My Thoughts on the Possibility of a Barons TV Deal

Over the last few weeks, I’ve been seeing announcements by different teams in the AHL and the CHL for radio and television deals that they have gained. That got me to thinking about if the Barons might be able to secure a television deal to go along with their radio deal with KXY. It would seem that the chance of getting one for this season is pretty far gone, but that leaves plenty of time to look at getting one for next season. There are a few options the Barons have to look at. There are three really good non-cable possibilities for the team to look at; KOCB, KAUT, and KSBI. KOCB is the CW affiliate, KAUT is the MyNetworkTV affiliate, and KSBI is an unaffiliated station. Of those three, KSBI is the best choice in my opinion. KSBI is able to be seen in almost the whole state of Oklahoma, thanks to them having 12 translator sites within the state. With the station not being affiliated with any network, they wouldn’t have to deal with any programming conflicts. The Barons also already have a working business deal with one of their owners, Aubrey McClendon, who is also the CEO and Co-Founder of Chesapeake Energy, the Barons founding partner. And in what is probably the strongest case to make for KSBI, they have plenty of experience in broadcasting sporting events. In the Oklahoma City Thunder’s first two seasons, KSBI broadcast 17 games each season with Fox Sports Oklahoma broadcasting the remainder of the games. They lost the rights to show the Thunder games this year after the Thunder decided to sign an exclusive deal with Fox Sports Oklahoma. If the Barons want a really good opportunity to expose the team and the AHL to the state, and KSBI wants a very good alternative to fill the void left by the Thunder, showing the games on KSBI is the way to go.