ESPN and Turner announce schedule for 2021-2022

[Fenway]

Disney, Turner Sports announce 2021-22 NHL schedule



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[S E P H]

To try and grow the sport not having anything substantial on ESPN from late-October all the way to March is terrible for the NHL. Like you can't even get a weekly game on ESPN 2? TNT's schedule is lit, they show they care about their programming.

Curious, who's got more games on ESPN and ABC, MLS or NHL?

 

[IU Hawks fan]

To try and grow the sport not having anything substantial on ESPN from late-October all the way to March is terrible for the NHL. Like you can't even get a weekly game on ESPN 2? TNT's schedule is lit, they show they care about their programming.

Curious, who's got more games on ESPN and ABC, MLS or NHL?

ESPN signed a deal primarily around streaming. We've known this for months.

 

[S E P H]

ESPN signed a deal primarily around streaming. We've known this for months.

Which is still like 98% of the games. However, they couldn't do a weekly game even if it was on ESPN2? They have enough time to show one game per week like what TNT is doing.

 

[Joe from Maine]

To try and grow the sport not having anything substantial on ESPN from late-October all the way to March is terrible for the NHL. Like you can't even get a weekly game on ESPN 2? TNT's schedule is lit, they show they care about their programming.

Curious, who's got more games on ESPN and ABC, MLS or NHL?

The NHL will have many more games overall on ESPN and ABC than MLS.
ESPN gets half of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Let's say it comes to 90 playoff games. ESPN will get any additional 45 games more than the regular season. The MLS playoffs are single game elimination I believe so the inventory of games is very low. As pointed out on here HULU and ESPN plus games are big contributors to the 420 million a year price tag.

 

[S E P H]

The NHL will have many more games overall on ESPN and ABC than MLS.
ESPN gets half of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Let's say it comes to 90 playoff games. ESPN will get any additional 45 games more than the regular season. The MLS playoffs are single game elimination I believe so the inventory of games is very low. As pointed out on here HULU and ESPN plus games are big contributors to the 420 million a year price tag.

What about just regular season?

 

[Joe from Maine]

What about just regular season?

At first glance it looks like the MLS is 34 or more for the regular season and the NHL is 28 for the first year. More games for MLS. I am sure someone can fact this. The NHL is 10 on ABC and not sure how many MLS has.

It is hard to compare the two as HULU which has about 50 million subscribers will have 75 exclusive regular NHL games as well. The Stanley Cup Playoffs add a lot of games. When the NHL reaches 72 regular season games on TNT and TBS they will actually have more regular season games on Turner Networks than the NBA. Not sure what that means but an interesting fact.

 

[Fenway]

ESPN signed a deal primarily around streaming. We've known this for months.

Streaming has advanced now where the lag time is now less than 5 seconds.

Looking at the games ESPN+ poached for exclusives some surprises.

Oct. 23

10 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

Vancouver @ Seattle

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Huge game in the Seattle market BUT it is available on cable in Seattle from CBC.

Nov 9 10 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

Seattle @ Vegas

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

However, this will generate signups so Kraken fans can also watch

Nov. 19

10 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

Colorado vs. Seattle

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Nov. 26

3:30 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

NY Rangers @ Boston

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

The Black Friday Bruins home game is traditionally the most-viewed regular season game in the Boston market.

Dec. 10

7 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

Pittsburgh @ Washington

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Dec. 17

8 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

Dallas @ St. Louis

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Dec. 21

7 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

Washington @ Philadelphia

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Jan. 6

7 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

Pittsburgh @ Philadelphia

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

Jan. 20

7 p.m.

ESPN+/Hulu

Washington @ Boston

[TBODY] [/TBODY]

People will pay

Disney is betting that once people sample what ESPN+ offers the churn factor will be minimal.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Which is still like 98% of the games. However, they couldn't do a weekly game even if it was on ESPN2? They have enough time to show one game per week like what TNT is doing.

It's not about how much time they have to show things, it's about them evolving to a streaming focus.

 

[awfulwaffle]

The NHL will have many more games overall on ESPN and ABC than MLS.
ESPN gets half of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Let's say it comes to 90 playoff games. ESPN will get any additional 45 games more than the regular season. The MLS playoffs are single game elimination I believe so the inventory of games is very low. As pointed out on here HULU and ESPN plus games are big contributors to the 420 million a year price tag.

Dont they play each other twice and take the aggreggate?

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Dont they play each other twice and take the aggreggate?

They dropped that after 2019, to fit the whole playoffs in after the November international break.

 

[Joe from Maine]

Dont they play each other twice and take the aggreggate?

I sure you are correct. Thanks.

 

[Spydey629]

To try and grow the sport not having anything substantial on ESPN from late-October all the way to March is terrible for the NHL. Like you can't even get a weekly game on ESPN 2? TNT's schedule is lit, they show they care about their programming.

Curious, who's got more games on ESPN and ABC, MLS or NHL?

The NHL has always been the Miracle-Gro for whatever network had the rights. ESPN used it in the 90s for ESPN2. Comcast did it with Versus/NBCSN. Now rinse and repeat, Disney is at it again, to gain subscribers to Hulu at a minimum and ESPN+ at the max.

It’s a symbiotic relationship, for sure. And there are certainly worse things the NHL could be used for.

 

[eddygee]

At first glance it looks like the MLS is 34 or more for the regular season and the NHL is 28 for the first year. More games for MLS. I am sure someone can fact this. The NHL is 10 on ABC and not sure how many MLS has.

