Utah Jazz More Than Triple Reach with Move to Broadcast, Streaming; Jazz+ Has Over 20,000 Subscribers
Replacing revenue from the team’s removal from cable has been a challenge, but otherwise the numbers are quite encouraging for the Jazz.
The Utah Jazz took a definite risk when they made the decision to leave cable behind. The team used to offer its games on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, a regional sports network (RSN) that shut down when its owner Warner Bros. Discovery decided to quit the RSN game. In June 2023, the Jazz announced that they would play on the local channel KJZZ, with an in-market streaming service that eventually was assigned the name Jazz+. New data from Sportico reveals that the move has been a big success for the team so far, though generating revenue remains a challenge.
- Jazz+ now has more than 20,000 subscribers, and it has seen around 1,700 single-game buys.
- The TV footprint of the Jazz is now around 3 million homes, more than three times the amount of viewers who saw the team on its former RSN home.
- The success of Jazz+ could convince other teams to leave RSNs behind in favor of local broadcast networks and in-market streamers.
The Jazz’s season launched on October 25, and it already had Jazz+ ready to go. The streamer now has over 20,000 subscribers, the majority of whom opted for annual subscriptions at the $125.50 level, according to Jazz president Jim Olson, who spoke with Sportico about its new broadcasting arrangements for the year. Olson also revealed that the streamer had seen around 1,700 single-game purchases, which cost $5 each.
The expanded TV audience that the Jazz can now reach is perhaps even more impressive. The team was available in around 39% of Utah’s 1.15 million TV households when they played on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, whereas KJZZ not only reaches every home in the state but also expands its broadcast footprint to six surrounding states. As a result, the Jazz are now available in more than 3 million homes, more than three times as many as had been previously possible.
Revenues have not quite matched what they were for the team when it was available on cable, however. The 2022-23 season, which was the last year the Jazz were on AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain, saw the team collect an estimated $35 million for its broadcast rights. Sportico’s math indicates the team is getting around $20.8 million in linear distribution revenues this season, plus another $2.4 million from Jazz+, which Olson acknowledges is not ideal. However, he stresses that this year’s numbers are just a starting point.
“We’ll go backwards a little bit this year, but we definitely have a plan to get us back to where we were with the RSNs,” Olson told Sportico. “Instead of collecting one check from an RSN, we’re being creative and using a variety of opportunities to make up that difference. And we do have a plan to get back to where we know we can be from the broadcast standpoint.”
Will Other Teams Attempt to Copy the Jazz’s Success?
This season, only one other NBA team plays all of its games on local broadcast channels: the Phoenix Suns. That team also offers an in-market streaming option in Suns Live, though unlike Jazz+ it does not offer a single-game purchase option. The Jazz are the first and only team in the league to allow viewers to buy one game at a time via streaming.
Still, several NBA teams have conducted experiments to see if local broadcast channels can deliver bigger audiences than cable networks. The Atlanta Hawks, Dallas Mavericks, Milwaukee Bucks, New Orleans Pelicans and Oklahoma City Thunder have all sent a small package of eight to ten games to local broadcast channels in their markets this season, moves that have been widely interpreted as trial runs to see what their post-RSN futures hold.
These teams are all associated with a Bally Sports-branded RSN, and the parent company of those channels, Diamond Sports Group, agreed to a deal with the league in November to send broadcast rights to all 15 teams currently held by the company back to the NBA following the end of this season. However, reports have emerged that Diamond’s recent agreements to settle its debts and potentially emerge from bankruptcy nullifies the deal with the NBA, muddying the waters a bit as to when teams whose rights are held by Bally Sports channels will get those rights back.
There’s no denying that NBA teams are at the very least curious about local broadcast channels as a main distributor of their games. Teams will have to own their rights before they can sell them to over-the-air partners, but fans could see more clubs revert to such channels in the near future after executives see the success the Jazz have experienced by airing their contests on KJZZ, as well as the Jazz+ streaming service.
Jazz+
Jazz+ is a live streaming service carrying Utah Jazz basketball games throughout the state of Utah and within 150 miles of Salt Lake City. It includes live and on-demand NBA games and exclusive content.