Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Kraken Games on ROOT SPORTS to Be Available on Comcast, fuboTV and More
NBA and NHL Fans in the Northwest Will Have Several Options to Watch Their Favorite Teams
Seattle, WA (October 12, 2021) – ROOT SPORTS, the TV home of the Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Kraken as well as the Seattle Mariners regional game telecasts, announced today that they have reached carriage agreements with TV providers to deliver Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Kraken games to approximately 80% of all ROOT SPORTS subscribers in Washington, Oregon and Alaska (and the Idaho portion of the Spokane DMA for Seattle Kraken) with other carriage discussions still ongoing. This is in addition to the recently announced launch of ROOT SPORTS by streamer fuboTV, which will go live this week. These fans will have access to all locally available Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Kraken live regular season games, pre- and post-game shows and other ancillary programming as well as other great sports programming including the Seattle Mariners, Portland Timbers, Seattle Seawolves, Gonzaga basketball and Big Sky Conference football in the territory.
“We’re excited that ROOT SPORTS and the Trail Blazers will be reaching more households with this increased distribution in Oregon, Washington and Alaska,” said Chris McGowan, President and CEO of the Trail Blazers and Rose Quarter. “We’re proud to be sharing a network with the Kraken, Mariners and other Pacific Northwest teams as we head into the 2021-22 NBA season.”
“We are extremely proud to have ROOT SPORTS as our local television rights holder as we begin our inaugural season. We know the ROOT team has been working hard and it is great to have these distribution deals finalized,” said Tod Leiweke, CEO of the Seattle Kraken. “There is a great deal of excitement for Kraken hockey throughout our broadcast territory and it will only continue to grow.”
“We are excited to announce that almost all television providers in the teams’ league-approved territories have chosen to make Portland Trail Blazers and Seattle Kraken games available to their fans, and we are still in discussions with some providers leading up to the first Kraken regular season game on our network this Thursday,” said Nina Kinch, Vice President of Affiliate Relations and Business Affairs for AT&T Sports Networks, which manages ROOT SPORTS. “With the return of the highly successful Portland Trail Blazers to the network and the inaugural season of the NHL’s newest franchise, the Seattle Kraken, fan excitement for these teams couldn’t be higher and we look forward to bringing all the action to their fans.”
Providers Currently Carrying Trail Blazers and/or Kraken:
Beaver Creek Cooperative
BendBroadband / TDS
Charter / Spectrum
Comcast
Consolidated Communications
DirectLink
fuboTV
GCI
Hood Canal Communications
KPU
LocalTel Communications
Rainier Connect
R&R Cable Co.
Salish Networks
Scio Cablevison
TV Association of Republic
WAVE
Ziply Fiber
The Seattle Kraken’s first regular season game on ROOT SPORTS is set for 5 p.m. PT Thursday, Oct. 14 against the Nashville Predators. The Portland Trail Blazers’ regular season debut on the network will be on Wednesday, Oct. 20 at 7 p.m. PT when they host the Sacramento Kings.
Fans can visit rootsports.com/channel-finder to find providers in their specific area. ROOT SPORTS will continue to add providers to make Trail Blazers and Kraken games available to as many fans as possible throughout the region. Up-to-date information will be available on rootsports.com.
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Media Contact:
Leslie Cox, LCox@rootsportsnw.com
About ROOT SPORTS
ROOT SPORTS™ is the television home of the Seattle Mariners, Seattle Kraken, Portland Trail Blazers, Seattle Seahawks, Portland Timbers, Seattle Seawolves, Gonzaga Bulldogs, and Big Sky Conference. The network delivers more than 500 live events each year across a five-state footprint. ROOT SPORTS is operated by AT&T Sports Networks, which operates regional sports networks in the Northwest, Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain and Southwest regions. The four networks combined reach across 22 states and own exclusive rights to produce and distribute live events from more than 25 teams and conferences.