It is a station that seeks to soar as a non-affiliated property capitalizing on its “Atlanta News First” branding with more hours of newscasts than any other TV source in the market. Now, it hopes to fly even higher in the ratings with an agreement to simulcast 11 Atlanta Hawks NBA games with FanDuel Sports Network across the 2025-2026 season.
The simulcasts begin Saturday, when the Hawks play the Los Angeles Lakers.
Games simulcast on Atlanta News First and sibling brand Peachtree Sports Network (PSN) will see Gray’s WALB-TV in Albany, WRDW-TV in Augusta, WTVM-TV in Columbus, WPGA-TV in Macon and WTOC-TV in Savannah, Ga., also air the Hawks simulcast slate.
Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena President of Business Enterprise and Chief Commercial Officer Andrew Saltzman said, “We are fortunate to partner with WANF and PSN on these broadcasts, giving Hawks fans another great way to watch some of our biggest games this season. This partnership, alongside FanDuel Sports Network, reflects our shared commitment to delivering an outstanding fan experience and ensuring continued easy access to viewing our games.”
RBR+TVBR Top Local TV Leader Erik Schrader, WANF’s GM, added, “This off-season was huge for Hawks fans, and we are thrilled to bring the new-look Hawks to broadcast on Atlanta’s only locally owned, independent station. A huge advantage of being independent is we can now carry even more Hawks games than we’ve been able to do previously, as we continue to bring Atlanta-centric programming to our Atlanta viewers.”
