The Panthers are back-to-back Stanley Cup champions. Hoisting the cup on their home ice in Sunrise, Fl. after a rematch of the 2024 Finals, Florida became the 10th NHL franchise to win two consecutive championships. 

Panthers center Sam Reinhart scored 4:36 into the game. It was the only goal Florida would need in a 5–1 win, but Reinhart added three of the other four.

Sam Bennett won the Conn Smythe Trophy as the MVP of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the Mar. 7 trade that sent Bruins captain Brad Marchand to the Panthers also proved to be key for Florida. Marchand, who helped lead Boston to the 2011 Stanley Cup win early in his 16 years with the Bruins, landed in the Sun Belt in exchange for a conditional second-round pick in the 2027 NHL Draft. The cap hit for the Panthers was about $3.1 million, as the Bruins retained 50% of Marchand’s $6.125 million salary.

The roster move defined the Panthers’ regular-season push into the playoffs and their Stanley Cup–winning postseason run: the 37-year-old Marchand finished the postseason with 10 goals and 10 assists, including two goals in Saturday’s penultimate game. Marchand’s Game 5 performance marked an NHL record: the forward became the first player to score at least five goals in two different Stanley Cup Finals series with two separate teams.

Yet the dramatic Finals—which included three overtime games, heated and high-scoring performances, the first Cup rematch since 2009, and the star power of Connor McDavid and Matthew Tkachuk—delivered uneven ratings in the U.S.

Through Game 5, overall viewership has averaged about 2.5 million—down 28% from a year ago and 5% from 2023, when the network last carried the Stanley Cup Final. Compared to the 2024 postseason, TNT and ESPN each saw viewership declines; both conference finals, for instance, experienced double-digit dips. (Canadian audiences, however, have been strong, with Sportsnet and CBC viewership seeing a 2% bump over last year.) Conspicuously absent from the playoffs were the major television markets of New York, Boston, and Chicago—no U.S. Original Six franchise made the postseason.

The declining ratings are particularly pertinent because of February’s 4 Nations Face-Off, which replaced this year’s All-Star Game. The international best-on-best tournament, featuring Canada, the U.S., Sweden, and Finland, drew massive audiences; the final on ESPN between Teams Canada and USA became the NHL’s biggest U.S. broadcast ever with 9.3 million viewers. But the event’s runaway success—alongside the completion of Alex Ovechkin’s GR8 Chase to become the top-scoring NHL player—did not result in increased postseason viewership.

Florida’s continued dominance, however, could be a boon for the growth of hockey in the American South—a significant opportunity for the NHL—especially as Atlanta pushes to secure a new franchise in the potential next era of league expansion.

If there was still any doubt about the importance of streaming to the media business, new figures from Nielsen have put that finally and definitively to rest.

The media measurement agency said that streaming represented 44.8% of U.S. TV viewership in May, marking the first time it topped the combined share of broadcast and cable, coming in at 44.2% during the month. 

The accelerating migration to streaming first hit a major tipping point in July 2023, when the combined linear share from broadcast and cable fell below 50% of total consumption for the first time. Less than two years later, the transition has become even more stark. Since 2021, when Nielsen first introduced The Gauge to monitor macro-level viewership trends on a monthly basis, streaming usage has grown by 71% while broadcast TV and cable have fallen 21% and 39%, respectively, in that time.

“While many expected this milestone to occur sooner, sporting events, news, and new season [entertainment] content have kept broadcast and cable surprisingly resilient,” Nielsen SVP Brian Fuhrer said. “The trend [toward streaming], however, has been very consistent.”

Within that 44.8% streaming percentage during May, by far the largest chunk came from YouTube, followed by Netflix. Coming in third were Disney’s combined operations that include ESPN+ along with Hulu, which is set to be owned in full by the company, and Disney+. Amazon Prime Video was fourth. 

“An under-appreciated driver is the continued transformation of traditional media companies into streaming-first entities,” Fuhrer said. “Instead of competing and conflicting with their linear components, streaming platforms like Hulu, Paramount+, and Peacock have really come into their own as key connections to streaming-native consumers. This phenomenon is not limited to originals, as we’ve seen success with sporting events as well, most notably with the Super Bowl that Fox simulcast on Tubi.”

