Vegas Golden Knights Boost Scripps Broadcast Deal With New KnightTime+ Digital Platform

The defending Stanley Cup champions tapped ViewLift to power the operation

Nearly a week into Stanley Cup title defense, the Vegas Golden Knights are changing the way fans can watch locally broadcast games in the 2023-24 NHL season. Building off a linear broadcasting deal with Scripps Sports, the franchise has created KnightTime+, a direct-to-consumer (DTC) subscription-based platform that allows users to watch live games and enjoy archival content and other team-based projects.

“We’ve had in-direct discussions for over the last year and a half,” says Kris Knief, VP, strategy and innovation, Vegas Golden Knights. “It has been a fun and special summer, but, without this transition and the evolving media landscape, we wouldn’t be here with KnightTime+.”

Gentle Nudge: Current State of RSN Business, Scripps Deal Spur Brainstorming

Digital-platform developer ViewLift powers the backend of KnightTime+.

During a busy time during the summer, which included celebrating the team’s first championship in its six-year history, the club was at a crossroads with its broadcast partners. With the regional-sports-network sector of the industry in flux, the club decided to cut ties with its linear-broadcast provider, AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. Given the drastic change, the organization took a hard look at how to move forward. On the linear side, the Golden Knights went local and inked a deal with Scripps Sports in the middle of Round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“With the current state of the RSN landscape,” says Knief, “it was the perfect time to go over-the-air on our local broadcaster with Scripps Sports. We probably wouldn’t have this DTC product if it wasn’t for the timing of [the RSN market’s] evolution and Scripps Sports being as progressive as they are as a business.”

Organically, KnightTime+ works well with the linear production on local Scripps-operated channel KMCC-34 and simulcasts on KTNV Las Vegas. Being the first NHL franchise to make the leap to local production and the second professional team (the Phoenix Suns and Mercury signed a deal with Gray TV in late April), the Golden Knights were committed to adding this DTC element to coincide with their new linear venture.

“We always want to be first to market,” notes Knief. “While that comes with pros and cons, we believe that’s how we want to approach our business model. As the market keeps shifting, more teams will follow suit.”

The Leadup: Club Begins Initial Steps With ViewLift

Prior to the decision of going local went public, top executives in the organization, such as Chief Legal Officer Chip Seigel, and Knief’s team — including Senior Manager, Digital Strategy and Editorial Content, Gordon Weigers; and Full Stack Developer Rob Corbett — laid the groundwork behind the scenes for the new digital platform. Working with Evolution Media Capital (the club’s advisor on the Scripps Sports distribution deal) and the National Hockey League, the club vetted and tested multiple live-streaming vendors. Ultimately, the team chose the expertise of ViewLift, an end-to-end digital platform developer that has worked with LIV Golf; Washington, DC-based professional teams shown on Monumental Sports Network; and more.

At ViewLift, major contributors have been Chief Experience Officer Shraddha Pednekar, Senior Project Manager James Rawsthorne, and Arul Anand Parameswaran. Based on previous work done with the league as well as an alignment on goals and aspirations, the match was a perfect fit.

“We chose ViewLift based on their core values, passion, knowledge, client portfolio, technical expertise, robust comprehensive services, open-mindedness, and ability to collaborate,” says Knief. “They also had proactive advice from their side of the dos and don’ts since we’re just getting into [DTC streaming]. We relied on them to lead us to a point where we were going to be successful across our multi-tiered partnership.”

Race to Completion: Compressed Timeline Poses Creative Challenge

For one of the first professional teams to tread this digital path, there’s not exactly a step-by-step manual or model on how to do it. Not only did the effort include narrowing what content would be shown on the platform alongside live games, but constructing the platform from the ground up on the fly was a major challenge.

“I think the lack of blueprint is always something,” says Knief. “When you want to have first-mover advantage, you’re going to have to dictate what ends up happening. To determine what was going to be available and what this was going to become, we knew that this process was going to change every single day.”

The subscription-based digital platform can be accessed at knighttimeplus.com.

In addition, the scheduling of the launch didn’t give the team much time before the beginning of the preseason and regular season. Although winning the Stanley Cup is always the team’s ultimate goal, the later the team played into the summer meant less time for deep discussion about KnightTime+. When the Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers to take home one of the most sought-after trophies in sports, the digital team had a very small window to execute this new plan.

“We needed to do product testing to make sure the quality-control process was solidified, make any changes and tweaks, and have everything approved by the various partners,” says Knief. “We also needed to see how our [full-game] replays would work in accordance with the Scripps Sports media-rights deal and how our VOD would play into what KnightTime+ ended up being.”

Filling the Content Bucket: Fans Enjoy a Mix of Live, VOD Material

To satisfy the need of cord-cutters as well as cord-nevers — fans who’ve never experienced sports via traditional and linear channels — the digital department had to diversify the content before the team’s first preseason game vs. the San Jose Sharks on Sunday, Sept. 24. Two days prior to puck drop, pre-created shoulder programming was ingested into the platform for fans to access.

Aesthetically speaking, the graphical layout of the platform was developed by Vegas Golden Knights Creative Director Brady Hackmeister and his staff in the creative department. For implementation on game day, the club is tapping multiple resources and locations to produce the final, live-streamed product. For live game coverage, an onsite mobile unit producing both home and away games will send video feeds to Scripps Sports master-control room in Clearwater, FL. For pre/postgame and intermission coverage, the on-air talent and set are located in the broadcaster’s Atlanta studio. The feed is also routed to the Florida-based MCR, which distributes the complete package to stations in the Golden Knights’ television territory and to KnightTime+. Full-length replays are uploaded shortly after the conclusion of each game.

Now that the team has found its groove, it’s looking into adding more content to the platform. For instance, the team is considering its archives to curate a collection of classic Vegas Golden Knights games in their short yet impressive history.

“We’re waiting on media-rights approval from the league office,” explains Knief. “We’re also producing original-content series. With [KnightTime+] launched in a span of four weeks, our content is going to change into something that we can stand behind.”

Changing Landscape: KnightTime+ Becomes Benchmark for Team-Based Production

Having gotten KnightTime+ officially up and running, the crew is putting their heads down and working to optimize the offering. Since its official launch three weeks ago, edits have already been made.

KnightTime+ can be downloaded on iOS, Google Play, Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Roku.

“From Game 1 to where we are now,” says Knief, “it has already evolved after feedback from consumers about the user interface and the user experience. We’re also looking into classic VGK games over our first six seasons as another added value and enhancing functionality with push notifications. We want to make sure that everybody is well aware of what’s going on, and we’re personalizing our messaging to what that specific consumer wants [to see].”

As the industry continues to move into this new age of broadcasting, professional teams will add more responsibilities. Although some may see this as an overstretching of bandwidth, Knief feels that taking these tasks in-house gives each club more autonomy on what their fans are seeing and interacting with during the season and in the offseason.

“[Digital rights] are going to evolve drastically because this is a brand-new area of business,” he adds. “With increased distribution, the game is going to reach a younger demographic of next-generation fans. In the end, this is the next best thing for all teams.”

The Vegas Golden Knights will show 67 more games on KnightTime+ in the 2023-24 NHL season, the next being against the Dallas Stars on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 10:30 p.m. ET.