NHL could split media rights in next deal

[Groo]

I mean, if they do get the rights I can see them pushing NHL more. It’s not gonna be Stephen A talking hockey more but they will do something else to sell more.

Thanks for getting back to that.
I was just having a hard time seeing those two arguing hockey and it meaning anything
But, I can't say with any certainty their not both hockey aficionado's

 

[BKIslandersFan]

Thanks for getting back to that.
I was just having a hard time seeing those two arguing hockey and it meaning anything
But, I can't say with any certainty their not both hockey aficionado's

Stephen A isn’t. The most hockey he talked about was when Rangers went to the Finals.

 

[Groo]

Stephen A isn’t. The most hockey he talked about was when Rangers went to the Finals.

Can you recall if it sounded like he had any idea what he was talking about?

 

[Bixby Snyder]

I think 1 billion per year is a reasonable number.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

Can you recall if it sounded like he had any idea what he was talking about?

This is when the Blackhawks has that great start in the lockout shortened season in 2013, SAS admitted he was dragged to go this segment because its SAS debating hockey lol:

 

[Groo]

This is when the Blackhawks has that great start in the lockout shortened season in 2013, SAS admitted he was dragged to go this segment because its SAS debating hockey lol:

Thanks for that.
Sounds as if he utterly ignorant.
What a maroon

 

[Bixby Snyder]

Thanks for that.
Sounds as if he utterly ignorant.
What a maroon

still more coherent than anything Don Cherry has said in the last 5 years.

 

[LadyStanley]

31 Thoughts: Sharks still have shot at keeping Erik Karlsson - Sportsnet.ca

Friedman with some thoughts on if next US TV deal non-exclusive and impact on cap.

 

[Djp]

31 Thoughts: Sharks still have shot at keeping Erik Karlsson - Sportsnet.ca

Friedman with some thoughts on if next US TV deal non-exclusive and impact on cap.

What I see......final still on nbc

Friday night/Saturday package of about 40-50 games.
Coverage of2 of 8 first round and 1 of 4 second round in playoffs.

Since ESPN has nba and large college football and basketball ,... I see fox likely getting it.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

What I see......final still on nbc

Friday night/Saturday package of about 40-50 games.
Coverage of2 of 8 first round and 1 of 4 second round in playoffs.

Since ESPN has nba and large college football and basketball ,... I see fox likely getting it.

That’s not gonna work for ESPN since they have the NBA and College Basketball and Football during those slots in the year. If ESPN gets a package I see them getting games on Thursday night like the old ESPN Hockey Night package and probably some playoffs games on the weekend and a exclusive coverage Conference Final with NBC keeping the Cup Final. I think FOX will push more more money and more games and even a Cup Final alternating years with NBC. I can’t see FOX not wanting Cup Final on their network imo.

 

[jkrdevil]

If the do my guess is it will be with ESPN. NBC keeps what it has for the regular season. ESPN keeps what it currently has in terms of the out of market rights for ESPN+ (I.e. nhl.tv, which is the big value), with the addition of being able to take those some of those games for a Thursday night package on ESPN2 that runs from January to the end of the season.

For playoffs...the games that currently get placed on CNBC/USA for round 1 go to ESPN2 with the caveat the ESPN2 gets first choice of games on certain nights of the week.

For round 2, ESPN2 gets exclusive rights to games for 2 set nights during the week with NBC getting the rest.

For round 3, NBC gets exclusive rights to one of the conference final and weekend over the rights to the other (essentially game 2 and 5 to fill big NBC’s weekend spots). The weeknight games for the other series goes to ESPN.

NBC gets the Final.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

I asked Sports Media Watch on the rumored package that Friedman had in his 31 Thoughts. He doesn’t believe FOX or ESPN get a limited package. I agree, ESPN or FOX are gonna watch a similar deal that TNT has with the NBA or TBS has with MLB:

 

[LadyStanley]

Didn't mention CBS.

 

[jkrdevil]

Didn't mention CBS.

I don’t see CBS being a player at all. They’ve never used them their sports channel the way NBC, Disney or Fox has (plus I don’t see the NHL wanting to be part of another building process after taking the early hit with Vs/NBCSN) and they don’t have the weekend inventory on the main channel late season and playoffs between March Madness, Masters, PGA championship, and they have the PGA Tour to fill the other spots.

 

[jkrdevil]

I asked Sports Media Watch on the rumored package that Friedman had in his 31 Thoughts. He doesn’t believe FOX or ESPN get a limited package. I agree, ESPN or FOX are gonna watch a similar deal that TNT has with the NBA or TBS has with MLB:

This goes to my earlier point about why a split may not be guaranteed as it may not bring the most money. Ratings why to the networks the NHL may have more value as a bulk play than the individual games.

