Before the 2023-2024 NHL season began, the Golden Knights ended their relationship with their previous local cable partner, AT&T SportsNet, to move to a free, over-the-air partner with Scripps Sports, and so far, the move is bringing in extraordinary results.
Through five regionally televised games, Scripps Sports is averaging a household rating of 8.5, which is a 135% increase when compared to all major telecasts last season. The most-watched game of the season came when the Knights beat the Dallas Stars in a shootout on October 21st that averaged a 10.5 rating. These numbers come with the great start to the season that the Golden Knights have had on the ice, with a 9-0-1 start.
In addition, the Golden Knights streaming service, KnightTime+, has averaged around 1 million minutes of streaming for each week of the season, so far. For comparison, this is around 10,000 viewers a week watching games through the streaming service.
Currently, the Golden Knights and the Coyotes are the only NHL teams airing games over-the-air with zero cost for consumers (though the Coyotes broadcasts are not quite as accessible over-the-air as the Golden Knights broadcasts). With these results, along with more teams across different leagues moving to over-the-air partners amid the fallout of Bally Sports, we should only expect more NHL teams to join the Golden Knights in this process of leaving cable for free broadcast channels.