ROOT Sports Seeking More Streaming Partners for Blazers Games

Yesterday ROOT Sports announced that they’d reached an agreement with fuboTV to stream Portland Trail Blazers games during the upcoming 2021-22 season. This is the first year that the Blazers are with ROOT, after 14 years being broadcast by NBCSports Northwest. The streaming deal provides access to games for viewers who can’t get ROOT as part of their local broadcasting options.

Today Ryan S. Clark of The Athletic augmented the announcement in an article covering the new deal. He quotes AT&T Sports Network President Patrick Crumb saying that fuboTV may not end up being the only streaming option for ROOT and the Blazers.

“Crumb maintained that ROOT is also still committed toward getting the network on as many streaming services as possible. He could not specifically comment on discussions between the network and other providers. But he did say those talks will continue with potential distributors going into the start of the NBA and NHL seasons.”

AT&T Sports Network is the managing partner of ROOT SPORTS.

It’s worth noting that this issue parallels difficulties that NBCSports faced during their broadcast tenure. For several years, residents in Oregon were frozen out of Blazers games if NBCSports was not available through their cable company.

ROOT is also carrying Seattle Mariners and Seattle Kraken games. Clark quotes Crumb assuring viewers that all broadcast bases will be covered in the event of overlap between the games.

“Crumb also added that Fubo will also provide separate streaming channels whenever there is an overlap in games between the Kraken, Mariners and Trail Blazers.”

Portland’s 2021-22 season begins with a game against the Sacramento Kings on October 20th.