That said as outlined above of any of the networks ESPN may go for a smaller package as long as it is tied to renewal of the digital rights for ESPN+ and NHL.tv. There could be extra value in using the smaller package (that would include playoffs) to promote subscriptions for the two services.

As an aside MLB’s should not be a model. Their tv rights are a mess. TBS is the definition of a small package. They have limited (non-exclusive) regular season rights that basically no one knows about because it is on the same time as 1,000 other games and drop out of no where come the playoffs.

 

[DaBadGuy7]

This goes to my earlier point about why a split may not be guaranteed as it may not bring the most money. Ratings why to the networks the NHL may have more value as a bulk play than the individual games.

That said as outlined above of any of the networks ESPN may go for a smaller package as long as it is tied to renewal of the digital rights for ESPN+ and NHL.tv. There could be extra value in using the smaller package (that would include playoffs) to promote subscriptions for the two services.

As an aside MLB’s should not be a model. Their tv rights are a mess. TBS is the definition of a small package. They have limited (non-exclusive) regular season rights that basically no one knows about because it is on the same time as 1,000 other games and drop out of no where come the playoffs.

We will see, like we have discussed in previous threads, FOX is the wild card in this. If they put a big offer to cut into NBC’s pie in terms of their regular season and playoff inventory, then NHL will probably get a nice split deal. NBC is definitely gonna have to pay a lot more than 200 million a year in the next go around, we agree there, that was a steal of a TV deal for them.

 

[Blueblood9]

ESPN and Fox would make sense together as equal partners in something like this.

That wont happen Fox is trying to overtake ESPN and has taken a big chunk of theyre viewers. The best bet for the NHL would be Fox/NBC. ESPN has to much airtime taken in the fall winter with the NBA, NFL, College Football and Basketball.

There is no longer 4 major sports its 5 with international soccer like the champions league getting popular.

FS1 once MLB season has ended has some college sports and soccer. Theyll have more airtime to give to NHL related segments/shows.

Fact is that for NHL coverage to grow they need to have multiple media partners with more eyeballs

 

[Ted Hoffman]

We will see, like we have discussed in previous threads, FOX is the wild card in this. If they put a big offer to cut into NBC’s pie in terms of their regular season and playoff inventory, then NHL will probably get a nice split deal. NBC is definitely gonna have to pay a lot more than 200 million a year in the next go around, we agree there, that was a steal of a TV deal for them.

Only in hindsight. Back when that deal was announced, it was ridiculed wildly around here by a number of people who couldn't understand why NBC would pay almost 3x the cost of the prior contract.

The best bet for the NHL would be Fox/NBC. ESPN has to much airtime taken in the fall winter with the NBA, NFL, College Football and Basketball.

Agreed. We've discussed this here previously; ESPN has poured so much money into the NBA, NFL, MLB, and college sports that there's simply no room on the main network for the NHL and there's limited space on ESPN2 for it. [And that's before we get to the recent deals struck with UFC, existing deals for the Masters, Wimbledon, and the tennis U.S. Open, an upcoming deal for the PGA Tournament, and so on.] Maybe you'd get one (1) game a week in prime-time, and I think even that's a stretch. [You're certainly not getting NHL 2Night because they need that time for covering all the other stuff and promoting the ever-living hell out of the NBA, MLB, and whatever sport is seasonally hot at the time.]

So ... is the NHL really better positioned being on ESPN3? No. Not when it can find space on other networks that will give the league much more attention and prime-time exposure throughout the season.

 

[jkrdevil]

That wont happen Fox is trying to overtake ESPN and has taken a big chunk of theyre viewers.

FOX and ESPN have partnered on a number of rights deals over the past several years, all with the goal of shutting out NBC/Comcast.

That said a FOX/ESPN split would be long term disastrous for the league. NBCSN could potentially collapse (all of their rights deals except NASCAR basically don’t extend past the NHL deal and NASCAR they can shuffle over to USA if need be). That would take a potential player out of the bidding on the subsequent rights deal and out the league in position a la 2004 where they got squeezed hard.

 

[KevFu]

Sounds like an effort by the NHL to start a bidding war.


Also, the whole "gate driven" vs "non-gate driven" stuff is getting absurdly overrated.

