Seattle Kraken Moving to Over-the-Air Channels Next Season; Prime Video to Stream All Non-National Games
The Kraken will leave their RSN home Root Sports Northwest behind starting this fall, giving more fans access to the team.
Release the Kraken! From the bonds of cable TV, that is. The Seattle Kraken announced on Thursday that starting in the fall of 2024, they would no longer show the vast majority of their regular season contests on Root Sports Northwest. Beginning with the 2024-25 season, the Kraken will air on local over-the-air (OTA) broadcast channels, and will also be streamed for viewers in and around Washington on Prime Video.
Key Facts:
- More than 70 Kraken games will be presented on TEGNA-owned stations KONG and KING 5 in Seattle next season.
- Prime Video will stream all Kraken games not appearing on national TV for fans in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
- The Kraken broadcast team will follow the squad to free channels, offering fans continuity.
The Kraken spent their first three seasons of existence on Root Sports Northwest, which also offers Seattle Mariners games. But this fall, the team will see all of its games not slated for broadcast on national networks like ESPN or TNT played on KONG, a TEGNA-owned OTA station in Seattle. A number of games will also be simulcast on the NBC-affiliated KING 5.
Fans will also have a streaming option for watching the Kraken if they don’t have an OTA antenna. The team will stream all non-national games on Prime Video, which also offers a selection of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm to in-market fans. Viewers will be able to watch the Kraken on Prime Video in Washington, Oregon, and Alaska on Prime Video.
“ROOT has been a terrific partner for us; we have appreciated their support as we determined our broadcast plans moving forward,” Kraken owner Sam Holloway said. “Today’s announcement is a game changer for our fans. Our goal is to increase the ways they can watch our games – whether they’re cheering us on at home or on the go. To have both TEGNA and Prime Video as trusted partners is a dream come true. I can’t wait for more fans to fall in love with Kraken hockey.”
John Forslund, JT Brown, Eddie Olczyk, Alison Lukan, and Nick Olczyk will continue broadcasting the games next season. The team’s broadcast has been widely praised and was named number one in The Athletic’s 2023 NHL broadcast rankings, as voted by fans.
Which Other Major Sports Teams Have Moved to OTA Channels?
The NHL has already seen one of its teams leave an RSN for free broadcast channels: the Vegas Golden Knights. Before the start of the 2023-24 season, the Knights announced they would broadcast most of their games on Scripps-owned local channels, bypassing cable. The team also created the KnightTime+ streaming service to allow local fans to watch games live.
It’s likely that more NHL teams would choose OTA channels as their broadcast partners going forward, considering how well Golden Knights games performed in ratings to start the season. But many of the league’s teams are still wrapped up with regional sports networks (RSNs); 11 NHL squads have current deals with Bally Sports RSNs, and the league has to negotiate a new deal with those channels’ parent company Diamond Sports Group as part of the company’s bankruptcy proceedings.
The NBA’s Utah Jazz played their 2023-24 season on a Utah OTA channel in 2023-24, showing that it’s not just NHL executives who see the value of offering games on free broadcast channels. Several NBA teams also played a small package of games on local broadcast channels near the end of the regular season, and some could find their way to such networks permanently next year, pending the outcome of negotiations with Diamond Sports Group.
That uncertainty has been completely removed for Seattle Kraken fans. When the team hits the ice again this fall, its audience will grow to all households in the Seattle area with an OTA antenna, and to all Washington, Oregon, and Alaska residents with a Prime Video subscription.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.