Some insight on why NBC walked away from the NHL
- Thread starter Fenway
- Start date
Basically what was speculated on here and in the media. Comcast was not willing to bid at the same amount of money that they pay for the package they have now for a lower package with less inventory. They benefitted a lot from the exclusive deal that they signed in 2011 and probably realized that was coming to an end and didn’t want to be 2nd to ESPN.
NBCSN is ending because they were not able to get a big time 2nd sports property like the NBA, MLB, or a Power Conference in College sports to boost their sub numbers to compete with ESPN.
To me the big question is the future of NBC Sports as a whole. Do they go big and bring back the NBA?; nostalgia is still big for the NBA On NBC even after all these years. Do they go after the CFP rights which I’m sure will be broken up once the playoff is expanded to 12 teams? How long do the hold on the Olympics before the cost becomes too much? A lot of interesting questions that might be answered by the end of the 2020s imo.
NBCSN is ending because they were not able to get a big time 2nd sports property like the NBA, MLB, or a Power Conference in College sports to boost their sub numbers to compete with ESPN.
To me the big question is the future of NBC Sports as a whole. Do they go big and bring back the NBA?; nostalgia is still big for the NBA On NBC even after all these years. Do they go after the CFP rights which I’m sure will be broken up once the playoff is expanded to 12 teams? How long do the hold on the Olympics before the cost becomes too much? A lot of interesting questions that might be answered by the end of the 2020s imo.
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This isn’t accurate. They brought on NASCAR about 5-6 years ago which has been a major boon to the channel and filled the gap between the end of the NHL and when the NHL season really picks up in December. Since bringing on NASCAR NBCSN has outrates ESPN2 and FS1 in terms of primetime viewers.
The problem for NBCSN was the NHL was basically the entirety of their weeknight programming. NASCAR, INDYCar, Premier League and it’s other smaller rights are all weekend based. The NHL splitting its rights and going with ESPN basically took all of that weeknight content away. Especially come playoff time as the weeknights are the only nights ESPN has open for the NHL.
With that content off the table the NHL became less valuable for NBC. The weekend heaviness of the schedule also enabled them to shift that content to USA and boost that channel which gets higher subscription fees. And this NBCSN is killed off.
I’m sure personal feelings played a role as well. NBC in a way kept the league going for the past 16 years after the fallout from ESPN in the mid-00’s (first ESPN walking away from the ABC package and then the cable rights all together). Being asked to pay more for half the content (and not even the content that would be most valuable to them), leaves a sour note.
I'm a bit surprised at them shutting the station down completely. I enjoyed the alternative stuff like Mecum car auctions, pro football talk etc.. I actually watched more of that than hockey.
It depends on what sports you watch. For me NFL/CFB, obviously NBCSN had no presence (other than the Bayou Classic or when Notre Dame would be on NBCSN instead of NBC) but every other sport I watch; NHL, IndyCar, IMSA, NASCAR, Supercross, Motocross, MotoGP and the Premier League. It's all on NBCSN. I rarely have ESPN/2 or FS1/2 on. Plenty of weekend days (non-football season) that I turned on NBCSN at 9am and left the channel on all day because it was sport after sport that I watch.
BKIslandersFan
F*** off
People actually watch that?
NBC made a lot of money with deep runs by Chicago and Boston and they don't see that happening again short term.
It's no secret that the NHL wanted to be back on ESPN and they let Disney design the package that worked for them.
ESPN+ actually provides value to a customer and the Disney+ bundle that includes Hulu makes it a strong alternative to Netflix.
NBC is late to the game with Peacock.
We sense that the NHL was surprised by FOX appearing to be ambivalent to the NHL and Turner was only rumored to be interested in a partnership with CBS but it turned out that CBS had NO interest in hockey.
It's no secret that the NHL wanted to be back on ESPN and they let Disney design the package that worked for them.
ESPN+ actually provides value to a customer and the Disney+ bundle that includes Hulu makes it a strong alternative to Netflix.
NBC is late to the game with Peacock.
We sense that the NHL was surprised by FOX appearing to be ambivalent to the NHL and Turner was only rumored to be interested in a partnership with CBS but it turned out that CBS had NO interest in hockey.
NBCSN never caught on as a legit sports network alternative imo. Despite the NASCAR ratings, @Fenway discussed that it was hard to find on hotels and bars and that frustrated league execs. If you are causal sports viewers that wasn’t an EPL, NHL, NASCAR, or Lower tier Conference college athletics, you weren’t watching NBCSN. Jimmy Traina for example admitted that he never watched NBCSN because he’s not an NHL or any of the sports properties they had.
For its issues, FS1 has MLB and Big East Basketball/Big Ten athletics to help it bring in the casual sports viewer. My point was that if NBCSN had like MLB and/or SEC athletics, they wouldn’t be shutting down without NHL
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Sports are the only thing keeping cable alive.
NHL should have signed a web deal with Netflix and helped kill it for good.
