NHL’s Next TV Deal

DaBadGuy7

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Dec 28, 2004
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NHL would be committing suicide taking deal with ESPN an organization that has spent 15 years pretending hockey didn't exist (They dont even show hockey highlights)

NHL games will get bumped to ESPN32 and they will cut away NHL playoff games to cover NBA pregame 2-3 hours before games begin

Also ESPN is still cutting costs whenever they can so you would likely end up with people doing hockey coverage who either hate sport or dont know a thing about it

NBC has been great to NHL

If ESPN gives NHL a great offer, they are going to take it, it’s been Bettman’s MO as a commissioner. I think this article makes it clear, NBC is not getting a exclusive deal this time around. They will have to split with ESPN or FOX or they may use to both altogether.
 

LadyStanley

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Sep 22, 2004
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NHL will cash in on new TV, streaming rights deals despite 2020 ratings decline

Paywall. The Athletic article.

“It might actually bolster the NHL’s case. Even with some of its worst numbers of all time, it helped NBCSN to one of its best-ever third quarters. (NBC was) better off having the NHL than it would have been otherwise,” said Sports Media Watch founder Jon Lewis, who has monitored and analyzed sports audience ratings since 2006.

Talks are ongoing to extend the NHL’s 10-year, $2 billion broadcast rights deal with NBC that ends after the 2021 season. The league’s 12-year, $4.9 billion Canadian TV rights contract with Rogers Communications ends in 2026.

Final TV/streaming ratings down 61% (in part due to "once in a blue moon" viewer attention taken away by day time airings, natural disasters, politics, other sports and COVID).


Summary: thought is that the rights deal will increase $$ to NHL (currently $200m US TV for NHL vs $2.7B for NBA for same season length -- with multiple networks). Sounds like it won't be one network (NBC), but multiple.
 
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Pandemonia

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The quoted part sums it up totally -
“It might actually bolster the NHL’s case. Even with some of its worst numbers of all time, it helped NBCSN to one of its best-ever third quarters. (NBC was) better off having the NHL than it would have been otherwise,” said Sports Media Watch founder Jon Lewis, who has monitored and analyzed sports audience ratings since 2006.

All about NBC bottom line. If the net is better off with league, theyre gonna shell out, but it wont be the huge numbers that the NBC wants.
 
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IU Hawks fan

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How much would it suck to be Mike Tirico if that happened? You leave ESPN to be the heir apparent to Michaels and then it leaves.

I would kind of hate to see this happen. SNF has become an institution over the last decade and a half. Certainly not to the level that pre-cable MNF was, but in its own way.

The other interesting nugget from that:
In other rights deal news, it is increasingly likely that if ESPN re-ups with MLB. It will try to center a package around “Sunday Night Baseball,” the Home Run Derby and the first round of potential expanded playoffs, according to sources. This would mean the weekly Monday and Wednesday national games would likely be sacrificed. ESPN could potentially have more key late-season games in a new deal. ESPN’s current contract with MLB expires after next season. No deal is done yet, but the amount of games it airs could go down from around 100 to 75.

Hmm...perhaps to keep those 2 nights open for a certain 16 team tournament played in April & May?
 

DaBadGuy7

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How much would it suck to be Mike Tirico if that happened? You leave ESPN to be the heir apparent to Michaels and then it leaves.

I would kind of hate to see this happen. SNF has become an institution over the last decade and a half. Certainly not to the level that pre-cable MNF was, but in its own way.

The other interesting nugget from that:


Hmm...perhaps to keep those 2 nights open for a certain 16 team tournament played in April & May?

It would, I don’t see NBC letting SNF go though, they struggled for years when they lost the AFC package to CBS in 1998. I think it’s more likely than NBC lets the NHL go than getting outbid for SNF. That’s why I think this report is very interesting, NBC might have to overpay to fend off Disney.

As for the MLB on ESPN possible next deal, if does open room for NHL to have games on ESPN for regular season/playoffs in March-May. The fact that TNT gets most of the NBA playoff inventory in the early rounds helps ESPN case in a bid as well.
 

Jokerit 16

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A few questions?

Are ESPN good for the NHL?

- They have been zero interested about hockey, I remember Max Kellermans comments for Hockey.

- Are they willing the promote the game in USA

NHL need National TV-companyes which are willing to promote the game all over the country. They add two markets Seattle and Las Vegas, even Vegas is a small TV-market, they are internationally well known city which is for marketing a point of view key factor.

Seattle is top 15 TV market in USA.

why NHL needs ESPN?
 

DaBadGuy7

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Dec 28, 2004
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A few questions?

Are ESPN good for the NHL?

- They have been zero interested about hockey, I remember Max Kellermans comments for Hockey.

