Raycom Sports

College sports television syndicator

The company's first event was the Great Alaska Shootout. Ken Haines was one of the first hired for Raycom Sports. In 1988, Raycom added Big Ten Conference games to its portfolio after acquiring Rasmussen Communications. The company also extended its contract through 1995 to gain rights to all non network conference games. The January 14, 1973 game between NC State @ Maryland was the first Super Bowl Sunday college basketball national telecast. Chelsey would again syndicate an ACC game (Maryland @ NC State) nationally on Super Bowl Sunday the following year. The ACC title game was often syndicated outside of the ACC region (such as New York) in these years. The commentators that Chesley used included Jim Thacker, Ray Scott, Billy Packer, and Dick Enberg (on the UCLA at Maryland contest on December 28, 1974, and Notre Dame at Maryland contest on January 4, 1975, both which were co productions with TVS). In 1978, Chesley (who controlled the ACC rights at the time) wanted NBC to televise some ACC conference games as part of its national package as it had the previous few years. However, NBC wanted to feature intersectional games. This offended Chesley, who proceeded to sell the rights to the ACC tournament final to ABC, which explains the absence of ACC home games on NBC's 1977–78 schedule. Chesley retained the rights to ACC games until 1981, when the conference bought him out and sold the rights to Metrosports of Rockville, Maryland. Some ACC games were telecast by Raycom alone in 1980 through four or five television stations in North Carolina, including WCCB. For the 1981–82 season, the two companies formed a joint venture, Raycom/JP Sports, that won the package after the ACC turned down Metrosports' bid to renew its contract. Raycom also assisted ESPN2 by selling a 1995 Duke Carolina basketball game that increased the channel's credibility with cable operators. In the 1983 season, Raycom experimented with a cable oriented ACC service known as ACC Ticket. Unlike other sports syndicators, Raycom controlled nearly all advertising for the broadcast, but paid stations for the airtime. While this was a risky strategy at first, Raycom reaped a huge windfall since ACC games frequently garnered ratings in the 20s and 30s. The ACC's regional territory happened to include several fast growing markets such as Charlotte, the Piedmont Triad, the Triangle, Hampton Roads, Richmond, Baltimore, and Washington, D. C.

In 1994, Raycom Sports was sold to Ellis Communications, but remained autonomous, with its own headquarters in Charlotte. Dee Ray left in 1994 while Rick Ray left in 1995. Several teams (including defending champion UCLA, Connecticut and North Carolina) declined invites, while Michigan State received an invite. In 1996, the event moved to United Center under a five year contract. By August 1997, Raycom lost the Pac 10 and Big 12 college football advertising sales rights to Fox Sports Networks. Several executives also left the company, including Steedman. Starting in 2004, the Raycom/JP partnership took over production of syndicated ACC football games; Jefferson Pilot had produced ACC football alone since September 1984. In 2007, Raycom began broadcasting the ACC men's basketball tournament in HDTV and broadcast 4 ACC men's basketball regular season games in HD in 2008. In 2006, in accordance with Lincoln National Corporation's acquisition of Jefferson Pilot, Jefferson Pilot Communications was renamed Lincoln Financial Media, and the venture was renamed Raycom/LF Sports. On November 12, 2007, Raycom Media announced its intention to acquire some of the television broadcasting properties of Lincoln Financial Media—including three television stations, plus Lincoln Financial Sports—for $583 million. Lincoln Financial Sports was merged into Raycom Sports later that year, giving it full control over basketball and football rights for both the ACC and SEC. In 2008, Raycom lost its SEC rights to ESPN, who reached a 15 year deal to become its main media rightsholder alongside CBS. ESPN continued to provide a syndicated package of games in a similar manner to Raycom, produced via its own syndication division under the on air branding SEC Network until the launch of an SEC cable network under the same name in 2014. In 2010, ESPN also acquired rights to ACC football and basketball, replacing Raycom. In a discussion between ACC commissioner John Swofford and then ESPN president John Skipper, Swofford acknowledged Raycom's long standing relationship with the conference, and requested that it continue to be involved in some way. ESPN ultimately negotiated a sub licensing agreement with Raycom, which would allow it to continue producing a syndicated package of ACC football and basketball broadcasts (which, as a condition of the deal, were rebranded under the new on air title ACC Network in 2010). Additionally, Raycom became responsible for the ACC's digital media operations and sponsorship sales. ACC RSN broadcasts were produced by Raycom Sports production staff as Fox College Football broadcasts out of the studios of flagship Fox Sports South and distributed across the cable sports networks of Fox and others, mainly throughout the eastern United States. Wes Durham served as the lead play by play voice of both football and basketball RSN packages from 2013 to 2019. In 2012, Raycom Media acquired Tupelo Honey, a producer of sports and entertainment programming. Three years later, it also acquired WebStream Sports, an Indianapolis based producer of sports programming. In late 2016, the companies were merged to form the subsidiary Tupelo Raycom. Haines retired as president at the end of 2015.

On July 21, 2016, ESPN announced a 20 year extension of its contract with the ACC, and the launch of an ACC Network cable channel in 2019. ESPN also acquired the secondary ACC rights previously held by Raycom. However, Raycom Sports will continue to serve as the ACC's RSN and digital partner, and be subcontracted by ESPN to produce event coverage for the new ACC Network. During the 2018–19 academic year, the ACC Network branding was changed back to Raycom Sports to avoid confusion with the ESPN run ACC Network. Raycom's final syndicated ACC telecast was the 2019 ACC men's basketball tournament final.

On June 25, 2018, Albany, Georgia based media group Gray Television announced it would be purchasing Raycom Media (Raycom Sports' parent) for $3.65 billion. The FCC approved the sale on December 20, 2018, and it was completed on January 2, 2019, making Raycom Sports a wholly owned subsidiary of Gray. In July 2021, Raycom launched the streaming only Origin Sports Network which rebroadcasts games featuring famous athletes. The network also has select original programming. On July 13, 2023, The CW signed a deal with Raycom lasting until 2027 to broadcast 13 college football games and 37 basketball games each season. The rights to these games were previously held by Bally Sports. Raycom Sports would produce all games for the network. The first game of the CW era will air on September 9, 2023, as Pitt takes on Cincinnati in a non conference football game. Some of these CW stations were former Raycom/ACC Network affiliates, thus, these stations have resumed ACC coverage for the first time since 2019. The CW had started its first sports deal with LIV Golf in early 2023. In collaboration with Dome Productions, Raycom Sports is handling production of home games for U. S. based teams in the Professional Women's Hockey League.

Raycom Sports games were often part of the out of market sports packages ESPN GamePlan and ESPN Full Court, which are available on ESPN3.