Hornets Have A New TV Deal, Fox Sports New Orleans Is Born

The New Orleans Hornets officially announced a new TV-rights agreement today with Fox Sports. The agreement establishes "Fox Sports New Orleans," and makes it the home of the Hornets. The 10 year agreement will reportedly pay the team around $10 million a year.

Fox Sports New Orleans will broadcast 75 regular season Hornet games, as well as a pre-game and postgame shows.

FS New Orleans will be born with the start of the Hornets’ 2012-13 season. Residents of Louisiana have been receiving Fox Sports Southwest on their basic cable and satelite services. That will change to FS New Orleans in October.

Hornets and Saints owner Tom Benson released the following statement about the agreement.

 “This is great news for our market, for our fans and for our region. This will be tremendous for the New Orleans Hornets and our continued growth.  It’s important that we continue to brand our great city and we see no better way than our partnership with FOX Sports and the creation of FOX Sports New Orleans,” said Tom Benson, Chairman of the New Orleans Hornets. “We will be able to further integrate our assets including with our local affiliate WVUE-TV Fox 8. There are many positive moves happening with the Hornets such as the improvements to the Arena and of course our upcoming selection of the number one overall pick in the NBA Draft and this announcement is just the beginning.”

FS New Orleans will also broadcast SEC football, men’s and women’s basketball, baseball, Olympic sports, coaches’ shows, Big 12 and Conference USA collegiate events, Texas Rangers baseball, Dallas Stars hockey, and local sports programming.