worked out.
Something like this was hinted at earlier this month by Smith. In an interview with Sportsnet’s 32 Thoughts podcast, he alluded to the lack of reach AT&T Sports Network had. He said that reaching only 40% of the market was “not gonna fly” in the team’s next deal.
With the new deal, Smith told The Athletic that he has achieved his goal of making it as easy as possible for fans in Utah to see every Jazz game.
“If you’ve got bunny ears on your TV you can get Jazz games,” he said.
