Tampa Bay Lightning game broadcasts will be available on free over-air-TV beginning next season as part of a rebranding of local station WXPX-TV.
The team announced Wednesday it signed a multiyear media rights deal with the sports division of E.W. Scripps Co., which owns the station.
That agreement means all non-national Lightning games will be televised on WXPX and no longer on FanDuel Sports, which was available locally only through Spectrum cable or pay streaming.
Frontier and Comcast/Xfinity do not carry FanDuel, forcing Lightning fans with those cable services to turn to FanDuel’s pay app or streaming services such as DirectTV, Fubo or Amazon Prime.
“Fans have made it clear they want it to be easier to find and watch our games,” said Steve Griggs, CEO of Vinik Sports Group, which owns and operates the team. “This partnership delivers on that.”
Games will also be available on live stream through the Lightning app in the Tampa Bay broadcast territory. More details on the direct-to-consumer streaming will be made available prior to the start of the season, which begins in October.
WXPX, available through an antenna on Channel 66 (66.1), currently carries programming from Scripps’ Ion TV network. That will change July 1, when the station becomes "The Spot - Tampa Bay 66."
According to a team news release, The Spot will feature news and entertainment programming in addition to the hockey games.
“Scripps is currently in discussions with cable and satellite distributors to ensure Lightning games on The Spot will be available on cable, satellite as well as over-the-air television,” the news release said.
WXPX’s Ion programming is currently available to local Spectrum and Frontier viewers on Channel 17.
"The complement of broadcast television and streaming guarantees that fans can follow the games from their living room or wherever they are in their busy lives,” Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor said in the release.
Scripps Sports will produce all game broadcasts, including pre- and postgame shows. The broadcast team of Dave Randorf, analyst Brian Engblom and reporter Gabby Shirley will return. The team will also co-produce original content.
The agreement is similar to the one Scripps made last year with the Florida Panthers, whose telecasts moved from Bally’s Sports to go WSFL and WHDT, Scripps-owned stations in South Florida.
That Panthers’ switch came in the wake of Diamond Sports Group’s 2023 bankruptcy filing that threatened the landscape of regional sports broadcasting across the country.
As part of bankruptcy proceedings, a naming rights deal was reached in October with FanDuel, which rebranded Diamond’s Bally’s Sports’ 16 regional sports networks.
In the agreement, FanDuel took over Bally’s broadcasts for the Lightning, baseball’s Tampa Bay Rays and several other professional sports franchises.
Rays games remain on FanDuel.
Scripps is also the owner and operator of WFTS-TV, the Tampa market’s ABC affiliate.