It is hard to compare the two as HULU which has about 50 million subscribers will have 75 exclusive regular NHL games as well. The Stanley Cup Playoffs add a lot of games. When the NHL reaches 72 regular season games on TNT and TBS they will actually have more regular season games on Turner Networks than the NBA. Not sure what that means but an interesting fact.

The ESPN/ABC MLS and NHL regular season schedule are similar while MLS only had 4 regular season ABC games this year the plan was for 31 games in the pre-covid 2020 schedule with 10 ABC games.
I mentioned this before the NHL ESPN TV deal was officially announced but was likely to happen that MLS would likely be the beneficiary of the reduced MLB ESPN package from 90 regular season games to 30. The two leagues run concurrent and I wouldn't be surprised to see ESPN give MLS a good number of those now open formerly MLB slots during the dog days of summer June-Sept next year.

I think in reality while Turner got the "B" package it really is only that in name only from a TV standpoint. As noted ESPN is significantly more your streaming/on-demand go to as it will replace NHL TV/Center Ice and ESPN/ABC will be the go to for the 4 yrs they have the Stanley Cup.

 

[eddygee]

Dont they play each other twice and take the aggreggate?

They're very much in the experimental phase as far as Playoffs which is understandable as they add more teams. At one point the plan was to have the playoffs end in early November, now they appear ready to try and do a annual Thanksgiving day Playoff game on FOX following the annual FOX NFL Thanksgiving Day game and have MLS Cup in early December. I wouldn't be shocked if they eventually brought back two-leg series under this next TV deal as they look likely to be bringing in a additional network partner along with FOX and ESPN. CBS has been mentioned there, as CBS has expressed interest. There's Turner to they expressed interest in MLS in the past and now US Soccer rights. I don't see that as possible as they have so much already with NHL and NBA, unless they use MLS as summer programming after NHL and NBA season.

 

[jkrdevil]

So in terms on national tv schedules we are just waiting for NHL Network. Though that is non-exclusive and they typically release on a month to month basis as there is flexibility on what they take.

 

[Spydey629]

So in terms on national tv schedules we are just waiting for NHL Network. Though that is non-exclusive and they typically release on a month to month basis as there is flexibility on what they take.

Any word on if they are keeping the “Saturday Showcase” games they started doing last season?

And correct me if I am wrong, NHL Network games will still be available on ESPN+?

 

[jkrdevil]

Any word on if they are keeping the “Saturday Showcase” games they started doing last season?

And correct me if I am wrong, NHL Network games will still be available on ESPN+?

To the last part. I don’t believe so. NHL Network games were not available on NHL.tv in the past so I imagine they will not be available on ESPN+ moving forward.

 

[Tawnos]

To the last part. I don’t believe so. NHL Network games were not available on NHL.tv in the past so I imagine they will not be available on ESPN+ moving forward.

That changed last year, though I don't know if that was just shortened season pandemic related. NHLN games were available on NHLtv.

 

[IU Hawks fan]

Nobody even knows who's managing NHL Network at this point.

If Disney becomes the operator, no way are they going to restrict ESPN+ access to those games.

 

[Tawnos]

Nobody even knows who's managing NHL Network at this point.

If Disney becomes the operator, no way are they going to restrict ESPN+ access to those games.

Not only that, but if Disney becomes the operator, it would be smart for them to make NHLN available through ESPN+ at all times. I'd pretty much have it on most of the time in the background if I had access to it.

 

[jkrdevil]

Nobody even knows who's managing NHL Network at this point.

If Disney becomes the operator, no way are they going to restrict ESPN+ access to those games.

It’s still being operated by MLB’s production arm. I know that agreement was up as well, but I don’t know if they extended it. I doubt Disney will become the operator as that probably would have been included in the tv deal. Bettman did say when the rights deals were signed that NHL Network would continue and have its slate of games.

 

[OG6ix]

Which is still like 98% of the games. However, they couldn't do a weekly game even if it was on ESPN2? They have enough time to show one game per week like what TNT is doing.

Disney will probably get rid of ESPN2 at some point in the near future once more leagues adopt non-linear packages. ESPN2 struggles today as it is.

 

[jkrdevil]

Disney will probably get rid of ESPN2 at some point in the near future once more leagues adopt non-linear packages. ESPN2 struggles today as it is.

Yes. But that is probably at least 7-10 years down the line. That would have to rework and unwind a lot of the college sports contracts first.

 

[Fenway]

ESPN, Turner release NHL schedules for 2021-22 season, featuring 78 regular season games on cable and broadcast

So, if you’re an out of market NHL fan, can you get away with not having a cable/satellite/streaming subscription? The answer to that is a hard no – Turner’s release doesn’t mention anything about streaming (aside from “expansive digital and highlight rights for Bleacher Report, House of Highlights and additional platforms.”), so it appears you’ll need to watch those 50 exclusives (along with the network’s playoff coverage) on TNT or with an authenticated login. ESPN’s coverage is a bit more complicated – 16 of the 18 games airing on ESPN proper won’t be available on ESPN+ and can’t be streamed without an authenticated login, but all of the ABC games will be available on ESPN+ (but not Hulu).

How does this coverage compare overall to that on NBC? In its announced schedule for the 2019-20 season (pre-shutdown), NBC and NBCSN planned to air a total of 109 games, more than the 78 airing across ESPN, ABC, and TNT this season. The sheer number of exclusives on the Hulu/ESPN+ package puts these TV deals over the top, but that also requires an additional subscription on the part of fans. Thanks to the inclusion of the NHL.tv package in ESPN+ this season, it seems like out of market fans are getting a better deal with these TV deals, while in-market fans (who already needed a cable/satellite/streaming subscription for their local RSN) were getting a better deal with the old NBC package.

[ESPN, Turner]