Roku, which increasingly sees itself as a key starting point for streamers and has resumed streaming of MLB games, itself captured 2.5% of the total television audience during May, greater than the individual shares for Paramount+, Max, or Peacock. 

The latest Nielsen data also arrives as the company intends to make its Big Data + Panel expanded methodology the standard currency for audience measurement.

The rest of TV viewership not covered by linear or streaming, amounting to nearly 11% in May, involved a series of other uses such as DVD playback, gaming, and audio streaming.

The College World Series, after seeing a surge in prominence in recent years, is taking on something of a Cinderella aspect this year. 

Traditional college baseball powers such as LSU, the event’s 2023 winner, are back, but the tournament features upstarts such as Coastal Carolina and Louisville, both existing outside college sports dominance led by the SEC and Big Ten. Their path was in part cleared when top teams such as No. 1 Vanderbilt, No. 2 Texas, and No. 7 Georgia were eliminated in regional-level competition, while No. 4 Auburn and No. 5 North Carolina fell last weekend in super regionals.  

The less chalky nature of the tournament has given the College World Series some incoming momentum so far, as ESPN’s coverage of the super regionals garnered the third-best viewership in the last 15 years. Those results somewhat mirror the record viewership and attendance recently seen for the Women’s College World Series in softball, won by Texas. The first four days of the College World Series itself in Omaha have averaged 980,000 viewers, down 17% from comparable figures last year, but could be in line for a boost as Louisville walked off Oregon State in a Tuesday afternoon thriller.

This year’s College World Series has already had a signature moment as Arkansas pitcher Gage Wood threw a no-hitter over Murray State, representing the first such game in the College World Series since 1960 and just the third ever. Wood’s dominance included 19 strikeouts. 

Pittsburgh Pirates star Paul Skenes, who led LSU to the CWS title two years ago, attended the Fighting Tigers’ game against UCLA on Monday, which was eventually won by LSU on Tuesday after an extended weather delay.

“We didn’t know if we were going to have him back,” Razorbacks coach Dave Van Horn said, referring to a shoulder injury Wood sustained in February, sidelining him for nearly two months. “For him to do what he did is special, especially doing it up here.”

Combine Matters

MLB, meanwhile, is holding its 2025 draft combine this week in Arizona, looking to aid teams as they prepare for next month’s draft, as well as players as they each look to improve their standing. Many of those players are from colleges that have finished their seasons. 

The event’s fifth year also includes a marketing component, as the league-owned MLB.com and MLB Network are showing the combine all week, helping fans get acquainted with the potential stars of tomorrow. Like in other sports, MLB’s combine has a mix of on-field drills, athletic testing, and medical evaluations. 

It’s another part of MLB’s ongoing effort to reduce the time between when players are drafted and reach the big leagues, a key differentiator between the league and the NFL and NBA, which currently have far more prominent drafts. 

The KPMG Women’s PGA Championship is joining the ranks of the richest tournaments in women’s professional golf.

Organized by the PGA of America, this week’s major championship—one of five on the LPGA Tour—will offer a purse of $12 million, tied with the U.S. Women’s Open for the most prize money handed out at a single women’s golf event.

PGA of America chief commercial officer Jeff Price told Front Office Sports it was the tournament’s title sponsor that drove the financial competition with their women’s major counterpart.

“KPMG stepped up and brought the additional funding necessary to get the purse to $12 million,” Price said.
“The entire team leaned in and said, ‘We want to get to where the U.S. Women’s Open was.’”

For the Women’s PGA Championship, it’s an increase of more than 13% compared to the $10.4 million purse last year. The prize money increased just 4% from 2023 to 2024. 

This week’s winner will take home $1.8 million, compared to the $1.56 million Amy Yang won last year. That’s 15% of the purse. Maja Stark took home $2.4 million at last month’s U.S. Women’s Open, which was 20% of the purse.

The U.S. Women’s Open rose from $10 million in 2022 to $11 million in 2023, and then $12 million in 2024, before staying put this year. 

Home Sweet Home

The Women’s PGA Championship is being played at Fields Ranch East at PGA Frisco in Texas for the first time. The course opened in 2023 alongside a new $550 million headquarters for the PGA of America, and is set to host the men’s PGA Championship in 2027 and 2034, as well as the women’s again in 2031.

“It’s certainly an anchor,” Price said. “We’ve got a great lineup of sites for the men’s and the women’s championship in the near future.”