- Are they willing the promote the game in USA

NHL need National TV-companyes which are willing to promote the game all over the country. They add two markets Seattle and Las Vegas, even Vegas is a small TV-market, they are internationally well known city which is for marketing a point of view key factor.

Seattle is top 15 TV market in USA.

why NHL needs ESPN?

The reality is that NHL will never get the marketing and promotion NBA and NFL gets across the board on all the major TV and radio networks. NHL itself does a terrible job selling its stars and storylines, so it leads to mainstream apathy overall. What ESPN can give the NHL is increased exposure and better ratings as it’s a bigger subscriptions and is the sports cable leader as NBCSN is seen as a secondary channel. That’s why NHL wants to go back to ESPN so badly.
 

Bostonzamboni

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The reality is that NHL will never get the marketing and promotion NBA and NFL gets across the board on all the major TV and radio networks. NHL itself does a terrible job selling its stars and storylines, so it leads to mainstream apathy overall. What ESPN can give the NHL is increased exposure and better ratings as it’s a bigger subscriptions and is the sports cable leader as NBCSN is seen as a secondary channel. That’s why NHL wants to go back to ESPN so badly.
And all these years later, don't Linds Cohn, John Buccigross, Barry Melrose and even Gary Thorne still have more credibility with hockey fans than the current NBCSN crew after NVCSN's several years of exposure now, especially now that Doc has retired?

And I like that Greg Wyshnieski is now at ESPN's NHL site now that he's left Yahoo's Puck Daddy.
 
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Poppy Whoa Sonnet

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And all these years later, don't Linds Cohn, John Buccigross, Barry Melrose and even Gary Thorne still have more credibility with hockey fans than the current NBCSN crew after NVCSN's several years of exposure now, especially now that Doc has retired?

Cohn and Buccigross for sure, they are clearly fans and it comes across in their enthusiasm, don't really get that with the NBC guys. NBC crew has ranged from ok to quite bad, Milbury most obviously. But I think what you are just describing is nostalgia for the coverage we all watched as kids. It's why our favorite NBC commentator is probably Ray Ferraro.
 

AD Skinner

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ESPN has no interest in promoting hockey right now. No guarantees but that may change if they had rights to broadcast it. Since the nhl has been on versus/NBC any coverage ESPN would give it would have essentially been helping their competitors
 

TGWL

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A few questions?

Are ESPN good for the NHL?

- They have been zero interested about hockey, I remember Max Kellermans comments for Hockey.

- Are they willing the promote the game in USA

NHL need National TV-companyes which are willing to promote the game all over the country. They add two markets Seattle and Las Vegas, even Vegas is a small TV-market, they are internationally well known city which is for marketing a point of view key factor.

Seattle is top 15 TV market in USA.

why NHL needs ESPN?
Why would you promote something exclusive to another network? I think it's far less about having zero interest and more likely centered around NHL not having a deal with them.
 

Golden_Jet

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Anyone know how much the league pulls in from centre ice , world wide, and is that money distributed to all 30 teams, or is it just HRR.
 

Ted Hoffman

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Could be a big deal on whether or not NBC retains NHL if NBC has to overpay to keep SNF.

ESPN was (probably still is) losing its ass on MNF, so it only makes sense that they'd overpay for SNF to lose its ass some more. But, the real play for ESPN has been - and still is - to be the lone place for sports programming by driving everyone else out via either overpaying itself or forcing others to overpay. It's a long-term play that has short-term costs that it's still trying to stomach, as evidenced by cost-cutting layoffs every so often.

Cohn and Buccigross for sure, they are clearly fans and it comes across in their enthusiasm, don't really get that with the NBC guys. NBC crew has ranged from ok to quite bad, Milbury most obviously. But I think what you are just describing is nostalgia for the coverage we all watched as kids. It's why our favorite NBC commentator is probably Ray Ferraro.
Add Steve Levy to the list of ESPN broadcasters who are unabashedly pro-hockey. Otherwise, I agree - there's serious nostalgia driving some people's decisions on who should be here. Hell, if I said the lineup would be Thorne, Clement, Melrose, Pang and Engblom, some of you would be shocked at how many fans would clamor for that and not care if there was no one else included.
 

BOS358

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ESPN was (probably still is) losing its ass on MNF, so it only makes sense that they'd overpay for SNF to lose its ass some more. But, the real play for ESPN has been - and still is - to be the lone place for sports programming by driving everyone else out via either overpaying itself or forcing others to overpay. It's a long-term play that has short-term costs that it's still trying to stomach, as evidenced by cost-cutting layoffs every so often.

Another round of layoffs just happened. 300 staff members were let go.
 

