SEATTLE — The Seattle Kraken will move their games to an over-the-air broadcaster and also have become the first NHL team to set up a streaming partnership with Amazon’s Prime Video, the team announced Thursday.
The streaming deal with Prime Video is for all non-nationally televised games and will be available to Amazon Prime members in Washington, Oregon and Alaska.
Amazon CEO Andy Jassy has a minority stake in the ownership group of the Kraken.
Seattle will partner with Tegna for the over-the-air component, with most of the broadcasts airing on KONG-TV in Seattle. Some of the games will be on KING, the NBC affiliate in Seattle, with games also broadcast on Tegna-owned stations in Portland, Oregon (KGW), and Spokane, Washington (KREM).
The team said Tegna is working on other over-the-air options for broadcast partners in the three states.
Seattle had spent its first three seasons with games broadcast on Root Sports, which is primarily owned by the Seattle Mariners. But the regional sports network has run into financial and production issues in the past year which have left its future in question.
“ROOT has been a terrific partner for us; we have appreciated their support as we determined our broadcast plans moving forward,” Kraken owner Sam Holloway said in a statement. “Today’s announcement is a game changer for our fans. Our goal is to increase the ways they can watch our games — whether they’re cheering us on at home or on the go. To have both TEGNA and Prime Video as trusted partners is a dream come true.”
