Draft:2023–24 sports related U.S. television changes

Due to changes in the television landscape in 2023, there were several major sports related television changes. Two over-the-air television networks, The CW and Ion Television, acquired national sports rights for the first time. The AT&T SportsNet regional sports networks shut down, while the Bally Sports regional sports networks filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Three professional sports teams, the Phoenix Suns and Utah Jazz of the NBA, and the Las Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL, moved their games from regional sports networks to over-the-air networks, and added a direct-to-consumer streaming video option to watch games. Two other teams, the San Diego Padres and Arizona Diamondbacks of Major League Baseball moved their games from regional sports networks to deals with local cable companies, and also added a direct-to-consumer streaming video option to watch games. Multiple over-the-air networks changed affiliations to allow more flexibility in airing local sports, most notably affiliates of The CW owned by CBS News and Stations.

Timeline
Changes began in January 2023, when The CW agreed to a three-year broadcast deal with LIV Golf, the upstart professional golf tour financed by Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund, marking the first-ever national sports broadcasting contract for the network. On February 14, 2023, the network said its LIV Golf coverage would be carried in 100% of U.S. media markets. However, as existing contracts at the time only obligated CW affiliates to air prime time and Saturday morning E/I programming, some of them declined to carry LIV coverage. Among the refraining stations were the eight CW stations owned by CBS News and Stations, ostensibly due to CBS Sports' longstanding partnership with the competing PGA Tour. In many of the affected markets, LIV coverage would air on a Nexstar-owned station, a subchannel carrying a digital multicast network, or on another station not connected with The CW or Nexstar under a secondary affiliation agreement.

On February 24, 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery announced that it would leave the RSN business. The company also sent messages to teams it has deals with, notifying them they had until March 31 to reach an agreement to take their rights back or acquire the networks. If no deal was made before the deadline, Warner Bros. Discovery stated that the channels would go into Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation. Those teams with deals with Root Sports Northwest are not affected because that channel already is majority-owned by the Seattle Mariners.

On March 14, 2023, the Diamond Sports Group, a holding company owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group that operates the Bally Sports networks, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, 30 days after they failed to make a $140M interest payment. Diamond’s first-lien lenders will not be affected as part of the restructuring support agreement, however other creditors will convert their debt into equity. Diamond also plans to separate from Sinclair and become an entirely new entity.

On April 20, 2023, Ion Television signed a multi-year deal with the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) to air a 15-week slate of doubleheader games on Friday nights (branded as WNBA Friday Night Spotlight on ION), beginning with that year’s regular season. It will be the first national sports broadcast carried by Ion since 2011 and marks the first-ever television contract for Scripps Sports, which was founded by the E. W. Scripps Company in December 2022 to acquire sports events for Ion and the group’s local television stations. The agreement also grants local rights to selected Ion O&Os for games involving regional WNBA teams, which stations may carry in early- or late-evening broadcast windows depending on tip-off time.

On April 28, 2023, the Phoenix Suns of the National Basketball Association and Phoenix Mercury of the Women's National Basketball Association announced they had signed a five-year agreement with Gray Television to replace Bally Sports Arizona as its local television partners. After the announcement, Diamond Sports Group accused the team of breaching its contract and bankruptcy law, stating that the team was making an "improper effort" to "change their broadcasting partner without permitting Diamond to exercise our contractual rights." In response, Suns CEO Josh Bartlestein stated "Diamond's position is totally inaccurate. We are moving forward with this deal and could not be more excited about what it means for our fans and our future." On May 10, 2023, the bankruptcy judge voided the Suns contract with Gray, ruling that the Suns violated Bally Sports Arizona's contractual right of first refusal. He ordered the parties into arbitration. The Phoenix Mercury's deal was not affected. On July 14, 2023, the deal became official when Diamond declined to match Gray's contract offer.

On May 4, 2023, the Vegas Golden Knights announced an agreement with the E.W. Scripps Company and its newly-established Scripps Sports division, under a multi-year deal beginning in the 2023–24 NHL season. Scripps' Laughlin station KMCC will serve as flagship station of the Golden Knights' television network, with games to be aired by it and other stations in the team's broadcast territory. KMCC is a sister station to Las Vegas ABC affiliate KTNV-TV, which may also air selected Golden Knights games by virtue of the NHL's broadcast television rights with ABC and has previously aired simulcasts of Golden Knights preseason games with ATTSN. An over-the-top (OTT) service will be announced at a later date.

On May 5, 2023, CBS News and Stations announced it was exercising its option to disaffiliate from The CW. Wendy McMahon, president of CBS News and Stations, specifically cited opportunities to add live sports as a reason for the disaffiliation.

