Utah Hockey Club’s NHL Debut Week Disrupted by Carriage Dispute

The Utah Hockey Club will make its NHL regular-season debut on Tuesday in a national telecast on ESPN, but it could be shut out from local viewers thereafter thanks to a carriage dispute.

Comcast and Scripps Sports failed to come to terms on an agreement where the cable operator would carry independent local affiliate KUPX (Utah 16). Utah’s first local-only broadcast is set for Thursday when it travels east to play the New York Islanders.

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“Tuesday marks a historic day in Utah, and Scripps Sports is very disappointed that Comcast has chosen not to give its subscribers access to Utah 16, the broadcast home of the Utah Hockey Club,” said Scripps Sports president Brian Lawlor in a statement. “Despite our repeated attempts to work with Comcast to provide this channel to the residents of Utah, Comcast has made it clear that broadcasting Utah Hockey Club is not a priority for them.”

Though the affiliate is a broadcast channel, it must make retransmission agreements with cable and satellite carriers to be available through their systems.

Comcast has not responded to a request for comment.

For the time being, Comcast users in the team’s regional footprint are being advised by Scripps Sports to call the operator to add pressure towards making a deal. They can also watch Utah 16 via digital antenna, live streaming TV providers such as Fubo or the team’s on UtahHC+ streaming platform.

Comcast has danced this waltz often with sports broadcasters, including a lengthy dispute over the summer with the Bally Sports channels owned by Diamond Sports Group.

Utah’s hockey dream became a reality last spring as the Arizona Coyotes were in limbo after a last-ditch attempt to secure land for a new arena in North Phoenix. Ryan and Ashley Smith, who own the Utah Jazz and the Delta Center, purchased the Coyotes’ operations from the NHL for $1.3 billion. (That was made possible by the league purchasing those assets from Alex Meruelo for $1 billion while giving him the rights to revive the Coyotes franchise within five years.)

The Coyotes spent their last season on Scripps affiliates in Arizona after the team and Diamond Sports Group mutually agreed to sever the broadcast agreement, putting the final nail in the coffin for Bally Sports Arizona. Earlier in 2023, the Phoenix Suns and Mercury exited the regional sports channel for over-the-air options, while MLB picked up the local broadcast rights of the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Salt Lake City is the 27th-largest media market in the U.S., with 1.174 million television households, according to Nielsen. The NHL’s newest market is actually larger than Pittsburgh, Columbus, Las Vegas and Buffalo. Prior to the arrival of the Utah Hockey Club, KUPX broadcasted Coyotes and Vegas Golden Knights for fans in the state.

The first regular-season game of the Utah Hockey Club will be on ESPN when they host the Chicago Blackhawks at the Delta Center.

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