No one outside of the defending champion Florida Panthers or the Tampa Bay Lightning has benefited more from the Sunshine State becoming the center of the hockey universe than Scripps Sports.
The division of the E.W. Scripps Company picked up the exclusive local broadcast rights for the Panthers last summer after the team won its first Stanley Cup, utilizing owned-and-operated affiliate stations in Miami, Fort Lauderdale, West Palm Beach and Fort Myers.
Brian Lawlor, president of Scripps Sports, hailed the first season in South Florida as a success, with the metrics to back it up.
“I think our ratings for the Panthers in season one were up 150% (over last season on FanDuel Sports Network Florida), so we more than doubled our audience,” he said in a phone interview. “Heck, the Panthers ratings were higher rated than the (Miami) Heat in the playoffs. That was really interesting. And that certainly wasn’t the case a couple of years ago.”
In their last season with FanDuel Sports Network Florida (formerly Bally Sports Florida) in 2023-24, the Panthers averaged 6,804 households (a 0.39 household rating) per regular season game in the Miami market, according to Nielsen’s live-plus same day data.
Yet based on Comscore live-plus same day data for games on WSFL (Ch. 39 in Miami) this season, the Panthers pulled in 16,972 households and a 1.34 rating. Furthermore, their games averaged 7,922 households in West Palm Beach (WHDT Ch. 9) and 1,592 households in Fort Myers (WFTX Ch. 36). Comscore did not measure FanDuel Florida last season.
The Panthers pact came together a season after Scripps became the local rightsholder for Vegas Golden Knights games. Vegas was also coming off its first Cup win when it signed with Scripps. The Golden Knights provided a blueprint for how the network would work with various teams in their local markets, with the wider local reach on free TV and a partnership for streaming access.
Florida’s run, which has done wonders for the team’s business, was eye-catching for the rival Lightning as well. Last month, the Bolts announced their own deal with Scripps affiliates, which includes a streaming partnership with ViewLift.
“I think Tampa has been watching what we’ve been doing for a couple of years,” Lawlor said. “They had an out in their contract with FanDuel, and they said, ‘Hey, we see the success you had in Vegas and in Florida, and we have a really loyal fan base.’ They’ve sold out more than 300 consecutive games in Tampa. So they’re a lot like Vegas, a really deep, loyal fan base, big brand. Visibility for them is everything.”
Of course, the Florida sun will set at some point, as the Panthers and Lightning won’t always be title contenders. However, even dour seasons aren’t a huge concern for Scripps, which makes its money during the regular season and not the playoffs. Postseason trips would include rights to air the first round locally that are shared with either national broadcaster (ESPN/ABC or TNT/TBS/truTV), but nothing further.
“Every one of the teams we have has a great fan base and an engaging product,” Lawlor said. “We’re selling our sponsorships to health systems, car dealers, attorneys—and they’re local. Coke isn’t a sponsor of any of our broadcasts, but the local companies are. They’re all about the fan engagement and the visibility in the local market. And that doesn’t change whether you know you’re the Stanley Cup champion or you wind up a couple of games short of the playoffs.”
Although playoff games don’t generate much revenue for the local affiliates, there was frustration in some circles about local partners sharing playoff games with national broadcasters. A similar agreement in the NBA came to an end after that league’s first round ended in early May. That frustration is amplified by the fact that U.S. ratings for this NHL postseason are significantly down across the board.
Lawlor believes the NHL is prioritizing reach over exclusivity, something that not only benefits the Panthers and other teams, but also the local media partners that are still providing pregame and postgame playoff coverage beyond the first round.
“I haven’t looked at the Panthers’ [data] this week, but when I was meeting with the Golden Knights, the games on our local outperformed TNT and ESPN combined,” Lawlor said. “They reached 62,000 households in Vegas [in the first round]. When the Golden Knights went to the second round, when it was only on TNT, 38,000.
“ESPN or TNT/TBS, those guys still only reach 60% of the households in the U.S. You’re still missing a significant amount of the audience.”
While Scripps is sitting pretty in Florida, it is also hoping to be fully engaged in Utah going into its third season with the team now known as the Mammoth. Scripps affiliate KUPX (Utah Ch. 16) broadcasted games for the formerly named Utah Hockey Club, yet Comcast chose to not carry the affiliate, keeping Xfinity subscribers in the state from watching the games.
“We understand that Comcast has taken that position in some markets, although they seem to be working some of that out,” Lawlor said. “Looks like MSG, they’ve got worked out. Now they’ve got Chicago worked out.
“We have recently re-engaged with them again now that the season’s over, and I am hopeful that maybe they’ll bring a different spirit to this next round of discussions.”
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