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| Company type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry |
|
| Founded | June 19, 1979 |
| Founders | Rick and Dee Ray |
| Headquarters | Charlotte, North Carolina |
Area served | United States (Nationwide) |
Key people | Hunter Nickell (CEO)[1] |
Number of employees | 51 (2016[1]) |
| Parent | Gray Television |
| Website | raycomsports |
Raycom Sports is a Charlotte, North Carolina–based producer of sports television programs owned by Gray Television.
It was founded in 1979 by husband and wife, Rick and Dee Ray. In the 1980s, Raycom Sports established a prominent joint venture with Jefferson-Pilot Communications which made them partners on the main Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) college basketball package. Raycom was acquired in 1994 by Ellis Communications. Two years later, Ellis was acquired by a group led by Retirement Systems of Alabama, who renamed the entire company Raycom Media to build upon the awareness of Raycom Sports. The company would be acquired by Gray in 2019.
Raycom Sports was well known for its tenure with the ACC, and also had former relationships with the SEC, Big Eight, and Big Ten conferences, as well as the now-defunct Southwest Conference.[1] In the 2010s, Raycom lost both its ACC and SEC rights to ESPN (a network which had, in its early years, picked up Raycom-distributed ACC basketball games for national broadcasts), which transferred these rights to in-house cable networks. Raycom Sports continued to produce a package of syndicated ACC telecasts aired by the Bally Sports channels and other regional sports networks, until Bally Sports ended the contract, at which point The CW bought the rights. Via Raycom Sports or related operation Tupelo Raycom, Gray produces NFL preseason games for several teams, including the Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers and New Orleans Saints.