The new streaming service the team plans to offer beginning in October also speaks to the desire for the team to reach more fans, especially younger fans without traditional television capabilities. With KJZZ, if we’re good partners, we’ll keep going, and if we’re not good partners with each other, we won’t.” No length of the contract was announced, but Smith said, “It’s not a super long-term deal, but with the flexibility, it’s probably much more of a partnership than a deal. The team also says that KUTV will also bring “significant coverage” of the team on its station, produced by either Sinclair or SEG Media, throughout the year. Sinclair will air games on KJZZ, and can even choose to air selected games on its main station KUTV.
Under the new deal, the Jazz have “granted” Sinclair Broadcasting the rights to air Jazz games in the market - though financial terms of the deal were not released. Instead, the move will open up games to a wider audience of Utahns. The move ends a tumultuous 15-year era of Jazz game broadcasting, with declining numbers of fans able to watch games under the model of cable-based regional sports networks.
