Gray Television said it is “actively engaged” in discussion with professional sports teams and leagues whose games could be broadcast on Gray stations.
Gray is one of a number of broadcasters circling as the regional sports network business sinks under high debt, cord cutting and spiraling rights costs.
In May, Gray reached an agreement to air games of the Phoenix Suns and Phoenix Mercury of the NBA and WNBA respectively, when the teams’ deal with Diamond Sports expires.
E.W. Scripps, Nexstar and Sinclair Broadcasting have also made deals to air more sports programming on their stations.
“Our discussions with other teams and leagues indicate that the new sports rights deal we have in Arizona can work in other markets as well,” Gray president and co-CEO Pat LaPlatney said on Gray’s second-quarter earnings call Friday. “Whether we replicate that structure or find new ways to partner with professional franchises, we see a growing recognition in the market at returning professional sports to local broadcast stations will increase marketing value, advertising sales revenues, fan engagement as well as team value.”
LaPlatney said Gray is spending a lot of time analyzing professional sports opportunities.
“In the coming months, we hope to have more innovative sports rights partnerships that will return local teams to our broadcast stations and to local fans,” he said.
Gray stations in several large markets including Phoenix, Atlanta, Portland, Oregon, and Cleveland on which it could air games without disrupting network programming.
Gray also said that it will be making its new InvestigateTV Plus weekday program available to local stations owned by other broadcasters.
“While we have no plans to become a new syndicated programming house, we have been pleasantly surprised by tremendous audience reaction to our InvestigateTV weekend show,” LaPlatney said.
“Despite not airing at a consistent time period or having national promotion behind it, the current Investigate TV weekend program has been posting ratings that surpassed many well-known broadcast and cable programs that unlike our weekend program are cleared in 100% of the country,” he said. “This tells us that there is an audience for good quality news programming, particularly in pieces that highlight otherwise unknown issues and that consistently produce results.”
