Still basking in the glow of their Stanley Cup victory, the Florida Panthers will enter their next cup defense with a new streaming partner in addition to their new local broadcaster.
The Champions announced a partnership with ViewLift to develop their new direct-to-consumer streaming platform ahead of the 2024-25 NHL season. The service will allow Panthers fans to stream live Scripps Sports game broadcasts and team-related content in the South Florida region via mobile devices, connected TVs and the web.
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The service comes just over a month after the Panthers officially signed a local broadcast agreement with Scripps Sports after spending nearly 30 years with Bally Sports Florida and its predecessors. Games not shown on national TV will be carried on Scripps affiliate stations WSFL-TV (ch. 39) in Miami/Fort Lauderdale and WHDT-TV (ch. 9) in West Palm Beach. A Fort Myers affiliate has not yet been announced.
Time is of the essence for the Panthers, who have already had a shorter offseason than most teams due to their Cup run. “We’re in a rush to get to opening night,” Mark Zathar, the team’s chief strategy officer, said in a phone interview. “We reached an agreement with Scripps recently, which gives us a very short window to put something together. ViewLift has proven in previous projects that it has the ability to move at a rapid pace. It made us feel very comfortable preparing for Opening Night. They are flexible and innovative.”
New York-based ViewLift has already partnered with the Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals for its over-the-top streamers. The company’s website also lists the NHL itself, LIV Golf and the Italian National Basketball League (Lega Nazionale Pallacanestro) as clients.
ViewLift CEO Rick Allen said his management team’s experience in the linear TV world has helped his team’s clients navigate the streaming waters. “We believe digital should be complementary to linear and we are very comfortable working with a linear partner,” Allen said in a video interview. “We understand what they need to be successful, and so we lean into that in a way that is helpful to teams.”
In a press release, the Panthers said the real-time data that comes with the platform will help the team continually find ways to improve the viewing experience for fans.
“What makes direct-to-consumer so interesting for these teams is the data that, for the first time, they will have on their fans… it just wasn’t there,” Allen said. “The great promise of digital is that you can reach very granular and specific fans to understand who they are, what they are watching, what else they are doing with their team and form a real perspective.”
Zathar says that while the priority in the first year will be for ViewLift to be ready for live games, the Panthers’ weekly TV show, which was previously inaccessible to some fans, will be broadcast alongside game replays, classic games and digital content. personalized. “If fans can’t watch it live on television when it comes out,” he said of the show, “they know it will be stored in our DTC app. It’s a great hub for all of our content, especially our long-form content that might not be accessible elsewhere.”
Several professional sports teams have moved away from the regional sports channel model, with nearly all exiting deals with Diamond Sports Group. The Panthers are one of four NHL teams to have left the DSG umbrella since 2023 along with the NBA’s Phoenix Suns and New Orleans Pelicans. Florida is also the second consecutive Stanley Cup champion to move to Scripps, who won the Golden Knights in 2023.
The holding company for Bally Sports channels recently signed an agreement with Comcast bringing its channels back to the cable operator after a long blackout, but at the more expensive Ultimate TV tier. However, DSG has not yet returned to Altice customers since its agreement expired at midnight on July 1st. A confirmation hearing on Diamond’s reorganization plans, originally scheduled for July 29, has not yet been rescheduled.
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