MEDIA MAVEN - Publishing media news and opinion (with some sarcasm and humor) in the Pacific Northwest, covering Seattle TV talent and programming & even a litte beyond. Maybe even some sports. Retired longtime broadcast journalist and manager in multiple top markets, ex-writing prof at UW and PLU in WA St., wrote Season of the 76ers (2002) and a new horror novel, Blood Stained Papers. Kent State and American U Masters alum, Pittsburgh native. Copyright 2025-26 All Rights Reserved
KING+ will be streaming a big high school football game this Friday night between Graham-Kapowsin and Lake Stevens with play by play and plans for replays. It's the K5 Big Game. Developing story, more to come. Is this a Seattle TV first on the big channels?
So are they going to be streaming a high school football game every week? That is actually a good idea!
ReplyDeleteKING did this last year as well Wayne, using the KING+ streaming to broadcast games. The way this worked last year and my expectation for this year is that Chris Egan will handle play by play and they'll have a guest analyst helping out, among the likely guests they'll have I'd expect will be Jason Puckett. Not sure about sideline but they do have Dusty Baker and even Arielle to handle that if they want an extra reporter.
ReplyDeleteThey based on last year should handle regular season and the round of 32 state playoffs in week 10 in November but will not do beyond that or the state title game because of contractual issues (the WIAA has an exclusive contract with a Centralia company and the NFHS Network to handle the state playoffs, do not make me go there because that has been a sore spot for a lot of high school fans over the years).
Their schedule last year and I'd expect this to be the case again this year will be primarily south end games (Pierce County/south King County) as the league down there unlike leagues closer to Seattle doesn't require the station to pay a fee for the right to broadcast the contest. When Root Sports did high school football IIRC this would have been around 10-12 years ago now, they tended to schedule similar due to this fee issue.
This frankly is a good way for KING to do a couple of things: 1. Highlight something they have been good at for years as long as Egan has been there and that is high school sports coverage and this streaming channel is a good vehicle for this, 2. Allow Egan to do additional work when he is on site doing these games and 3. Fill a niche void as there is no free broadcasts of HS football in the Seattle area outside of this and schools that use the Hudl platform or YouTube to stream games. The NFHS Network streaming is pay.
What would be nice for them to do and perhaps they'll look to do this in the winter is do high school basketball as well, as there too is no free broadcasts of regular season HS hoops in the Seattle area again outside of schools that use Hudl/YouTube for their streaming.
If this goes well, I hope KING will consider expanding this new venture to include basketball, baseball, soccer, and possibly other high school sports as well.
DeleteAs I noted in my comments IDC, they debuted this last year, and they probably had good feedback hence them doing it again this year. And to be frank, a lot of that probably revolves around the idea that KING+'s streaming is free as opposed to the NFHS Network's. And something else - KING+'s production values are far better than that of NFHS's also. I would like to think they'll work on getting basketball at least as part of this but the rest of the sports IDC that is probably a big stretch of their resources as they are only doing one game a week for football as it is. An issue though KING may have to work through is they probably want to do just boys games but a lot of the schools will likely want them to do girls as well. So a lot for them to have to work through logistically but yes, they are providing a fantastic service with this coverage to families and local communities and here is hoping the station will look to expand that investment into other sports.
DeleteThanks for the answer to my question with a great update. You know your stuff and then some!! YOU should be the analyst!!!
ReplyDeleteIn a perfect world yes. And something else also about NFHS - the league G-K is in also works with them for streaming and there is a good chance they will also have a competing broadcast from KING's for that contest.
DeleteKING’s first live broadcast in the 1940s was a high school football game, hardly a Seattle first.
ReplyDeleteThat was 1948 when stations had to find something, anything to air. Hope you enjoyed it. But I am talking about STREAMING a game. Available anywhere! I posted simply that they were doing it.
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