StreetHawk

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Another round of layoffs just happened. 300 staff members were let go.
Heard that. Plus 200 open positions won’t get filled. Anyone who had a contract due up in 2021 good chance they were part of the layoff as they won’t get their contracts renewed.
 

StreetHawk

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Sep 30, 2017
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ESPN was (probably still is) losing its ass on MNF, so it only makes sense that they'd overpay for SNF to lose its ass some more. But, the real play for ESPN has been - and still is - to be the lone place for sports programming by driving everyone else out via either overpaying itself or forcing others to overpay. It's a long-term play that has short-term costs that it's still trying to stomach, as evidenced by cost-cutting layoffs every so often.


Add Steve Levy to the list of ESPN broadcasters who are unabashedly pro-hockey. Otherwise, I agree - there's serious nostalgia driving some people's decisions on who should be here. Hell, if I said the lineup would be Thorne, Clement, Melrose, Pang and Engblom, some of you would be shocked at how many fans would clamor for that and not care if there was no one else included.
SNF is now the premiere game of the week for most of the season. MNF still gets so many bad games.

NBC would be foolish to let SNF go. Have to pay to keep it.

I’ve seen clips of the WWE people go onto Fox shows and even the NFL TNF broadcasts to promote their events because fox has a deal with them. Never did that before. So unless a network has skin in the game no reason to spend any time with the sport.

Let’s say espn gets a TV deal. Look at the topics that they would have talked about over the past 3 seasons? Babcock abusive coaching style? Montgomery in Dallas? Peter’s in Calgary? Think they would have talked up Jack Hughes like they do Trevor Lawrence?

Do more American know who Sid or Mason Crosby , kicker for GB is? Put both pictures up and have like 6 names off to the side what percentage of Americans will get side correct sv Mason?
 
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Golden_Jet

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So long as the bolded are not "exclusive". Very annoying that they load up Tuesday and Thursday, but have 1 game on Wednesday night league wide.

Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday are National broadcast days, the other 4 are regional broadcast days.
 

Golden_Jet

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Sep 21, 2005
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SNF is now the premiere game of the week for most of the season. MNF still gets so many bad games.

NBC would be foolish to let SNF go. Have to pay to keep it.

I’ve seen clips of the WWE people go onto Fox shows and even the NFL TNF broadcasts to promote their events because fox has a deal with them. Never did that before. So unless a network has skin in the game no reason to spend any time with the sport.

Let’s say espn gets a TV deal. Look at the topics that they would have talked about over the past 3 seasons? Babcock abusive coaching style? Montgomery in Dallas? Peter’s in Calgary? Think they would have talked up Jack Hughes like they do Trevor Lawrence?

Do more American know who Sid or Mason Crosby , kicker for GB is? Put both pictures up and have like 6 names off to the side what percentage of Americans will get side correct sv Mason?

Never heard of Mason Crosby.
 

Ted Hoffman

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Let’s say espn gets a TV deal. Look at the topics that they would have talked about over the past 3 seasons? Babcock abusive coaching style? Montgomery in Dallas? Peter’s in Calgary? Think they would have talked up Jack Hughes like they do Trevor Lawrence?
I and a handful of others have said this for years now. If the NHL was lucky, it would get prime time on ESPN2. More than likely, it would get about the same coverage it does now on ESPN, slightly more than that on ESPN2, and it would be 2nd-tier behind college sports on all the other networks. For all the money being forked out for MLB, NBA, MNF and all the college football and college basketball deals, there's simply no way the NHL is getting coverage above any of those. Throw on MMA and everything else, and it only gets more difficult.
 

yada

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Straight up espn gets hockey, all games are going straight to espn+ the ufc has an espn deal and majority of their events are on the streaming service with an average of 1 espn tv event every month-month and a half.

Espn is trash and what makes things worse is espn+ recognizes vpns so you cant get around your location easily
 
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Isles72

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Feb 27, 2002
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center ice on cable/satt or streaming should get more creative . I'm an isles fan in canada and I cant even get the isles pre-game / post game 30 minute shows because I assume they think I'm going to immediately start watching sportsnet after the 3 stars are announced .

spice up center ice by including pre and post game shows so that the subscriber who obviously follows said team has more value and feels more connected with ''his team'' .

another annoying center ice item is when sportsnet picks up the isles or opponents feed and airs it on sn1 or sn360 . I dont sub to those sn channels because it unnecessarily adds 20 bucks to my satt package . So , since those two channels are considered national channels..... guess what ? Its not available on center ice so I get smoked for that particular game while paying Bell satt 220 ish canadian for the pkg .

its little things like that which could be improved so the center ice custumer feels like they are getting moneys worth .

*some of the isles games v.s florida and maybe the caps in the playoffs were on sn1 . I had no choice but to subscribe for the playoffs .
 

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