the Vegas Golden Knights is announced as the name for the Las Vegas NHL franchise at T-Mobile Arena on November 22, 2016 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The team will begin play in the 2017-18 season.
Local NetworksNHLBy Ken Fang on

The expansion NHL Las Vegas Golden Knights now have their media partners in place for the its inaugural 2017-18 season. The Las Vegas Review-Journal reports that AT&T/DirecTV’s Root Sports will be televising the games to the Golden Knight’s prescribed broadcast footprint that expands outward from Vegas to Utah, Western Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, Eastern Southern California and parts of Western Arizona.

Under the rights granted by the Golden Knights, Root Sports will air all 82 regular season games and that was a requirement for its television contract. That means no games will air on broadcast television unless NBC picks one or two up.

The team had discussions with Fox Sports West which already has the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks, but decided to go with Root Sports instead.

The latest

Root Sports has regional sports networks that can cover the territory through its Northwest and Rocky Mountain affiliates. While Root Sports isn’t available on Las Vegas cable through either the city’s two main pay TV providers, Cox and CenturyLink’s Prism, it’s expected that both will have Root Sports up and running on their systems in time for the regular season. It’s already on DirecTV (naturally) and Dish Network.

The Golden Knights will make the formal announcment on Root Sports’ television rights Tuesday.

We told you last month about the team’s plans to broadcast seleted games in Spanish. It already granted English-language radio rights to Lotus Broadcasting.

The broadcast teams for both TV and radio will be announced at a later date.

[Las Vegas Review-Journal]

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.

He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.

Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.

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