TheNational Hockey League has never fared as well on American television in comparison to theNational Basketball Association,Major League Baseball, or theNational Football League, although that has begun to change, withNBC's broadcasts of the final games of the2009,2010,2011, and2013Stanley Cup Finals scoring some of the best ratings ever enjoyed by the sport on American television.
In fact, hockey broadcasting on a national scale was spotty prior to 1981;NBC andCBS held rights at various times, each network carrying weekend-afternoon games during the second half of the regular season and the playoffs, along with some (but not all) of the Stanley Cup Finals. From 1971 to 1995, there was no exclusive coverage of games in the United States.
Meanwhile, individual teams have long contracted to air their games on local channels, primarily onregional sports networks and in a few cases on broadcast channels as well.
CBS first broadcast Saturday afternoon National Hockey League games for four seasons from1956–1960.[1] Initially,Bud Palmer served as the play-by-play man whileFred Cusick did color commentary and intermission interviews for the first three seasons. In1959–60, Cusick moved over to play-by-play whileBrian McFarlane came in to do the color commentary and intermission interviews. The pregame and intermission interviews were done on the ice, with the interviewer on skates. No playoff games were televised during this period, and all broadcasts took place in one of the four American arenas at the time.
As previously mentioned, CBS covered the1956–57 season on Saturday afternoons, starting January 5. For the next three years, they aired games on Saturday afternoons starting on November 2, 1957, October 18, 1958, and January 9, 1960.
According toSports Illustrated,[2] the NHL dropped CBS because the NHL owners didn't want the fledglingPlayers' Association to gain a financial cut of the television deal. This was despite the fact that CBS was at least at one point, getting betterratings thanNBC's NBA package from around the same period, especially in cities with NHL, minor-league, or major college (division 1 level) hockey clubs.
The NHL did not return to national television in the United States until the 1966 playoffs.
NBC was the first United States television network to air a national broadcast of a Stanley Cup Playoff game. They provided coverage of four Sunday afternoon playoff games during the1966 postseason. On April 10 and April 17, NBC aired semifinal games between theChicago Blackhawks andDetroit Red Wings. On April 24 and May 1, NBC aired Games 1 and 4 of theStanley Cup Finals between theMontreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings respectively.Win Elliot served as the play-by-play man whileBill Mazer served as the color commentator for all four games.
NBC's coverage of the 1966 Stanley Cup Playoffs marked the first time that hockey games were televised on network television incolor, although a handful of local game telecasts in Boston (WHDH-TV), New York (WOR-TV), and Chicago (WGN-TV) had been colorcast during the regular-season that year. TheCanadian Broadcasting Corporation would follow suit the following year. NBC's Stanley Cup coverage preempted a sports anthology series calledNBC Sports in Action hosted byJim Simpson andBill Cullen, who were between-periods co-hosts for the four Stanley Cup broadcasts.
In the United States, the clinching game of the1966 Stanley Cup Finals on the Thursday evening of May 5 aired in black and white onRKO General-owned stations (includingWOR-TV in New York andWNAC-TV in Boston). The commentators for RKO's coverage on that occasion wereBob Wolff andEmile Francis, who had called WOR-TV's coverage ofNew York Rangers games during the regular season.
CBS had gained rights for an NHL "Game Of The Week" for the 1966–67 regular-season; but could not accommodate regular-season games, so instead, those Sunday-afternoon games were subleased to RKO General.
In 1967, CBS carried weekend-afternoon games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. For the next five seasons, from1968 through1972, CBS aired a game each week between mid-January until early-mid May in each of those seasons, mainly on a Sunday afternoon, including playoffs. From 1968 to 1969 through 1971–72, the intermission studio was called "CBS Control", as was the case with other sports coverage, including theNFL coverage.
CBS started their weekly 1967–68 coverage with the opening game (thePhiladelphia Flyers vs.Los Angeles Kings) at theForum inInglewood, California on December 30. Then after three more Saturday afternoons (because the network was tied-up with pro football on Sundays), CBS switched to Sunday afternoons beginning on January 28 for the next 10 weeks. Due to anAFTRAstrike (which resulted in the cancellation of aNew York Rangers-Montreal broadcast), CBS started their playoff coverage with aCBC tape of the previous night'sBoston-Montreal game. On April 13, CBS started their three-week-long weekend afternoon Stanley Cup coverage. The last game of the series wasSt. Louis-Montreal on May 11. For the playoffs,Jim Gordon worked play-by-play andStu Nahan worked color and intermission interviews. During the regular season, the pair alternated roles each week.
In the1968–69 season, CBS broadcast 13 regular season afternoon games and five Stanley Cup playoff games.Dan Kelly did play-by-play whileBill Mazer did color and intermission interviews. Kelly had become the radio voice of theSt. Louis Blues, whose games were covered by CBS-ownedKMOX St. Louis; thus, Kelly was already part of CBS through his being on KMOX's payroll.
The same pattern continued through the1971–72 season for CBS. CBS did manage to televise the1971 Stanley Cup Finals clincher on a Tuesday night and the1972 Stanley Cup Finals clincher on a Thursday night. In1971, CBS originally had not planned to broadcast Game 7 of theStanley Cup Finals but showed theprime time contest between theMontreal Canadiens andChicago Black Hawks almost as apublic service after thousands of calls flooded network switchboards. While Dan Kelly once again did all the play-by-play work,Jim Gordon replaced Bill Mazer in1970–71. For the CBS' Stanley Cup Finals coverage during this period, a third voice was added to the booth (Phil Esposito in 1971 andHarry Howell in 1972).
