How Sports Teams Are Rebuilding Their Local Media Businesses - Amoh Sports Media | A Column by Nana Kofi Amoh

Nana Kofi Amoh

Oct 20262 min read

Editor's Note

Amoh Sports Media is a column by Nana Kofi Amoh — author of Amoh Sports Media and sports media analyst evaluating the evolution of regional broadcasting. This piece maps the multi-league scramble to replace dying RSNs: the NHL's new centralized production operation, the NBA's interim pivot back to free over-the-air (OTA) television with teams like the Bucks and Hawks, and why a hybrid model balancing central production with local market flexibility is winning the post-cable era.

The National Hockey League has launched a major operation to centralize its local broadcasts ahead of the 2026–2027 season.

The Columbus Blue Jackets, St. Louis Blues, Minnesota Wild and the reigning Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes will be transitioning over to the league’s new model. All former FanDuel Sports Network teams, in the wake of increasing rights fees that are resulting in clubs being delayed payment, the NHL has taken matters into their own hands to handle local broadcasts and content in-house for at least the next three seasons. In fact, the Anaheim Ducks, another former FanDuel Sports Network team, informed their local streaming partner Victory+ of its intention to terminate their agreement after just two seasons. Their announcement came two weeks before the NHL announced their centralized operation.

Borrowing MLB’s Playbook

The NHL is following Major League Baseball’s footsteps of providing local broadcasts as MLB is broadcasting games for 14 teams, including the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Diego Padres who opted into MLB’s distribution model first in 2023. So much so that the NHL hired former MLB Network President Rob McGlarry as General Manager of Local Media to assist overseeing the new local-production operation.

But what makes the NHL different from MLB is the league is allowing its teams to pursue market-specific distribution models while aiding production support in the near term. According to Chief Media Officer David Proper, the NHL’s long-term goal of centralizing telecasts for its teams is to “maintain as much flexibility as we can so that as the market matures and we start to understand what the future really holds, then we can react very quickly."

The NBA also has plans to centralize their broadcasts across the league, but their operation will not launch fully until the 2027-2028 season. In the meantime, we have seen teams take their own direction to have their games telecasted.

The NBA’s Free TV Comeback

The Milwaukee Bucks will make their return to over-the-air television for the first time in 31 years, airing on MY24 and statewide affiliates in partnership with Rincon Broadcasting Group during the 2026-2027 regular season. The team is working on creating a direct-to-consumer streaming service to further expand access to Bucks games, but that is in its infancy stage. The Atlanta Hawks and Gray Media announced a broadcast partnership that will bring all locally televised Atlanta Hawks regular season games to Gray Media's Atlanta broadcast television station Atlanta News First and Peachtree Sports Network during the 2026–2027 NBA season. They join the Detroit Pistons as teams that have agreed with their local news affiliates to broadcast games ahead of the upcoming season.

Why Local Flexibility Wins the Post-RSN Era

Although the NHL’s strategy of centralizing local broadcasts compares to MLB’s, their long-term vision beats the other leagues because NHL understands that their audience differs in terms of fandom. Allowing teams to look within their markets to build specific models allows them to hone in on their respective audiences and fans to grow and develop them rather than the league as a whole doing so. This strategy would allow fandom to grow from within and shed light to respective leagues. It is easier said than done, hence why different leagues have different strategies.