Bobcats Announce 2006-07 Television Schedule

The Bobcats have unveiled their 2006-07 television schedule, consisting of 66 total games – 50 on basic cable, 15 over-the-air games and one national television appearance. All 41 Bobcats road games will be televised, in addition to 24 home games and tonight’s preseason contest against Washington at UNC’s Dean E. Smith Center.

Time Warner Cable channel News 14 Carolina and WMYT MyTV12 will serve as the team’s flagship stations and TNT will broadcast the Bobcats first-ever nationally televised game when Orlando visits Charlotte Bobcats Arena on Dec. 14.

“We are excited about our upcoming season and that our fans throughout the Carolinas will be able to see our games through our wide-ranging network of over-the-air affiliates and our cable partner, News 14 Carolina,” Bobcats President and Chief Operating Officer Fred Whitfield said. “This season our fans will be able to feel like a big part our team as they will have the opportunity to watch all of our away games on television. We are also pleased that News14 Carolina has launched in the Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem region to provide that community with a prime location to find our team.”

The first of 15 over-the-air games will be the regular season opener on Wednesday, November 1, against Indiana at Charlotte Bobcats Arena. The Bobcats Television Network is anchored by WMYT in Charlotte and distributed regionally on WEPX/WPXU (Greenville/Jacksonville, NC), WAPK (Kingsport, TN), WWMB (Florence/Myrtle Beach, SC), WKTC (Columbia, SC), WMYW (Wilmington, NC), WMYV (Greensboro/Winston-Salem), WRDC (Raleigh/Durham/Fayetteville), WDRL (Roanoke, VA), WSKY (Manteo, NC & Norfolk/Virginia Beach, VA), and WMYA (Greenville/Spartanburg, SC & Asheville, NC).

Some of the other top games on the over-the-air schedule include: November 4, December 13 and March 20 against LeBron James and Cleveland, November 25, February 5, and April 8 against defending NBA Champion Miami, December 29 and January 26 against the Los Angeles Lakers, December 26 at Western Conference Champion Dallas and the season finale on April 18 against New York.

“We are thrilled to add My Bobcats to the list of sports and entertainment programming on MyTV12,” said WMYT-TV Vice President & General Manager Will Davis. “The timing is perfect because of our affiliation with the new Fox Television Network, MyNetwork TV. As the Official Broadcast Television Partner of the Charlotte Bobcats, WMYT-TV will distribute these free over-the-air Bobcats games to an audience of more than one million television households in the Charlotte market.”

All 15 Bobcats over-the-air games will be preceded by a 30-minute pregame show that will provide an inside look of the team with in-depth player features and showcase the organization’s activities within the Charlotte community.

The 50 cable games will be broadcast on News 14 Carolina in the Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham and Greensboro/High Point/Winston-Salem regions and on Time Warner Cable’s digital sports tier in South Carolina. Comporium Cable will also air the 50-game package for its customers in York and Lancaster Counties.

“Our customers in North Carolina are true sports fans and Time Warner Cable is pleased to offer them the ability to view the Bobcats' games on News 14 Carolina. We recently expanded News 14's coverage area to include our Greensboro Division and provide more than one million cable customers across the state the ability to see Bobcats' games on our local news channel,” Time Warner Senior Vice President Brian Kelly said. “We have a great partnership between the Bobcats organization and Time Warner Cable and both organizations are excited to reach out to our Carolina customers and offer them this exciting sports programming value.”

The Bobcats cable television schedule begins during the preseason as the Bobcats take on Washington at the Smith Center in Chapel Hill tonight, Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 8 p.m. The game marks the return of several former Tar Heels including Charlotte’s Sean May and Raymond Felton and Washington’s Antawn Jamison and Brendan Haywood.

In addition to the preseason contest, other cable highlights include the Bobcats first road game on Nov. 3 at Memphis, Nov. 20 against Dallas, Dec. 3 and Jan. 24 against Detroit, Dec. 10 against Phoenix, Nov. 28 and March 24 against New Jersey, Feb. 2 at Cleveland, April 10 against Miami and Dec. 20, Jan. 12 and Jan. 31 against New York.

For the third straight season, the broadcast team for all telecasts will consist of play-by-play announcer Matt Devlin, analyst Adrian Branch and sideline reporter Stephanie Ready.