> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://tvrev2beta2.ghost.io/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Sports TV Could Use A New “Love Network” - URL: https://tvrev2beta2.ghost.io/sports-tv-could-use-a-new-love-network/ - Published: 2026-09-03T15:00:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-09-03T18:57:33.000Z - Author: Tim Hanlon - Tags: Local, Proximity For decades, Labor Day weekend produced one of American television’s more unusual national networks. The [***Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Telethon***](https://www.youtube.com/@MDATelethon?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) began as a New York event on WNEW-TV in 1966\. Within a few years, stations around the country were carrying the program in what became known as the ***“Love Network,”*** which eventually peaked at 213 stations in 1976\. It wasn’t a network in the CBS or NBC sense. Local stations agreed to carry a common national feed, periodically breaking away for their own fundraising, personalities and sponsors. ![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/0d58bf92-42e4-45ae-914a-c63f875fb21a/Screenshot+2026-09-02+at+17-41-17+JerryLewisTelethon.png+%28PNG+Image+665+%C3%97+271+pixels%29.png?format=1000w) That local component became important almost immediately. In 1968, WHEC-TV in Rochester began inserting hometown volunteers and fundraising appeals into the telecast and found that the local interruptions generated more donations. The practice soon became part of the telethon’s basic architecture. ![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/1d59cd55-b7ca-416a-a3af-d5f7b2012b55/Screenshot+2026-09-02+at+18-00-37+gettyimages-1429242774-612x612.jpg+%28JPEG+Image+612+%C3%97+412+pixels%29.png?format=1000w) [WTVF-TV Archives](https://www.newschannel5.com/news/70th-anniversary?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) The result was essentially a national television network assembled around a single piece of programming. Nearly six decades later, that idea may be worth another look. **The Love Network Wasn’t The Only One** The Love Network was hardly the only example. Sports syndicators such as TVS and Mizlou assembled what were variously described as ad hoc, occasional or unwired networks: collections of local stations cleared market by market for particular programs or events. TVS provided one of the best-known examples with the 1968 UCLA-Houston “Game of the Century,” convincing 120 stations—many affiliated with the major networks—to carry the prime-time basketball game. It later became the national television home of the World Football League in 1974 and carried North American Soccer League games in 1977 and 1978. ![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/220c48ab-9d76-4b65-82e8-c18be6f54c78/Screenshot+2026-09-02+at+18-28-34+images+%28JPEG+Image+450+%C3%97+315+pixels%29.png?format=1000w) ![](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/60df3ea739725c04ca27d651/01607e61-7cf4-4485-a9a9-f837c74cc833/Picture2.png?format=1000w) Mizlou did something similar for college football’s expanding postseason. It syndicated the first three Fiesta Bowls and later carried events including the Holiday and Independence Bowls, giving relatively young games national exposure without requiring them to secure a place on ABC, CBS or NBC. Cable did not eliminate sports syndication overnight. Raycom, Jefferson-Pilot and others continued building sizable regional and national packages for years. But ESPN, regional sports networks and an ever-expanding cable dial gradually created permanent destinations for programming that once required these temporary arrangements. If a rights holder had enough games, there was increasingly a channel willing to carry them. That assumption no longer looks quite so dependable. Traditional pay-TV penetration continues to decline, the RSN business has fractured, and streaming provides abundant distribution without necessarily providing aggregation, discovery or broad local visibility. At the same time, live sports remains among the relatively few programming categories capable of producing meaningful appointment viewing on linear television. The conditions that once made ad hoc networks useful are beginning to reappear. **Broadcast Sports Is Reassembling The Pieces** Some of the pieces are already in place. Gray Media says its 15 broadcast sports networks collectively reach nearly 27 million U.S. television households. During the 2025–26 NHL season, Gray, FanDuel Sports Network and the St. Louis Blues assembled an over-the-air package spanning St. Louis and 10 additional television markets, reaching more than 4.8 million households. Scripps is similarly turning local stations into sports platforms. Beginning this season, WMYD-TV in Detroit becomes the local television home of the Pistons, carrying the team’s locally available preseason and regular-season games. TEGNA’s Kraken Hockey Network, meanwhile, distributes Seattle Kraken