Overview
- The Charlotte Hornets announced Wednesday a one-year deal with Cox Media Group that makes WSOC Channel 9 and TV64 the local over-the-air home for every non-nationally televised regular-season game, including pregame and postgame programming.
- Reporting indicates the team is expected to pair the Cox broadcasts with a separate streaming arrangement likely handled by DAZN, with industry estimates of roughly $7–8 million a year for the OTA rights fee and a $1–2 million annual streaming guarantee.
- WSOC and TV64 will be available in the Charlotte market over the air and on major carriage providers named by the team, including Spectrum, AT&T U-verse, DirecTV (and DirecTV Stream), DISH, YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, and FuboTV.
- The deal is short-term and flexible by design, matching other post-RSN moves; teams are signing one-year deals or opt-outs while the NBA builds an aggregated local streaming platform targeted for a future season.
- Fans should expect fuller details soon on out-of-market carriage, the team’s direct-to-consumer streaming option, and broadcast talent decisions, and the shift highlights a tradeoff between wider free access for viewers and substantially lower local-rights revenue compared with the old RSN model.