Ducks to Appear on KCAL; Prime Ticket Deal in Works

The Mighty Ducks’ first home game will be among 20 games that will be broadcast by KCAL-TV (Channel 9) during the team’s first NHL season, the team and station announced Friday.

The agreement, which also includes road games, had been long anticipated because KCAL is a Disney Co. cousin of the Mighty Ducks.

The team is expected to announce a cable television agreement soon, and has been negotiating with Prime Ticket, said Ken Wilson, vice president for sales and marketing with Disney Sports Enterprises. About 25 games probably will be televised on cable, making about 45 of the Ducks’ 84 regular-season games available on TV.

A radio deal is still about a month away. The Ducks are talking to a number of stations, among them XTRA, which carries the Kings.

Because the Mighty Ducks are the eighth major professional team to enter the Los Angeles market, the team has found both the television and radio airwaves crowded. Though the Ducks will have twice as many games available on non-cable television as the Kings, who were on KTLA (Channel 5) 10 times last season, there will probably be about 45 fewer regular-season Duck games on cable.

Prime Ticket broadcast 70 regular-season Kings games as well as the team’s Stanley Cup playoff games and two exhibition games last season.

The lack of room on area cable outlets has led Disney to discuss launching its own regional sports network, Team President Tony Tavares said, but it does not appear to be in the company’s immediate plans.

“Prime Ticket is our top choice,” said Wilson, who added that he is not disappointed that only about 45 games will be televised.

“We think that’s the right amount of games to put on our first year. We don’t think every game should be on,” Wilson said. “This will give us the kind of exposure we want.”

In a somewhat unusual arrangement, the Ducks plan to produce their own radio and television broadcasts, with the exception of those done by KCAL. Instead of selling the broadcast rights, the Ducks will sell their own advertising and sell the produced games. In the arrangement with KCAL, the team and station will jointly sell advertising packages that will include not only commercial time but arena signs, radio commercial time and other promotions, Wilson said.

“Because the station is owned by Disney, it works a lot easier. There’s a lot of synergy that exists,” Wilson said.

The team has not selected announcers for its broadcasts.