Let's look at the total revenue / gate revenue of teams 1 and 30 in the league by revenue:
1. Yankees: $668 revenue, $284 Gate (43%) 30. Marlins: $224 revenue, $26 gate (12%)
1. Rangers: $253 revenue, $96 gate (38%) 30. Panthers: $99 revenue, $16 gate (16%)
1. Knicks: $443 revenue, $127 gate (29%) 30. Memphis: $213 revenue, $22 gate (10%)

It's not a BINARY thing, like "We're gate driven, they're not." The percentages are fairly close. 4% gap between MLB and 6% vs NBA on the bottom end. The Yankees get a higher percentage of gate revenue than the Rangers or Knicks.

The MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR difference isn't the TV dollars, it's revenue sharing. The NHL is "Gate Driven PER TEAM" while MLB and NBA are "Gate Driven WHOLE LEAGUE." MLB/NBA pool 48% and 50% of local revenues. NHL does not, they have a Robin Hood system that is far less effective at quelling the ever-growing gap between rich and poor.

 

[MNNumbers]

Sounds like an effort by the NHL to start a bidding war.


Also, the whole "gate driven" vs "non-gate driven" stuff is getting absurdly overrated.

Let's look at the total revenue / gate revenue of teams 1 and 30 in the league by revenue:
1. Yankees: $668 revenue, $284 Gate (43%) 30. Marlins: $224 revenue, $26 gate (12%)
1. Rangers: $253 revenue, $96 gate (38%) 30. Panthers: $99 revenue, $16 gate (16%)
1. Knicks: $443 revenue, $127 gate (29%) 30. Memphis: $213 revenue, $22 gate (10%)

It's not a BINARY thing, like "We're gate driven, they're not." The percentages are fairly close. 4% gap between MLB and 6% vs NBA on the bottom end. The Yankees get a higher percentage of gate revenue than the Rangers or Knicks.

The MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR difference isn't the TV dollars, it's revenue sharing. The NHL is "Gate Driven PER TEAM" while MLB and NBA are "Gate Driven WHOLE LEAGUE." MLB/NBA pool 48% and 50% of local revenues. NHL does not, they have a Robin Hood system that is far less effective at quelling the ever-growing gap between rich and poor.

Why do the Rangers have 157M non-gate revenue, and the Panthers only 83M? Isn't it clear that the remaining 74M is local, non-gate revenue?

The problem is not that the NHL is a gate-driven league. It's that it's a local-driven league.

 

[KevFu]

The problem is not that the NHL is a gate-driven league. It's that it's a local-driven league.

You and I have the tendency to say things that sound completely different and look like disagreement, but tend to be a lot of very similar things being said in different terms and in borderline agreement.


The NHL's problem is that it's a "Local-Driven League"
vs

it's revenue sharing. The NHL is "Gate Driven PER TEAM" while MLB and NBA are "Gate Driven WHOLE LEAGUE."

 

[MNNumbers]

You and I have the tendency to say things that sound completely different and look like disagreement, but tend to be a lot of very similar things being said in different terms and in borderline agreement.


The NHL's problem is that it's a "Local-Driven League"
vs

it's revenue sharing. The NHL is "Gate Driven PER TEAM" while MLB and NBA are "Gate Driven WHOLE LEAGUE."

Correct when one considers the amount of local revenue which is shared in MLB, NFL and NBA.

When one boils is down to the bottom, the disparity that the NHL has which creates a problem is like this:

If the Rangers drive twice as much local revenue as the Coyotes, the Coyotes have to spend on players a much greater share of local revenue to meet the salary cap constraints. That leaves them much less to spend on scouting, on analytics, on staffing, etc. And, this is what causes financial issues for low revenue teams.

 

[Fenway]

Correct when one considers the amount of local revenue which is shared in MLB, NFL and NBA.

When one boils is down to the bottom, the disparity that the NHL has which creates a problem is like this:

If the Rangers drive twice as much local revenue as the Coyotes, the Coyotes have to spend on players a much greater share of local revenue to meet the salary cap constraints. That leaves them much less to spend on scouting, on analytics, on staffing, etc. And, this is what causes financial issues for low revenue teams.

Twice??? It is most likely ten times ( and that estimate is being conservative )

 

[Fenway]

ESPN sent a subtle message to the NHL in their opening montage for the ESPY's - Hockey was included including in the first few seconds and the Blues winning the Cup was shown in the montage at 3:20



I can see ESPN getting an exclusive Sunday night package and perhaps even the ASG but otherwise, they have so much inventory nothing more than that.

I foresee a bidding war between NBC, FOX and CBS for the main contract.

NBC and NBCSN have made a lot of money on the present contract.

FOX and FS1/FS2 have to be looking hard at the NHL but the sleeper could be CBS. There IS a CBS Sports Network that most homes in the US gets but they have nothing.

But the great unknown is digital rights and now with Smart TV's becoming commonplace, it gets muddled.