There have been a lot of eyeballs on the Florida Panthers this season.
While yes, that will happen when you’re the Stanley Cup champions, there is a different reason for the increase in viewership of the NHL’s southernmost franchise.
This season is the first that the Panthers moved off of cable and onto a free, over the airwaves channel, pairing with Scripps Sports over the summer.
Earlier this week, the Panthers provided an update on how many people have been watching hockey on the new networks.
According to the team, viewership through the first 14 games of the 2024-25 regular season is up more than 170% in the Miami/Fort Lauderdale market.
That number is more than double what the viewership was during Florida’s first 14 games last season, the team said.
Numbers are also up, year over year, in terms of streaming games on mobile applications.
We are extremely proud that more fans than ever before are tuning in nightly to watch our 2024 Stanley Cup Champion Florida Panthers games through our partnership with Scripps Sports, Panthers President Matthew Caldwell said in a statement released by the team. We wanted to increase accessibility to Panthers games across South Florida and we are thrilled to see these early viewership metrics indicating positive growth.
Additionally, due to the distribution of Scripps Sports across the state, the Panthers have been able to measure viewership data in places like Palm Beach, where the results so far have been “overwhelmingly positive.”
Broadcasts have been fronted by the familiar team of Steve Goldsten doing play-by-play, Randy Moller as analyst, Katie Engelson as sideline reporter and Jessica Blaylock and Ed Jovanovski as the pregame, intermission and postgame show hosts.
Panthers games are available on WSFL in Miami/Fort Lauderdale, WHDT and WPTV in Palm Beach and WFTX in Ft. Myers, as well as through the Panthers Plus streaming mobile app.
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