Trail Blazers News: Portland Eyeing Possible Major Change Off The Court

The Portland Trail Blazers seem poised to follow the example of the NHL's Seattle Kraken and ditch its current TV broadcast partner, Root Sports Northwest, writes Bill Oram of The Oregonian.

The cable channel is only available in a limited capacity to local cable subscribers, and on top of that made itself a premium add-on at the start of the 2023 season, which Oram claims priced him out.

Seattle moved on to a local broadcast on the more accessible KONG (and KGW in Portland), coupled with an Amazon Prime streaming option. Could Portland now follow suit?

Happily, Oram notes, Portland seems open to a shift. Its deal with Root expires at the end of the 2024-25 season.

“We’re exploring all the opportunities for the evolving and rapidly changing landscape with a goal of making Blazer games available to the widest audience possible,” Trail Blazers president Dewayne Hankins said.

Austin Karp of Sports Business Journal reported this week that, without All-Star point guard Damian Lillard on the team (he forced a trade, eventually landing with the Milwaukee Bucks, who have been bitten by the injury bug in the first round of the East playoffs), Root's local ratings have slid by 60%, the worst decline across the league.

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