Miami Heat reach television agreement in Palm Beaches

MIAMI — The Miami Heat have filled out their channel lineup for over-the-air coverage of their games throughout South Florida.

In the wake of the agreement of WPLG-Local 10 that covers Broward, Miami-Dade and Monroe counties, My15 WTCN began listing Heat games for coverage in Palm Beach County and the Treasure Coast.

While an in-home antenna could be sufficient to receive the My15 signal throughout Palm Beach County, WTCN is a low-power station, unlike the stronger over-the-air signal of WPLG. My15 broadcasts on Channel 43 (digital/virtual channel 15/My15) in the West Palm Beach-Treasure Coast market with simulcast on WTVX’s digital subchannel 34.3.

As with WPLG, Palm Beach’s My15 is not available on all carriers, currently shown as not available on Dish Network and streaming providers such as Fubo, Sling TV, DIRECTV Stream and Hulu+. Unlike WPLG, My15 is available in the Palm Beach market on YouTube TV. There is a Palm Beach non-HD option on DIRECTV Stream.

WPLG has an app that offers an option for those in its region that cannot access over-the-air or via their providers, with similar plans in the works for the Palm Beach market. The Local 10 app is not intended to work north of Broward County. Local 10’s signal does penetrate southern portions of Palm Beach County.

My15 is listed as Channel 43 on DirecTV and Channel 15 on Xfinity/Comcast and AT&T U-versa (some packages may differ, with HD channels also available).

The My15 Heat coverage replicates the game schedule carried by WPLG-Local 10., although plans fell through at the 11th hour to show Wednesday night’s exhibition against the Brooklyn Nets at Kaseya Center.

The Heat are expected to also have an over-the-air affiliate on the state’s southwest coast by the Oct. 21 regular-season opener against the visiting Minnesota Timberwolves, with the season opener to be carried solely by ESPN.

Excluded from the Local 10/My15 package will be any Heat broadcasts deemed by the NBA as solely national broadcasts on ABC, NBC, Prime, ESPN or Peacock. All postseason games are nationally broadcast only, as are select NBA Cup games.

With the dissolution of the regional FanDuel sports networks, many teams have had to move local broadcasts to either local over-the-air affiliates or streaming services, or a combination of the two.

The expectation is that the scope of local coverage will again change following the coming season, when the NBA is expected to take a more uniform national approach with its regional broadcasts.

Eric Reid and John Crotty again will call the Heat’s televised games, with Amy Audibert handling courtside analysis and Will Manso and Jason Jackson part of the team’s studio coverage.

Unlike the Miami Marlins, who moved to a streaming approach and cable-tier package for coverage this season in the wake of Major League Baseball’s local packages ending with FanDuel, the Heat opted for an approach similar to when the Florida Panthers exited FanDuel last season for an over-the-air approach with Scripps Sports.

As the Heat now do, the Panthers’ have an over-the-air partner in Broward and Miami-Dade, on WSFL-TV Channel 39, as well in the Palm Beach market on WHDT-TV Channel 9.