Golden Knights See Post-RSN Boom on Scripps’ Rabbit-Ears Channel
Having made the jump from their legacy RSN to a new, over-the-air broadcast partner, the Vegas Golden Knights are off to a hot ratings streak. Over the course of their first five game on Scripps Sports’ Vegas 34 (KMCC), the NHL’s defending champs have averaged an 8.5 household rating in the home market, up nearly five whole ratings points versus last season’s local average (3.6).
As measured by Comscore, the Golden Knights’ ratings are up 135% compared to the team’s full-season local numbers on ESPN and TNT in 2022-23. Comparisons versus the Knights’ year-ago deliveries via their former RSN home, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, are effectively invalid, as the now-defunct Warner Bros. Discovery channel was rated by Nielsen.
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The Knights jumped to Scripps in May, inking a multiyear deal with the company that includes carriage in Vegas as well as select markets throughout Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming. Deliveries for those out-of-state markets were not included in the Knights’ first batch of ratings data.
WBD last winter advised its 10 pro team partners that it planned to exit the RSN business before the end of this year. Fenway Sports Group bought AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh in early September, while the NBA’s Rockets and MLB’s Astros picked up WBD’s Houston-based RSN just a few weeks later. The asset was subsequently rebranded Space City Home Network.
Las Vegas is the nation’s 40th-largest media market, and home to some 870,240 TV households. Season-to-date, the Knights’ biggest draw aired on Oct. 21, as the home team beat the Dallas Stars in a shootout that averaged a 10.5 rating. That 3-2 win brought Vegas’ record to a perfect 4-0; of its first 10 outings, the team has dropped just one game, a 4-3 overtime defeat at the hands of the Chicago Blackhawks on Oct. 27.
“The viewership and engagement we are seeing for the Golden Knights this year have grown incredibly and should dispel any doubts about the power of an over-the-air broadcast channel to serve sports fans,” said Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor, in a statement released by the company late Wednesday afternoon. “The Golden Knights wanted to reach more of their fans, and they clearly are.”
Knights president Kerry Bubolz acknowledged that the Scripps deal has “allowed more of our fans to access our games on TV than ever before.” In addition to the traditional TV telecasts, Vegas’ games also are available locally by way of KnightTime+, a new direct-to-consumer streaming platform. Knights games are currently averaging north of 1 million minutes of streaming per week on the app.
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