Poker News Daily has learned that the World Poker Tour, which is currently without a television partner for Season VII, will announce that it has found a new broadcast outlet on Thursday, July 17. A press release and media interview opportunity will occur and PND will be in the middle of the fray bringing you the latest from this developing story.
The first seasons of WPT programming aired on The Travel Channel. Re-runs of past seasons are still able to be viewed on the cable channel, which was introduced into millions of American homes because of its wildly successful poker programming. Beginning in Season VI, the World Poker Tour found a new home on GSN, the Network for Games. GSN currently airs the sixth season of the WPT every Monday night. It is followed by High Stakes Poker. The future of HSP is also up in the air.
In June, the WPT issued a press release stating that the California-based company was actively searching for a new television partner. GSN, it stated, had decided not to pick up the program’s next season: “GSN’s option for exclusive broadcast of the entire World Poker Tour® (WPT) seventh season expired on Saturday.”
Options available to the WPT include airing a portion of the tournaments on GSN, finding a new home for an exclusive broadcast of all of its tournaments, or finding multiple outlets just like what Major League Baseball does. For example, different tournaments would run on TBS, FOX, and ESPN.
A source at the World Poker Tour claimed, “This announcement will be a lot different than what we may be thinking.” We’ll have to wait and see what that means. PND will bring you the latest news as soon as it unfolds.
