NBC, VERSUS To Renew At 10 Years, $2 Billion, 100 Games Each Season
April 19, 2011 8 Comments
From John Ourand at Sports Business Daily:
NBC and Versus have signed a 10-year, $2B deal to renew the NHL’s TV rights. Fox took a preliminary look at the package but never made a bid, and Turner pulled out of the bidding last week, saying it could not find a business model to support the money NBC and Versus are paying the NHL. ESPN said it had “constructive conversations” with the NHL, “offering them the opportunity for unprecedented distribution of every game of the Stanley Cup playoffs on ESPN platforms, including authentication to broadband and mobile devices.” ESPN had committed to carry one regular-season game per week. But sources said the NHL never came back to ESPN with a final bid. ESPN remained involved in the bidding process until the end. But sources said it was too difficult for the NHL and ESPN to work around NBC and Versus’ matching rights. The deal will see NBC and Versus carry all Stanley Cup playoff games nationally, with the conference semis appearing exclusively on the two nets. It also will see NBC and Versus televise 100 regular-season games, including a new Thanksgiving Friday telecast on NBC. The agreement includes all digital rights for the games NBC and Versus televise. NBC has committed to a national “Game of the Week” and Winter Classic, and Versus will televise a national “Game of the Week,” plus the All-Star Game, NHL Premiere Games, NHL Faceoff and any future NHL Heritage Classic games in Canada. NBC and Versus will continue to share the rights to the Stanley Cup Final. As part of the deal, NBC Sports Group agreed to build a new studio for NHL Network in Stamford, Conn.
Puck The Media 
Forget ESPN, they’ve never done anything but showing basketball game. I’m glad that NBC and VERSUS will stay for ten years. Plus, great to see a Thanksgiving game on NBC as well. Can’t wait till next season.
I said it last night as speculation, so I’ll say it again here now that this is confirmed: This is good for the league in terms of a long-term, good-money deal. But it’s not good for the fans who were looking for involvement of a third party to bring more games to TV, especially during the playoffs.
Unless part of the deal includes giving extra playoff TV rights to the NHL Network, this new deal doesn’t move me a bit.
What part of “The deal will see NBC and Versus carry all Stanley Cup playoff games nationally, with the conference semis appearing exclusively on the two nets,” do you not understand? So all those whiners who wanted to see ANA-NSH will have your chance, starting next season.
Now the games will appear on Versus or one of the other NBC properties (NBC Universal etc.). However RSN’s are out after the first round. Look at the big picture here folks. NBC is paying the NHL $2billion dollars for the next ten years. They are gonna do things their way and everybody better get used to it.
Please note the time of my post; I wrote this before these details went up. I’m cautiously optimistic, of course. It sounds like the league and Comcast have actually listened to what fans want.
How you fit into this, considering your clear derision toward actual hockey fans (who may be enjoying the Anaheim-Nashville series because it’s been damn entertaining), is beyond me. But I’m glad there are some people in charge at Comcast who have clearly made the decision to give hockey fans what they want–which is to be treated like fans of other professional sports who already have access to all playoff games.
Well according to the Press Release, NBC will build studios for the NHL Network in Stamford. That should give the NHL a chance to move games to NHL Network if the situation dictates and also put an onus on Comcast to get wider distribution of the NHL Network.
>>Well according to the Press Release, NBC will build studios for the NHL Network in Stamford. That should >>give the NHL a chance to move games to NHL Network if the situation dictates and also put an onus on >>Comcast to get wider distribution of the NHL Network
How does this situation change the playoff distribution problem. if you have multiple games at the same time or that overlap we are going to see a repeat of the problems from the first night this year.
Ebersol says it’ll air on other NBC cable channels. Think USA, Bravo, etc. Though the cynic in me says Golf Channel.
In addition to the Golf Channel, there is CNBC (great for west coast games involving Canadian teams because CNBC’s nightly ratings are already non-existant), and SyFy that could easily be used. That’s four networks and you have at most five games a night with at least one late start from the Western Conference.