{"id":649743,"date":"2026-03-09T23:48:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T23:48:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/649743\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T23:48:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T23:48:16","slug":"pelicans-offer-nba-teams-a-path-on-crafting-new-local-media-strategy-post-main-street","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/649743\/","title":{"rendered":"Pelicans offer NBA teams a path on crafting new local media strategy post-Main Street"},"content":{"rendered":"

With 13 NBA teams facing key distribution questions this offseason now that Main Street Sports Group is winding down<\/a>, perhaps they can learn some lessons from their brethren down in New Orleans.<\/p>\n

The Pelicans were faced with a similar situation when Main Street first came out of bankruptcy, and they ultimately decided to part ways prior to last season. That led to the creation of Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network (GCSEN), whereby the Pelicans would move away from what was a cable-focused footprint\/reach of around 700,000 homes on FanDuel Sports Network New Orleans to a broadcast TV-focused model<\/a> with a footprint of over 10 million homes across Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and parts of Florida. There would also be a DTC product, built by Kiswe<\/a>, to stream live games inside the Pelicans\u2019 coverage territory.<\/p>\n

Are teams hitting up the Pelicans to see what has worked? \u201cYeah, they are. A few of them are,\u201d said Greg Bensel, SVP\/communications, broadcasting, community and government relations for the Pelicans and Saints. And in those conversations, Bensel tells counterparts that getting this sort of media effort off the ground is \u201chand-to-hand combat\u201d in a local market.<\/p>\n

When the Pelicans realized they wouldn\u2019t be going back to Main Street, they looked at a number of possible plans. But it was a desire to make the NBA team more \u201cregional\u201d that ultimately had them strike a three-year deal with Gray Media.<\/p>\n

In New Orleans, GCSEN content went to Gray-owned WVUE-TV Fox 8, which the Benson family had owned until 2013. Gray also had a number of affiliates (10+) in local markets like Lafayette (La.), Lake Charles (La.) and Birmingham (Ala.), and that regional spread gives the Pelicans a reach closer to the market size of Chicago, especially when a new DirecTV distribution deal kicked in.<\/p>\n

One thing was for sure: The dollars would certainly not be there at the start. Sources told SBJ that the Pelicans were making closer to $25 million annually toward the end of their Main Street media deal; now, they\u2019re getting closer to $6 million.<\/p>\n

What are we going to show?<\/p>\n

A key issue for teams going out on their own is how to populate a channel with content, especially during the offseason. \u201cThe first six months, eight months maybe for the first year \u2014 we were kind of just maybe a zero rating,\u201d Bensel noted, as Gray filled the hours outside of games, pre- and postgame shows with the likes of auto repair programs to fill time. <\/p>\n

But then GCSEN leaned into sports content beyond the NBA team, including video podcasts focused on LSU and the Saints. \u201cWe were building programming that was going to start at 8am [CT],\u201d Bensel said. \u201cWhen you woke up, there was live programming talking about the Pelicans or talking about the Saints or talking about LSU, Tulane football. A talk show about [high school football] and live programming of high school sports would lead into and take you up to a Pelicans pregame.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fans responded as well, and those zero ratings have risen. The team noted Nielsen ratings for games are up 100% year-over-year, with strong growth in markets like Baton Rouge, Monroe and Shreveport in Louisiana, as well as in Jackson and Biloxi in Mississippi and Mobile in Alabama. \u201cPeople are interested, and they\u2019re watching and it\u2019s because it\u2019s accessible, it\u2019s easy. People love live sports programming,\u201d Bensel said.<\/p>\n

For a network like Gulf Coast, adding more desirable live game content would be great. Could that eventually be something like an SEC sublicense for LSU, Ole Miss or Mississippi State baseball games from ESPN? Or maybe other Olympic sports? That remains to be seen. \u201cAll of that is on the table,\u201d Bensel said.<\/p>\n

Can GCSEN exist alongside a national NBA streaming package?<\/p>\n

The NBA has made no secret that it plans to launch a national service for local streaming of teams\u2019 games. But the demise of Main Street may have moved up that timeline, as first reported by Puck. Then SBJ last week reported NBA talks have already begun<\/a> with the likes of Amazon, DAZN, ESPN and YouTube TV on launching such a service.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the day, the Gulf Coast Sports & Entertainment Network isn\u2019t going to go anywhere,\u201d Bensel said. \u201cEven if the NBA comes to us in a year and says, \u2018Look, we\u2019re taking all 30 teams and this is where you\u2019re going to live, this is your fee, and you\u2019ve got to be exclusive to this,\u2019 I still think we still maintain our Gulf Coast network. It\u2019s great for our brand and brand growth and merchandise and sales and everything else. So, we\u2019re committed to this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With 13 NBA teams facing key distribution questions this offseason now that Main Street Sports Group is winding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":649744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3796],"tags":[7,6,478,470,4073,4072,675],"class_list":{"0":"post-649743","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-orleans-pelicans","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-nba","10":"tag-new-orleans","11":"tag-new-orleans-pelicans","12":"tag-neworleans","13":"tag-neworleanspelicans","14":"tag-pelicans"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116201895001347119","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}