Panthers get cold shoulder from networks. And NFL, NBA, college and streaming media notes

A 10-pack of media notes on a Friday:

▪ Despite winning the Stanley Cup, the Florida Panthers were given the cold shoulder when ABC, ESPN, ESPN+ and TNT released their NHL schedules on Thursday.

Fourteen teams have more national TV appearances than the Panthers, who have 12.

As the Associated Press’ Tim Reynolds noted, six teams that didn’t make the playoffs last season have more national TV games than the Panthers: Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Minnesota, New Jersey and Chicago.

The Panthers have two games on ESPN, four on ESPN+/Hulu, four on TNT and two on ABC. TNT has 19 NHL games this season before televising its first Panthers game on Dec. 20 in Minnesota.

The two ABC games are 1 p.m. Saturday home games: Jan. 11 against Boston and Feb. 1 against Chicago.

Locally, as detailed here, the Panthers are moving their games from Bally Sports Florida to WSFL-Channel 39, a Scripps station that will carry 70 regular season games and four playoff games.

The Panthers’ other TV affiliates will be WHDT-9 in Palm Beach/Treasure Coast & WFTX-Channel 36.3 in Fort Myers/Naples.

Channel 39 agreed to carry a Wednesday night Panthers magazine show. Meanwhile, most of the Panthers announcers will remain for WSFL’s coverage, including Steve Goldstein, Randy Moller, Katie Engelson and Jessica Blaylock.

▪ I’m not sure why Fox is willing to tolerate the restrictions placed on new lead analyst Tom Brady, a byproduct of Brady seeking a minority ownership stake in the Las Vegas Raiders, a deal that is pending.

The NFL told the AP that Brady is not permitted to attend broadcast production meetings (either in-person or via Zoom or conference call) and may not speak to players or coaches from opposing teams at their facilities. He also must follow league bylaws that prohibit public criticism of officials and other teams.

Any network broadcaster will tell you the value of attending a Friday practice and speaking with coaches and players. If Brady cannot do that — or criticize calls of officials — that’s asking him to begin his job with a hand tied behind his back. The viewer will be cheated, because the best analysts go beyond X’s and O’s and convey what they have been told by players and coaches.

Brady needs to do right by Fox and stop his pursuit of Raiders ownership. It’s the least he can do for a network paying him an obscene $37.5 million per year.

▪ Personnel moves: Chris Haynes is leaving TNT’s NBA coverage…. NFL Network — which dropped Melissa Stark, Andrew Siciliano and others earlier this year — hired former Washington Commanders coach Ron Rivera and former Notre Dame standout Mati Te’o as studio analysts…

NFL Network is getting eight exclusive NFL games this year; Rich Eisen and Kurt Warner will call most of the overseas Sunday morning games… Former Dolphins safety Jason McCourty — who was promoted from CBS’ No. 7 to No. 4 NFL team (with Andrew Catalon and Tiki Barber) — also is joining ESPN for regular appearances on their studio shows.

▪ Last Friday was supposed to be a significant day in the evolving word of streaming sports.

Alas, it wasn’t.

With a preliminary injunction, a federal judge blocked the planned launch of Venu, a sports streaming venture among Disney, Fox, and Warner Bros. Discovery.

For $42.99 per month, Venu had hoped to provide streamers with the sports programming offered by all three media giants, including everything on ABC and the ESPN networks; Fox and FS-1 and TNT, TBS and Max. Venu Sports was supposed to be available through a new app or as part of a bundle with Disney+, Hulu, and/or Max.

But at least two-fifths of all sports programming isn’t included on Venu, including the CBS and NBC NFL packages. Only three Kansas City Chiefs games would have streamed on Venu this year, CBS Sports president David Berson recently noted.

The joint venture was torpedoed, at least temporarily, when Judge Margaret Garnett recently agreed with Fubo TV’s assertion, in a February lawsuit, that Venu violates antitrust laws.

It “appears to the Court that Fubo is likely to succeed on its claims” that Venu would “substantially lessen competition and restrain trade,” the judge wrote in a 69-page decision explaining why she’s blocking the launch.

Fubo’s contention is that Disney, Warner Brothers Discovery and Fox ask pay TV distributors, like Fubo, to carry non-sports channels in order to get authorization to stream sports channels. But there is no such requirement for Venu.

