Montana football announces more TV details

Cowles Montana Media, which owns ABC and Fox stations across the state and SWX stations in Montana and Spokane, has officially signed on to broadcast the majority of the 2021 Griz football season, the Big Sky Conference announced Thursday.

Six Griz games will now be seen over the airwaves and on basic cable packages across Montana, with Cowles stations set to broadcast UM's two non-conference home games and four league matchups, both at home and on the road.

The Cowles Montana Media slate of games starts under the lights at Washington-Grizzly Stadium when UM hosts Western Illinois for the home opener on Sept. 11, followed by the conference opener against Cal Poly on Sept. 25.

Also included in the Cowles lineup is Montana's final non-conference game against Dixie State on Oct. 9 in Missoula, UM's league matchup against Sacramento State on Oct. 16, and the battle for the "Little Brown Stein" against Idaho on Oct. 23 in Moscow. Cowles stations will also carry the Grizzlies' road game at Northern Arizona on Nov. 13. A linear TV broadcast of UM's game at Northern Colorado is yet to be determined.

Five of the six games set for broadcast on Cowles stations will also be simulcast in the Spokane and North Idaho markets, opening up even more viewing options to Griz fans around the Northwest.

Exact channel listings (ABC Montana versus Fox Montana or SWX) will be announced in the near future. Streaming details for the whole schedule will also be announced in the coming weeks.

At the Big Sky football kickoff event in July, the conference announced three of UM's games would be broadcast nationwide on ROOT Sports and ESPNU, expanding Montana's broadcast footprint to millions of fans around the country.

The Griz will also receive national exposure when they open the season in Seattle against the University of Washington on the Pac-12 Network, with streaming available on Pac-12.com.

The Cowles broadcasting company owns channels markets from central Washington to eastern Montana. Beginning with KHQ-TV in Spokane, Cowles stations now provide ABC and Fox coverage in the Tri-cities, Spokane, Missoula, Helena, Bozeman, Butte, Great Falls markets, as well as KULR (NBC) in Billings.

ROOT Sports is operated by AT&T Sports Networks, which operates regional sports networks in the Northwest, Pittsburgh, Rocky Mountain, and Southwest regions. The four networks combined reach across 22 states and own exclusive rights to produce and distribute live events from more than 25 teams and conferences.

ESPNU is a digital cable and satellite sports television channel owned by ESPN Inc. The channel is primarily dedicated to coverage of college athletics and is also used as an additional outlet for general ESPN programming. ESPNU is based alongside its sister networks at ESPN's headquarters in Bristol, Connecticut. As of September 2018, ESPNU is available to approximately 62.7 million pay television households (68% of households with cable TV) in the United States.

Montana opens the fall season on Sept. 4 at Washington before returning home to face Western Illinois on Sept. 11 in Missoula.

Season ticket packages, as well as home and away single game tickets are on sale now at GrizTix.com.

2021 Montana Football Broadcast Schedule

Date	Opponent	Time (MT)	TV
9.4	@ Washington	6 PM	Pac-12 Network
9.11	Western Illinois	6 PM	ABC/FOX MT*
9.25	Cal Poly	1 PM	ABC/FOX MT*
10.2	@ Eastern Washington	8:30 PM	ESPNU
10.9	Dixie State	1 PM	ABC/FOX MT*
10.16	Sacramento State	1 PM	ABC/FOX MT*
10.23	@ Idaho	2 PM	ABC/FOX MT*
10.30	Southern Utah	NOON	ROOT Sports
11.6	@ Northern Colorado	NOON	TBD
11.13	@ Northern Arizona	1 PM	ABC/FOX MT
11.20	Montana State	NOON	ROOT Sports

* = Game also available on SWX stations in the Spokane and North Idaho markets.
Home games in BOLD

University of Montana Athletics

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