Liberty games move to broadcast TV to improve area reach
Liberty forward Breanna Stewart and guard Sabrina Ionescu react during a WNBA first-round playoff basketball game against the Mystics at Barclays Center on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
The Liberty have a new local television home for the coming season: WNYW Fox 5 and its sister station, WWOR My9.
The team had been seen on the YES Network since 2019, and was a natural fit on that outlet given that the Liberty share an arena and ownership with the Nets, a longtime YES programming staple.
But the new deal will improve the Liberty’s reach via broadcast television, a throwback to a long-ago era of local sports TV. The games will be accessible to anyone in the area with a proper antenna in addition to those who get those channels as part of traditional pay TV packages.
The team’s games will be split between Ch. 5 and Ch. 9, with the opener against the Mystics on May 14 set for My9.
The new deal also will avoid the conflicts with Yankees games that the Liberty faced at YES.
“We expect to continue our partnership with the Liberty,” a YES spokesman said.
YES did not elaborate beyond that, but Liberty games still might be a fit for live streaming on YES’ app.
The Liberty are coming off their first trip to the WNBA Finals since 2002 and are star-packed, led by league MVP Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu.
“Expanding our local reach and ensuring we are widely accessible wherever fans watch Liberty games is imperative in today’s ever-expanding media landscape,” Liberty CEO Keia Clarke said in a news release.
In the cord-cutting era, more and more pro teams are putting games on broadcast television to improve their reach.
Neil Best first worked at Newsday in 1982, returned in 1985 after a detour to Alaska and has been here since, specializing in high schools, college basketball, the NFL and most recently sports media and business.
