Tampa Bay Lightning get new broadcast home

The Tampa Bay Lightning have a signed a multiyear media deal that will bring the team’s games to some Gulf Coast viewers free.

The team has reached an agreement with E.W. Scripps Co.’s Scripps Sports allowing games to be shown over the air. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

The deal allows Scripps to produce and distribute all preseason, regular season and first-round playoff Lightning games not scheduled for national broadcasts.

In the Tampa Bay market, Scripps owns WFTS-ABC Action News and is planning to start a second full-power local station July 1. That station, WXPX-TV, will broadcast the Lightning games and will be known as “The Spot — Tampa Bay 66.”

Scripps, in the announcement, says that it is also in discussions with providers to get the games airing on The Spot onto cable and satellite along with over-the-air television.

One another alternative will be a new app that will allow fans in the Lightning broadcast market to livestream games. Details on the app — and how much it will cost — will be announced before the start of the 2025-2026 hockey season later this year.

 Brian Breseman, the Lightning's vice president of communications and content, writes in an email to the Business Observer that for Sarasota and Manatee fans, local partners outside of the Tampa Bay area will be announced before the start of the season. "As you can imagine, those conversations weren’t able to be had until after the agreement was announced today."

But, Bresman says, some Manatee viewers might be able to access games over the air via the Tampa signal but he "wouldn’t want to make any promises."

As for Lightning fans in Fort Myers and Naples, those localities are in the Florida Panthers broadcast territory so they would have access games through the NHL’s deal on ESPN+.

The team’s games had aired on the regional sports network FanDuel Sports, formerly Bally Sports and several other names, According to Sportico, the business of sports publication, the team had aired games on the network — and its previous iterations — since the team played its first game in 1992.

Scripps owns more than 60 stations in 40 markets. It has broadcast agreements with several sports organizations, including the WNBA, and the NHL teams Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers and Utah Mammoth.