Sports-centric broadcast network coming to South Carolina

A new over-the-air TV network covering sports in South Carolina will begin broadcasting in October.

Here's information culled from the announcement:

Palmetto Sports & Entertainment, a sports broadcast channel operated by Gray Media, will launch in October on WIS (Channel 10.4) in Columbia, WHNS (21.2) in Greenville-Asheville-Spartanburg, WZCH (35.3) in Charleston and WMBF (32.3) in Myrtle Beach. A low-power repeater station is also planned for Channel 18.1 in the Sumter-Florence area.

The network will operate out of Columbia and will focus on live, local sports and other entertainment programming across the state. Gray’s WIS started broadcasting games of the Charleston Battery soccer team and Columbia Fireflies minor league baseball team live earlier this year.

“Our audience tells us how much they appreciate watching live sports for free over-the-air," Robby Thomas, vice president and general manager at WIS, said in the release. "We recognize the power of sports to connect communities, and we’re thrilled to launch this statewide.”

Palmetto Sports & Entertainment’s professional team partnerships at launch will include the Charleston RiverDogs and Columbia Fireflies baseball teams and the Charleston Battery, Greenville Triumph and Greenville Liberty soccer teams.

I contacted Eric Jarinko of the Greenville Drive to see if they would be included. He told me he needed to study current guidelines for broadcasting/streaming regarding new broadcasting agreements.

Gray started a similar venture in Georgia, the Peachtree Sports Network, in 2023. Its programming includes minor league baseball, basketball and hockey, high school football, poker tournaments and other miscellaneous sports-related programming.

There was no immediate information regarding if Greenville Swamp Rabbits and South Carolina Stingrays hockey games or high school sports would be candidates for broadcast.

Gray Media has announced a new agreement to broadcast Clemson studio (coaches) shows, and those will be shown on the new network.

Getting rights to broadcast college events on a live basis may be tricky based on current contracts. ESPN (ACC, Big South, SEC, SoCon and MEAC) and FloSports (CAA) hold streaming rights to most events involving state NCAA Division I schools. FloSports also has rights to the South Atlantic Conference in NCAA Division II.

The Big South and SoCon have had a few events on broadcast TV in recent years, but they have also been on ESPN+.

Will college baseball games be part of the schedule? I'm hopeful, but not optimistic in the short term.

If the current regional network (Ballys, etc.) model for broadcasting pro sports is ever abandoned, perhaps networks such as this could be used as outlets. When the Braves first moved to Atlanta in 1966, they had a network of broadcast stations across the Southeast.