Judge Barnett agreed with that rationale, writing that Disney, Fox and WBD “have long used the combination of bundling and minimum penetration requirements to make live pay TV distributors carry content they otherwise would reject, or would only offer based on express customer preferences, and therefore, those distributors are forced to pass those superfluous costs on to consumers who, in many cases, also do not want that content, or would not pay for the content if they had the choice.”

The judge is planning on a jury trial for February.

Streaming services continue to become increasingly essential for sports fans.

Amazon recently acquired a significant NBA package, including 10 conference finals in 11 years beginning in 2025-26, though WBD has filed a lawsuit against the NBA in efforts to keep that package.

Earlier this year, Netflix won rights to two Christmas NFL games, and Peacock won rights to the second game of the NFL season, a Packers-Eagles game on Friday, Sept. 6 in Brazil.

▪ Amid news that Skip Bayless will leave FS-1 at the end of the year, the network announced it will replace his show with “The Facility,” featuring former NFL players Emmanuel Acho, LeSean McCoy, Chase Daniel and James Jones.

As The New York Post reported this week, FS-1 is launching a new 8 a.m. to 10 a.m. morning show, “Breakfast Ball,” featuring New York radio host Craig Carton, Chicago radio personality Danny Parkins and former NFL player and Fox analyst Mark Schlereth.

▪ Thin-skinned superstar Kevin Durant has responded angrily to insults or slights on social media through the years, which seems peculiar for someone of his stature.

Why does he do it? Durant was asked that at a Fanatics Fest event moderated by Jalen Rose.

“Yeah, the whole point of having social media is to interact with people, right?” Durant said. “So, you follow me for a chance to maybe interact with me…

“So, depending on how I feel, I’m gonna interact, and if you troll, I’m [going to] troll back. If you show love, I’m [going to] show love back. I try to reciprocate the energy as much as possible to give people more of an in-depth experience of who I am.”

▪ Mike Greenberg, a skilled broadcaster who’s nevertheless overexposed, was given the “NFL Sunday Countdown” host role over Laura Rutledge, the “NFL Live” host who deserved the promotion. Sam Ponder, the previous host, was dismissed for budgetary reasons.

▪ This preseason’s “Hard Knocks” on HBO, which focuses on the Bears training camp, hasn’t had any profanity because the McCaskey family — which owns the team — doesn’t want any cursing.

“I’ll be honest, this team curses much less than any other team I’ve been around, but it is out of respect for the McCaskey family,” “Hard Knocks” director Shannon Furman told CHGO. “It’s something that they don’t do and wouldn’t want to see it, so it’s kind of been a decision that was made out of respect for them letting us in their house and wanting to be respectful to them.”

▪ ESPN booked the University of Miami for two of its signature basketball events: The Jimmy V Classic in New York City and the Charleston Classic in South Carolina.

UM will play Tennessee in the Jimmy V Men’s Classic at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 10 at Madison Square Garden in New York. Arkansas and Michigan will play at 9 p.m.

“We are incredibly honored and excited to participate in the 2024 Jimmy V Classic,” UM coach Jim Larrañaga said. “The event not only features elite competition, but more importantly raises money and awareness for cancer research. Jimmy V was an outstanding basketball coach, a good friend and an even better person, so it is a privilege to play in an event that carries on his legacy.”

Meanwhile, UM will join Florida Atlantic, Nevada, Drake, VCU, Oklahoma State, Vanderbilt and Seton Hall in the ESPN-produced Charleston Classic. The Hurricanes are two-time Charleston Classic champions, winning the tournament in 2009 and 2014.

Miami will open the event at noon Nov. 21 against Drake on ESPN2 or ESPNU. Each of the eight teams will play three games, with the two unbeaten teams meeting in the Nov. 24 championship.

▪ Quick stuff: According to The Athletic, Grant Hill, Tim Legler, Richard Jefferson and Jay Bilas are the top candidates to join Mike Breen and Doris Burke on ABC’s and ESPN’s lead NBA announcing team, following JJ Redick’s departure to coach the Lakers... ESPN NBA host Malika Andrews and the network’s Lakers reporter, Dave McMenamin, were married last week at the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco... .. Here’s the full college football TV schedule and announcer assignments for this weekend.