NBA’s Hawks extend regional rights deal

The SportSouth channel operated by regional US pay-television broadcaster Fox Sports South has extended a rights deal with the North American NBA basketball franchise the Atlanta Hawks.

The new “long-term” deal will begin with the 2015-16 season. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Under the agreement, SportSouth will remain the exclusive regional television rights-holder of the Hawks and will produce all locally-available, regular-season games that are not exclusively selected by a national network.

SportSouth will also show three pre-season games, selected Hawks playoff games and produce 10 hours of Hawks-themed original programming per season.

During the 2014-15 NBA season, 75 regular-season Hawks games will be broadcast on SportSouth, which is available in more than 5.1 million households across Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina and Tennessee.