The Portland Trail Blazers logo is visible on a flag waving during a National Basketball Association game against the Detroit Pistons at Moda Center in Portland, Ore., on Sunday, Feb. 23, 2020. The Trail Blazers defeated the Pistons 107-104.
Kaylee Domzalski / OPB
Last month, the Portland Trail Blazers ended the franchise’s nearly three-year broadcast deal with ROOT Sports. The move follows a strained relationship between the regional sports network and Northwest sports fans. Many viewers were frustrated after cable providers jacked up the price to watch Blazers games.
Now, fans won’t even need a cable subscription to watch most of the games.
The Blazers have partnered with Sinclair Broadcast Group to put 81 of the 82 regular season games on its over-air channels this season. That includes KATU in Portland and Sinclair affiliates in Eugene, Medford, Seattle and more.
The team is also offering a new subscription streaming option for fans who want to watch games on their mobile devices.
OPB’s “All Things Considered” co-host Crystal Ligori spoke with Dewayne Hankins, president of business operations for the Trail Blazers, and Dean Ditmer, KATU general manager, about the new partnership.
This conversation has been edited for clarity.
Crystal Ligori: Dewayne, let’s start with you. I know that you played a key role in getting that broadcast deal with ROOT Sports for the Blazers back in 2021. Looking in the rearview mirror, do you think there are lessons that were learned to help make this new deal a real win for the Blazers and for fans?
Dewayne Hankins: Yeah, I mean, there’s always lessons. I think at the time we made that deal with ROOT, the decision was really about making our games available for our fans. And so the opportunity at that time was to improve our reach through their distribution platforms that they had with satellite and with cable. But I think what we learned over those three years is that the regional sports network industry and cable and all this landscape is just shifting beneath our feet. I think our takeaway was, how do we continue to put fans at the center of a decision like this? But then, how do we make sure that we’re in charge of our own fate and that we make our games as available as possible? That really got us into great conversations with the folks at Sinclair and KATU, and having the fans at the center of that conversation has been key to us.
Ligori: I know there’s 82 games in a regular season. How much of the upcoming Trail Blazers season is going to be on TV and what’s it gonna cost folks?
Hankins: There’s two announcements really wrapped up in today’s deal that we’re talking about. One is the over-the-air partnership with KATU and their family of stations. Every non-nationally broadcast game, which is 80-plus, will be available over the air. And for the first time in Blazers history, in our 55 years-plus as a franchise, you will have more games available over the air than we’ve ever had.
The second thing that we’re announcing is BlazerVision, our new direct-to-consumer product. That allows fans to watch Blazers games however they like, on the go, on their iPad, on their phones, whatever they have. And that product is $120 for the year or $19.99 a month and comes with a pair of tickets. Additionally, half-season ticket holders and full-season ticket holders will have the ability to have a subscription to the Blazers.
Ligori: Dean?
Dean Ditmer: Yeah, I think in talking about BlazerVision, the pay model, conversely there’s over-the-air television, which is virtually free across 99% of households. In Portland primarily, [games] will be broadcast across the local over-the-air multicast channels of KATU. If someone didn’t currently have the equipment to scan for the over-the-air channels, it will cost you 15 bucks down at Best Buy. And I think Dewayne and I figured, between 80 games, that’s roughly 18 cents a game.
Ligori: I know that it’s been really challenging for folks outside the metro area to watch the Blazers for close to two decades. How important is this to really repairing that relationship?
Hankins: Incredibly important, and that was a huge reason why Sinclair made the right partner for this. They have stations in all of these key markets that we need to reignite our relationships with. And so a big part of the decision process was, how do we get in all these markets? And they have the coverage for that.
And, you know, we always hear that we are definitely more than Portland’s team. We’re Oregon’s team. And in a lot of ways, I think we’re the Pacific Northwest team. And so making our games as available as possible is a really key part.