games across a collection of TEGNA and partner stations throughout the Pacific Northwest, alongside streaming on Prime Video. These aren’t quite Love Networks. Large station groups now control enough outlets to create much of the distribution internally. But the underlying principle is similar: build the distribution around the rights rather than forcing the rights into an existing national channel. The more interesting next step would be doing it across ownership groups. A sports syndicator could acquire a package and clear it market by market—a Gray independent in one city, a Nexstar CW affiliate in another, a Scripps station somewhere else, perhaps a multicast channel where primary-channel clearance is impractical. IP replaces the dedicated transmission lines of the old syndication business. National advertising can travel with the feed while stations retain local inventory, and streaming or FAST distribution can supplement markets where broadcast clearance is unavailable. Instead of carrying the fixed cost of another 24/7 network, the distribution infrastructure exists only when there is programming worth distributing. **Why The Love Network Model Fits Again** The opportunity is unlikely to be the NFL, NBA Finals or other rights that already command enormous guaranteed payments from national platforms. It is the layer below them: secondary college packages, emerging leagues, women’s sports, international competitions, motorsports, preseason games, tournament rounds and other live events capable of attracting audiences without supporting the economics of a permanent national channel. That creates a potentially useful exchange. Rights holders gain broad television reach without having to build a network. Stations gain live programming, advertising inventory and local sponsorship opportunities without having to acquire an entire season or launch another channel. A syndicator sits between them, handling rights, distribution, national ad sales and potentially production. The Love Network offers another lesson here. Its local cutaways were not merely interruptions in a national show; they were part of what made the telethon work. Rochester viewers saw Rochester volunteers, personalities and sponsors inside an otherwise national event. Sports lends itself to the same approach. Local pregame segments, station sportscasters, regional sponsorships, locally sold inventory and promotion across news and digital platforms can make a national or regional event feel specific to each market without requiring dozens of separate productions. There are real complications: network affiliation agreements, preemption restrictions, territorial rights, measurement, production standards and uneven MVPD carriage among them. None is trivial. But neither are they particularly exotic compared with the distribution problems sports rights holders and broadcasters are already trying to solve. For years, the media business responded to audience fragmentation by creating more permanent networks, apps and streaming services. There may be value now in doing the opposite: creating the network only when the programming requires one. Jerry Lewis and a loose collection of local television stations demonstrated the basic architecture decades ago. In an increasingly fragmented sports market, it may once again make economic sense. #### **Local News To Peruse:** - [**Prime Video Grabs Local Streaming Rights For Six NHL Teams**](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/nhl-prime-video-local-streaming-6-teams-1236688200/?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) **\- Rick Porter \[Hollywood Reporter\]** - [**Streamer Victory+ Abruptly Collapses After Missing Payments**](https://frontofficesports.com/article/victory-streamer-dallas-collapse/?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) **\- Margaret Fleming \[Front Office Sports\]** - [**Why Broadcast Radio Will Never Get Its Fair Share Of Political Advertising Dollars**](https://barrettmedia.com/2026/09/02/radio-fair-share-political-advertising-dollars/?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) **\- Garrett Searight \[Barrett Media\]** - [**Lone Democrat On The FCC Wants To Keep Fighting**](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/politics-news/anna-gomez-fcc-renominated-1236684468/?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) **\- Caitlin Huston \[Hollywood Reporter\]** - [**Anchors Away: Local News Shows Drifting Off Course**](https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/417563/anchors-away-local-news-shows-drifting-off-course.html?utm%5Fsource=newsletter&utm%5Fmedium=email&utm%5Fcontent=headline&utm%5Fcampaign=143718&hashid=V47PhSbzjuGNtG2pe6bNuVWncJE) **\- Wayne Friedman \[MediaPost\]** - [**Finance Bros Are Coming For The Public Airwaves**](https://www.wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/articles/finance-bros-are-coming-for-the-public-airwaves?ref=tvrev2beta2.ghost.io) **\- Katie Thornton \[On The Media\]**