On May 31, 2023, Diamond Sports Group, owners of Bally Sports, officially missed a second payment to the San Diego Padres, and the Padres' television rights were returned to Major League Baseball. Padres games will be available direct-to-consumer on MLB.tv, as well as through channels on select cable providers, including YurView California, in the San Diego area. MLB Network will produce the games with the Padres' regular commentators.

On June 7, 2023, The CW announced it had acquired the rights to the series Inside the NFL for its 47th season, which previously aired via streaming service Paramount+ and previous to that, was cable-exclusive to HBO, then Showtime, bringing the series to broadcast television for the first time. NFL Films will continue to produce the show, with former Steelers safety Ryan Clark as the new host. Channing Crowder, Jay Cutler, Chad Johnson and Chris Long will also join the show as analysts.

On June 20, 2023, the Utah Jazz announced an agreement with Sinclair Broadcast Group owned KJZZ-TV for the 2023–24 season, with current team owner Smith Entertainment Group starting a new in-house production division, SEG Media, to produce the telecasts. Sinclair retains the right to carry select telecasts on KUTV, and KUTV will maintain an "official station" relationship with the team, allowing more coverage of the Jazz and its players. The deal will also include a streaming service, which will not involve KJZZ-TV.

On June 22, 2023, Diamond announced its intention to reject its contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks on June 30, 2023. Diamond and the Arizona Diamondbacks later released a joint statement pushing back the hearing and agreeing to continue Diamond's broadcast of Diamondbacks' games. The contract was officially rejected on July 18. As for the Padres, Major League Baseball took over production.

On July 10, 2023, Charter Communications announced it would begin offering a reduced-cost tier of its Spectrum TV Select cable package that will exclude regional and many national sports networks featured in its standard basic tier (including its own Spectrum Sports channels in areas where Charter also operates an RSN). The Spectrum Select Signature tier—which will gradually launch across most of its footprint beginning in late Summer, alongside the renamed Spectrum Select Plus expanded tier—will be marketed primarily to non-sports fans, and is intended to limit cord-cutting among existing subscribers. The company also plans to launch a subscription streaming service for its Spectrum Sports channels, which will be available at no extra charge to Select Plus subscribers. Concurrently, Charter announces a new carriage agreement with DirecTV for Spectrum SportsNet and SportsNet LA, which lowers the required coverage rates for the two Los Angeles-based networks under terms similar to recent deals that saw the company reduce coverage mandates for owned or third-party regional sports networks carried on its systems (RSNs usually require carriage by at least 80% of a provider's regional subscribers); Charter intends to impose similar provisions for its Spectrum Sports RSNs in future negotiations with other providers, enabling them to reduce programming costs subsidized by their customers.

On July 13, 2023, it was announced that The CW had acquired the exclusive broadcast rights to 50 Atlantic Coast Conference college football and basketball games each season through 2026–27, with Gray Television's Raycom Sports division, who previously produced syndicated ACC broadcasts, remaining the production partner. The package had been with Fox Sports Net before transitioning to Bally Sports in the 2021 season with the network's ownership transfer.

On July 28, 2023, the network and NASCAR announced a rights deal for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, rights previously spread among several cable and broadcast networks. The deal will encompass the 2025–2031 racing seasons.

On August 31, 2023, the cable networks and TV stations owned by The Walt Disney Company (including ESPN networks, and ABC O&O stations), were dropped from Charter Communications' Spectrum cable systems due to an unresolved carriage dispute. The two companies would announce a new agreement on September 11, one that allowed customers who subscribe to certain Spectrum packages access to the Disney+ and ESPN+ streaming services (and, when it launches, ESPN's direct-to-consumer service). Also on August 31, the Pittsburgh Penguins announced its intent to purchase AT&T SportsNet Pittsburgh and rebrand it as SportsNet Pittsburgh on October 2, 2023. NESN, which is owned by Penguins owner Fenway Sports Group, will operate the network.

On September 1, 2023, 13 The CW affiliated stations switched to Independent television stations. 8 are owned by CBS News and Stations, while four other Montana-based stations owned by the E. W. Scripps Company who will now air Vegas Golden Knights games. Two other Scripps owned Ion Television stations, KMCC in Las Vegas, and KUPX-TV in Salt Lake City, also switch affiliations to air Golden Knights games. The CW found replacements for all of the switching stations except for three in Montana.

On September 12, 2023, Monumental Sports & Entertainment rebranded NBC Sports Washington to Monumental Sports Network. Monumental purchased NBC Sports Washington from NBCUniversal in August 2022. Monumental owns the Washington Wizards, Washington Capitals and Washington Mystics, all of which have television rights agreements with the network.