The Charlotte Hornets announced that five of their upcoming games will be broadcast over the air to local TV in the Charlotte area.
Big news, Hornets fans! We’re teaming up with @wsoctv Channel 9 & @TV64 to bring you FIVE games this season on local TV. 📺
— Charlotte Hornets (@hornets) January 14, 2025
First time since ’07-’08 – don’t miss out!
From the press release:
The Charlotte Hornets, Cox Media Group’s WSOC-TV Channel 9, sister station TV 64 and FanDuel Sports Southeast are partnering to simulcast five games this season, providing fans with more ways than ever to watch Hornets basketball. This agreement marks the first time Hornets basketball has aired on local, free over-the-air television since the 2007-08 NBA season. By partnering with WSOC-TV and TV 64, the five Hornets games will be available to an estimated 1.3 million homes in the Charlotte region.
The five over-the-air games will be split between WSOC-TV (two games) and TV 64 (three games).
All of the games that are simulcast on local TV will also still be shown on FanDuel Sports Network as per usual. Here are the games and the local networks they’re on:
- January 27 vs Los Angeles Lakers – WSOC
- January 31 vs Los Angeles Clippers – TV 64
- February 5 vs Milwaukee Bucks – TV 64
- February 27 at Dallas Mavericks – TV 64
- March 3 vs Golden State Warriors – WSOC
Clearly there was a lot of strategy that went into selecting the games that made it to the local airwaves. Four of them are home games, meaning they start at a more desirable 7:00 local time. The only exception is a Thursday night visit to the Dallas Mavericks. All of the opponents have broader appeal–two games against the stars of Los Angeles, one against Giannis, one against Luka, and one against local hero Stephen Curry. We’re skipping games against the Wizards and Nets and stuff. No one wants to see that.
If you’re like me, you completely forgot that the Hornets announced several months ago that they would be doing this. Good on them for following through on that. Hopefully these games get the eyeballs they’re chasing, and hopefully the Hornets play well enough to entice those eyeballs to watch more games in the future. Also, there are a fair few casual Hornets fans who have probably not been able to watch games this year because of the TV provider they have, e.g. YouTube TV, that will be able to watch this selection of games. That’s a good thing too.
