USA Network has hired Kate Scott as its lead WNBA voice; Amazon Prime Video makes another foray into golf with the return of the Skins Game; it is not yet clear when, or if, the Pro Bowl Games will take place; and more sports media news.
USA Network hires Kate Scott as lead WNBA voice
USA Network has hired Philadelphia 76ers voice Kate Scott to serve as its lead WNBA play-by-play voice. Sabreena Merchant of The Athletic was first to report. Scott will call a slate that includes weekly Wednesday night games, the playoffs, and the WNBA Finals in years when USA has rights. That includes next season, when she will become the first woman to call a WNBA Finals game since Pam Ward on ESPN in 2012.
Scott’s deal is with USA parent company Versant only, but there is nothing that would prevent NBC from hiring her for its WNBA coverage. She already works for NBCU calling Sixers games for NBC Sports Philadelphia and also called Olympic basketball for the company during last year’s Summer Games. If the network were to go in a different direction, it would result in the unusual circumstance of two different play-by-play voices calling Finals games next season, when NBC and USA split the event.
USA initially acquired the WNBA as part of Comcast-owned NBCUniversal’s 11-year NBA media rights deal struck last year and was slated to carry most of the company’s WNBA inventory. But the network — which became part of the NBC family of networks in the 2004 merger that created NBCUniversal — is one of the Comcast cable channels being spun off into a new venture called Versant.
The spinoff necessitated a separate media rights deal that was announced last month, giving Versant its own WNBA package independent from NBC. As part of that deal, USA will keep the inventory it was supposed to air in the original NBCU deal (including some Finals games in years when NBC has rights to the event), plus additional game windows during the regular season.
Prime Video adds to Black Friday slate with Skins game
Amazon announced Tuesday that its Prime Video service will broadcast a reboot of the PGA TOUR “Skins Game,” the annual fall event that aired from 1983-2008. The new Skins Game will take place in the morning of Black Friday, leading into the streamer’s third-annual Black Friday NFL game (Bears-Eagles) and its first NBA doubleheader on the holiday (Bucks-Knicks and Mavericks-Lakers).
The four-person event, which will take place from Panther National in Florida, will feature familiar, established names, if not necessarily the biggest stars in the sport — Xander Schauffle, Tommy Fleetwood, Justin Thomas and Keegan Bradley. The production companies Pro Shop and Propagate Content, which previously struck a deal with the PGA TOUR last year to relaunch the Skins Game, will partner with PGA TOUR Studios on a production that will be overseen by the Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy-fronted TMRW Sports.
For Prime Video, the Skins Game is just the latest entry into golf coverage. The streamer earlier this year acquired rights to carry early afternoon coverage of the first two days of the Masters, joining a select group of broadcasters who have ever carried the event.
The Skins Game joins a growing list of made-for-TV golf events, which this year will also include a Versant-owned team event featuring Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler.
Unclear when, or if, Pro Bowl Games will take place
It is not clear when — or if — the NFL Pro Bowl Games is scheduled to air this season, and Sports Media Watch can confirm that the league does not have anything to announce or state publicly regarding the annual all-star event.
The Pro Bowl Games typically airs in an afternoon window on the Sunday between the conference championship games and Super Bowl (February 1 this season), but both ABC and ESPN have scheduled other events during that window this year (a college basketball doubleheader on ABC and an NBA game on ESPN).
That could mean the Pro Bowl Games is set for a primetime window, but that would require ABC to preempt at least part of its Sunday night line-up, a rarity for the network. It is also unclear whether ESPN would have a primetime window available, as it is set to carry a Bruins-Lightning NHL Stadium Series game on that date in a yet-to-be-announced window. (The NHL game was at one point briefly listed for Noon ET.)
It should be noted that the NFL’s “Important Dates” listing does not currently include the Pro Bowl Games.
Plus: UNC doc, NBA Peacock debut, UFL, Lundquist
- North Carolina is no longer moving forward with a documentary about its 2025 football season, according to the On3 website Inside Carolina. Tar Heels football coach Bill Belichick announced the documentary, which was to be in conjunction with Hulu and production company EverWonder, in August. Belichick’s first season as Tar Heels head coach has thus far fallen short of expectations.
- NBC has assigned play-by-play voice Noah Eagle, analyst Reggie Miller and sideline reporter Ashley ShahAhmadi to Tuesday’s Bulls-Cavaliers NBA preseason game on Peacock, according to Chicago Sun-Times writer Jeff Agrest — the first NBC-produced NBA game since Lakers-Nets Game 4 in the 2002 NBA Finals. The telecast will include the return of the “Roundball Rock” theme music.
- The UFL officially announced Tuesday that it has launched new franchises in Columbus (Ohio), Louisville and Orlando to replace the Michigan Panthers, Memphis Showboats and San Antonio Brahmas. The swap is not a relocation, and the new teams — named the Aviators, Kings and Storm, respectively — will be expansion franchises.
- TNT Sports said Tuesday that it has reached a contract extension with NHL studio analyst Henrik Lundquist, who will continue to appear on the company’s NHL studio coverage. The news comes a day after TNT announced an extension with Wayne Gretzky.
