All 12 of The University of Montana’s football games in 2014 will once again be televised this season, by either Cowles Montana Media or ROOT Sports, announced UM Athletic Director Kent Haslam today (Tuesday, July 22).
Learfield Sports, the athletics multimedia rights holder for the university, reached an agreement with Cowles Media (previously known as Max Media) to be the exclusive local telecast sponsor for Grizzly football.
Cowles Montana Media will telecast three of the Grizzlies’ four non-league football games in the 2014 season, and they will also televise four Big Sky Conference games per a contract with the league, which holds the television rights to all conference games.
“Once again all Griz football games will be televised,” Haslam said. “Our fans have become accustomed to being able to watch Griz football and it simply wouldn’t be possible without great partners like ROOT Sports and Cowles Media. It promises to be another great season.”
Per Learfield Sports’ agreement with Cowles Media, the Grizzly athletic department will retain exclusive streaming rights to those four non-league games to ensure fans can watch games on its official athletic website (GoGriz.com).
“We are thrilled to partner with the Big Sky Conference and Learfield to bring Montana football to our viewers in high definition,” said John Fritz, the station manager for Cowles Montana Media’s sports division. “We are committed to producing high quality broadcasts and we are extremely excited for the opportunity to televise the games this season. “
Through regional distributors, Learfield Sports and Cowles Montana Media also will aggressively collaborate to expand distribution for UM beyond state lines in order to reach a larger fan base.
ROOT Sports will be televising five games, including four Big Sky contests: Montana’s season opener at Wyoming (Aug. 30), the Griz versus Northern Colorado (Sept. 27), Sacramento State at Montana (Nov. 1), UM at Eastern Washington (Nov. 8), and the 114th “Brawl of the Wild,” when the Griz host the Montana State Bobcats on Nov. 22.
Per the agreement, Cowles Montana Media can distribute its rights to its ABC and FOX stations in Missoula, Kalispell, Butte, Bozeman, Great Falls, Helena and the Billings’ NBC affiliate, in addition to stations in home viewing areas in close proximity to UM.
In the Billings market the games will be aired on a combination of KULR and SWX. The South Dakota and NDSU games will also air throughout eastern Washington and northern Idaho on SWX.
The seven Griz games Cowles Montana Media will air this season are non-league contests pitting Montana against Central Washington (Sept. 6), Montana versus South Dakota (Sept. 13), Montana at North Dakota State (Sept. 20), and the conference games included are the Grizzlies at North Dakota (Oct. 4), UM versus UC Davis (Oct. 18), Montana at Cal Poly (Oct. 25), and the Griz at Southern Utah on Nov. 15.
*****