Fanduel Sports Network Becomes New Broadcast Home for the Miami Heat
Your Miami HEAT officially begins broadcast coverage of their 37th regular season campaign on their new home for local television coverage – FanDuel Sports Network.
Known formerly as Bally Sports Sun, the newly rebranded FanDuel Sports Network Sun will kick off their 80-game slate of regular season games with a special one-hour edition of HEAT Live pregame prior to the HEAT hosting their intrastate and division rivals from Orlando. The show will feature an exclusive two-part interview with HEAT president, Pat Riley, and legendary HEAT announcer, Eric Reid. The Hall of Fame HEAT coach and executive will be honored in a court dedication ceremony, which will be covered live on the network at halftime.
Reid, who is now the second longes-tenured NBA television play-by-play announcer in the league behind only Detroit’s, George Blaha, enters his 37th season as part of the HEAT’s broadcast team and his 34th as its esteemed play caller. Former HEAT point guard, John Crotty, begins his seventh season as the team’s television analyst and his 20thoverall as a radio and television broadcaster with the organization Emmy-award winning host, Jason Jackson, enters his 21st season with the HEAT and will once again team with studio analyst, Amy Audibert, to bring fans pre and postgame editions of HEAT Live before and after every home game. The first head coach in HEAT history, Ron Rothstein, returns for his 11th season on the broadcasts and his 45thoverall as a member of the NBA, providing insightful commentary at halftime and in postgame during “Ron’s Rewind” segments on home games.
The HEAT’s sideline reporter and halftime hosting responsibilities for all home games will be split amongst a trio of established talent. WPLG lead sports anchor, Will Manso, joins the broadcasts for his 12th season. In addition to his role as a reporter at home games, he will host all of the studio programs for HEAT road games from the FanDuel Sports Network studios in Ft. Lauderdale alongside Audibert. Miami native, Kelly Saco, joins the HEAT for her third season of coverage. A fixture on Marlins broadcasts since 2018, Saco was recently nominated for an Emmy as a sports talent for the third straight season, having won the award in each of the last two seasons. Jeremy Tache, host of the locally produced podcast Miami Mic’d Up, also enters his third season as a passionate host and reporter.
Highlights of the 80-game regular season schedule include all four scheduled meetings with the defending NBA champion, Boston Celtics, all three games vs. the new-look New York Knicks, and a pair of games each vs Olympic Gold Medalists LeBron James (2 vs Lakers), Stephen Curry (two vs. Golden State Warriors), and Kevin Durant (two vs. Phoenix Suns). FanDuel Sports Network will also provide coverage of the team’s third trip to Mexico City to take on the Wizards on November 2nd.
In addition to their opening night coverage, the HEAT will also offer extended pre-game coverage for their 15th annual Kids’ Day Broadcast on December 8th and during the Carnival Scholarship Ceremony on March 21st. The team’s award-winning broadcasts have been repeatedly recognized for excellence, as most recently evidenced by their acknowledgment for a third straight season of nomination by the Suncoast Chapter of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences for live season-long sports coverage – an award they have won in each of the last two seasons.
The HEAT’s G-League affiliate in Sioux Falls, the Skyforce, will also have their games broadcast locally in South Florida for the third straight season. All home games of the Skyforce will air live on either FanDuel Sports Network Sun or Florida beginning in November. Veteran Skyforce announcer, Dan Peters, returns for the call of all the action from the Sanford Pentagon in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.
The viewing experience should be a seamless one for fans who previously enjoyed the team on the Bally Sports platforms. All channel numbers across cable and satellite providers will remain the same and the user experience within the app will be familiar to previous users. The Bally Sports app has become the FanDuel Sports Network app and fanduelsportsnetwork.com is the new web home for the network. Fans can access streaming coverage in app and via website by authenticating through their pay TV provider or by subscribing directly to FanDuel Sports Network.
Complete radio coverage of every HEAT game during the 2024-25 season can be found on the team’s flagship station in English, AM 560 WQAM and FM 99.2 HD2. (The October 26th game at Charlotte and all pre and postgame programming for that game will be broadcast on Audacy’s Power 96.5 FM) The versatile media duo of Jackson and former University of Miami center Audibert will team up for their third straight season on all home radio games, while Jackson handles the call of each contest for the fourth year in a row. Veteran HEAT Radio Network host, Tommy Tighe, enters his 16th season with the team and is joined for the third straight campaign by local WQAM personality Alejandro Solana for extended pre and post-game coverage.
The longest-tenured Spanish language broadcaster in the history of the NBA, La Voz—José Pañeda—begins his 36thseason of calling the action in Spanish as HEAT Basketball returns to Radio Mambí 710 AM and the Latino Media Network radio family. Joining Pañeda in his 27th season with the team is long-time partner, the versatile Joe Pujala, who adds pre, half and postgame duties to his responsibilities as a game analyst. The HEAT en Español coverage will switch to 1140 WQBA at the start of the Marlins season on March 27th.
Radio Coverage in both English and Spanish is presented by Morgan and Morgan, America’s largest injury law firm.