Pelicans to air majority of games on a new sports network after ending Diamond partnership

On Friday, Diamond Sports said it will broadcast more than a dozen NBA teams’ games during the 2024-25 season.

As The Times-Picayune first reported earlier this month, the New Orleans Pelicans will not be one of the 13 teams that is staying in business with Diamond Sports this season. 

The Pelicans decided to part ways with the bankrupt operator of regional sports networks and will in the coming weeks announce a partnership with Gray Television, which owns WVUE-TV Fox 8. This move is designed to improve the team’s reach in the New Orleans area and more broadly across the Gulf South.

The Pelicans last season broadcast seven of their games on WVUE-TV Fox 8. This season, sources with knowledge of the situation told The Times-Picayune that anywhere between eight to 10 of the Pelicans’ 82 regular-season games will once again be broadcast on Fox 8.

In time, the Pelicans’ plan, multiple sources said, is to air the vast majority of their games on a newly created channel, which will be called the Gulf Coast Sports and Entertainment Network.

The Gulf Coast Sports and Entertainment Network will be available as an over-the-air signal, meaning that anyone with an antenna will be able to access it for free in many of the major markets across Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. There have already been preliminary discussions about broadcasting high school sports on the channel as well, multiple sources said.

In July, the Pelicans were told that they were one of five NBA teams Diamond Sports planned to drop as it attempted to remain afloat. The Pelicans and Gray Television, who had already worked together last season, delved into discussions about a permanent union. Diamond Sports reengaged the Pelicans in early August, but the team decided it was still choosing Gray Television as its local rights partner, despite Diamond Sports offering more in guaranteed money for rights fees.

Last season, the 69 Pelicans games that were broadcast on Diamond-owned Bally Sports drew an average of 12,807 TV households. The Pelicans games that were broadcast over the air drew significantly higher audiences. The seven games Fox 8 and other Gray partners averaged a viewership of 46,057 TV households, while the three games that were shown on the substation Bounce drew an average of 18,400 TV households.

As the number of cable subscribers continues to decrease across the country, a handful of teams have shifted to making their games available on over-the-air signals to local TV audiences. The Utah Jazz and Phoenix Suns both made their games available on over-the-air TV last season and saw large spikes in viewership. Jazz local viewership jumped by 39%, while the Suns’ local ratings shot up 69%, according to Sports Business Journal.