ATLANTA -- FOX Sports South and SportSouth senior vice president and general manager Jeff Genthner, and Atlanta Hawks CEO Steve Koonin, announced Thursday a new long-term television rights agreement. The new agreement goes into effect with the 2015-16 NBA season. Financial terms were not disclosed.
Under the new agreement, SportSouth -- a FOX Sports regional network -- will remain the exclusive regional television partner of the Atlanta Hawks and will produce all locally-available regular season games not exclusively selected by a national network. The regional network will also televise three preseason games, select Hawks Playoff games and produce 10 hours of Hawks-themed original programming each season.
"We are excited to extend our partnership with SportSouth and build off the record-setting ratings that we established during our thrilling playoff series last season," Koonin said. "The broadcast of live sports is crucial to our business and we are fortunate to have a great partner with such a large footprint to grow our fan base."
"SportSouth is pleased to continue its longstanding relationship with the Atlanta Hawks," said Genthner. "As the exclusive TV home of the Hawks, we look forward to televising every regular season game plus select preseason and postseason games for many years to come."
During the 2014-15 NBA season, 75 regular-season Hawks games will be televised on SportSouth. Hawks games on SportSouth are available to more than 5.1 million households across Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee. Play-by-play announcer Bob Rathbun enters his 19th season as the voice of the Hawks and will be joined by Hall of Famer Dominique Wilkins, returning for his seventh season as analyst. Andre Aldridge returns for a fifth season as sideline reporter. New to the broadcast team is Olivia Harlan, who will also handle sideline reporting for select games.
SportSouth's Emmy-award winning production team will continue to provide comprehensive coverage surrounding the team with 30-minute Hawks LIVE! pregame and postgame shows before and after every game. Jerome Jurenovich and Mike "Stinger" Glenn will host Hawks LIVE!, along with contributions from Aldridge and Harlan.
New this season, SportSouth will give fans more chances to watch the Hawks play by televising same-day re-airs of all Hawks games at 11:00 p.m. ET. Re-air times are subject to change for west coast games and programming conflicts. Each re-air will be a two-hour condensed version of the live game seen earlier in the evening. Hawks LIVE! pregame and postgame shows, and halftime segments will not be re-aired.
The FOX Sports regional networks serving the Southeast -- FOX Sports South, FOX Sports Tennessee, FOX Sports Carolinas and SportSouth -- collectively reach more than 13 million cable and satellite households in seven states across the Southeast. They are the television home of the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta Dream, Atlanta Hawks, Carolina Hurricanes, Charlotte Hornets, Charlotte Hounds, Memphis Grizzlies, Nashville Predators, Cincinnati Reds, Indiana Pacers, New Orleans Pelicans, and St. Louis Cardinals, as well as the Atlantic Coast Conference, Conference USA, Southeastern Conference, and Big 12 Conference. Combined, the four networks produce more than 750 live local events and televise more than 1400 live local events each year. For more information, please visit FOXSportsSouth.com, FOXSportsTennessee.com, and FOXSportsCarolinas.com.