NHL should have signed a web deal with Netflix and helped kill it for good.
Cable isn't going to go poof and disappear permanently. Not everyone in the country has the internet or has the means to stream stuff.
Its he only reason we still have cable. I just don’t have the patience to figure out a thousand different streaming platforms.
Yes it is.
Cable is hanging on by a thread as it is. Live sports is the only thing keeping it alive.
As more boomers die off, more cable subs are being cancelled.
My dad still has a dial up phone too.
You'd be hard pressed to convince me the dial up phone isn't dead either.
Once people are given the option to watch sports on both Netflix and Cable, you'll see cable subs plummet.
But right now outside of Amazon with the NFL (which is a big deal), none of these streaming services seem to have a real interest in sports. Mainly because the cost of rights is so expensive they would have to raise the price probably leading subscriber lost. The only ones that have an interest in sports are your traditional tv/media outlets (Disney, nbc and cbs) that have cable to subsidize the cost. Netflix specifically still very much operates on more of an HBO model than cable alternative model.
Right now if you add up the cost of of all these streaming services the cost comes out to be close to what internet + cable cost. Ultimately the future is probably a service where you can bundle them together…which is basically cable — except instead of having to go with your local company you have more options for services (which is good for the consumer).
They're that expensive due to exclusivity.
Streamers don't care about exclusivity. Put them on both and watch which one is preferred by the majority.
But the league are still going to sell exclusive rights because that is where the $$$ is and will continue to be.
In a short-sighted immediate revenue stream, yes. That is where the money might be now.
Ask Blockbuster how their battle against streaming went. Rather than join Netflix when they had the chance, they opted for MOAR MUNNEH NOW!
Then ask all of the industries related to CD's how well their fight is going against streaming.
Ask EB Games how their fight against Steam XBLA and PS store is going.
Being in cable, means they're putting all of their eggs in something incredibly short-term and short-sighted for immediate money right now despite being on a steep downward trajectory.
Anyone can tell you that's a mistake, but go ahead and keep believing that cable is the future and will always exist.
Literally everything converted to streaming because IT'S A BETTER SERVICE.
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Comcast KNOWS the cable model is broken and they are going after the cord-cutters
Xfinity-Flex
Their primary concern is you still buy the internet from them.
Remember I called that a while back when people were thinking the rights could get split go to ESPN for big bucks and NBC would pay big bucks at least double. My premise was I thought that was always going to be a problem it made no business sense to pay more for less content than you had before. ESPN overpaying is a blessing and a curse.
The good is the extra money the next 7 yrs the bad is the pandemic is likely causing a flat cap the next 4-5 yrs so it's largely cancelled out. The good it's expected that ESPN being associated with NHL could increase the popularity of NHL and increase TV ratings. The bad for a variety of reasons regular season viewership have been on a decline at best stagnation. The pandemic/Canadian team didn't help playoff numbers the past two years. The issue is this could become a new norm. As John Ourand mentioned in a Podcast a few months back NHL has had fortune and luck with Playoffs ratings due to the lack of Canadian teams making Playoff runs. Eventually you're gonna get a Canadian team or two in the Stanley Cup Finals.
The point is we are coming out of a period where NHL was extremely lucky or strategically luckly depending on how cynical you wanna be for it's playoff showcase series. We have the money now and there's always a danger ESPN gets flakey on us again like they did in the mid 2000s if ratings underwhelm. We all saw what they did with MLB cutting games and MLB payout. Because of the smaller number of games ESPN will carry it's important the regular season numbers average around 500-600k between ABC/FOX we can't just rely on the perfect just right Stanley Cup matches lining right for the next 7 seasons. Too many things can go wrong as the last 2 seasons have shown.
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CBS looks like they've been doing alot of research on what ESPN did with ESPN+ go after alot of niche Foreign soccer leagues where they aren't getting big TV numbers but you can count on half the 100k that watch a league like Serie A on TV to subscribe to the streaming service, Same thing with leagues like NWSL and WNBA. ESPN figured that out about soccer fans and is why they built ESPN+ out around soccer in the earlier years. NBC always seemed liked they just didn't want to spend big on the day to day sports leagues just on the bigger Sporting Events and NFL.
Hockeyholic
Registered User
No matter the reason, I'm just happy the NHL is moving in a different direction. I think it was a mistake to leave ESPN in 04.
GindyDraws
I will not disable my Adblock, HF
Well, yeah. People like seeing classic cars. Every year, they come to the State Fairgrounds and a parade of hot rods and customs drive up and down the main roads, so it's a bit of an attraction.
Agreed I was not happy trying to locate OLN and I remember thinking at the time that it was a huge mistake that took the league into the dark ages
Anisimovs AK
Registered User
ESPN didnt want to pay for rights after the full season lockout.
Anisimovs AK
Registered User
Except...after 2007, the league had ratings that either matched or bettered anything that NHL on ESPN ever did