From1972–1975, NBC not only televised the Stanley Cup Finals (in actuality, a couple of games inprime time), but also weekly regular season games on Sunday afternoons. NBC also aired several regular season and playoff games in prime time during this period (namely, during the1972–1973 season).Tim Ryan andTed Lindsay (withBrian McFarlane as the intermission host) served as the commentators for NBC's NHL coverage during this period. Since most NHL teams still didn't have players' names on the backs of jerseys, NBC persuaded NHL commissionerClarence Campbell to make teams put on players' names on NBC telecasts beginning with the1973–74 season to help viewers identify players.
NBC's NHL coverage during the 1970s introduced the animated characterPeter Puck as a between-periods feature. Peter Puck, whose cartoon adventures (produced byHanna-Barbera) appeared on bothNBC's Hockey Game of the Week and CBC'sHockey Night in Canada, explained hockey rules to the home viewing audience.
Besides Peter Puck, the 1970s version ofThe NHL on NBC had a between periods feature titledShowdown. The concept ofShowdown involved with 20 (16 shooters and four goaltenders) of the NHL's greatest players going head-to-head in a tapedpenalty shot competition. After the NHL left NBC in 1975,Showdown continued to be seen onHockey Night in Canada and local television broadcasts of U.S.-based NHL teams.
Meanwhile,HBO's first sports broadcast was of aNew York Rangers /Vancouver Canucks game, transmitted to aCATV system inWilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on November 8, 1972.
After being dropped byNBC after the1974–75 season, the NHL had no national network television contract in the United States. So in response to this, the league decided to launch the first version of theNHL network, which was a network of independent stations that covered approximately 55% of the country.
During the 1975–76 season, this package consisted of four exhibition games between NHL clubs and theSoviet national hockey team, then playoff games including the Stanley Cup Finals.
Beginning with the 1976–77 season, games typically aired on Monday nights (beginning at 8 p.m.ET) or Saturday afternoons. The package was offered to local stations free of charge. Profits would be derived from the advertising, which was about evenly split between the network and the local station. The Monday night games were often billed asThe NHL Game of the Week. The league hoped that the habit millions of viewers had of watching sports on Monday nights during theNational Football League season would carry over to hockey in winter. Since ABC, which at that time carriedMonday Night Football would also carry Monday-nightMajor League Baseball games during the 1976 season, the league tried to market this package to ABC affiliates in the hopes they'd pick it up and establish a year-round sports franchise on Monday nights. However, not very many stations picked up the package, and only a couple were ABC affiliates.
During the1975–76 season, the NHL Network showed selected games from theNHL Super Series as well as some playoff games. During the1976–77 season, the NHL Network showed 12 regular season games on Monday nights plus theAll-Star Game. By1978–79 (the final season of the NHL Network's existence), there would be 18 Monday night games and 12 Saturday afternoon games covered.
The1979 Challenge Cup replaced theAll-Star Game. It was a best of three series between the NHL All-Stars against theSoviet Union national squad. In the United States, parts of Game 2, which was on a Saturday afternoon, were shown onCBS as part ofThe CBS Sports Spectacular, sandwiched in between a track meet, a welterweight boxing match, and women's surfing. The NHL had sold advertising on the boards atMadison Square Garden, which CBS asked the league to remove. When the league refused, CBS directed their cameras to not show the far side boards. As a result, CBS viewers were unable to see the far boards above the yellow kickplate, and when players were on that side, only their skates were visible; the rest of their bodies were cropped out from the picture.[3]
In1979, ABC was contracted to televise Game 7 ofStanley Cup Finals. Since the Finals ended in five games, the contract was void.
In1979–80, theNational Hockey League replaced theirsyndicated coverage package with a package on USA. At the time, the USA Network was calledUA-Columbia. As the immediate forerunner for the USA Network, UA-Columbia, served as the cable syndicated arm of theMadison Square Garden Network inNew York,PRISM channel inPhiladelphia, and whatever pay/cable outlets were around in1979. USA's coverage begin as a Monday night series withDan Kelly doing play-by-play alongside a variety of commentators includingPete Stemkowski,Lou Nanne andBrian McFarlane. Meanwhile,Scott Wahle was the intermission host on most games.
Since the NHL left CBS in1972, the network has aired only one NHL contest: Game 6 of theStanley Cup Finals between thePhiladelphia Flyers and theNew York Islanders on Saturday, May 24, 1980. After the surprisingly high ratings of theMiracle on Ice at the1980 Winter Olympics, CBS decided to carry the contest as part of itsCBS Sports Spectacular. Dan Kelly, who at the time was also working for CBC (and had called the previous five games on that network) was called on to return to CBS' coverage. He shared these duties with Tim Ryan, who had left NBC for CBS in 1977.Lou Nanne, the then-general manager of theMinnesota North Stars, was the analyst. Kelly and Ryan split the first two periods, with Kelly calling the third period and, when the regulation ended 4–4, the overtime period as well.
Between the end of regulation and the start of extra session, CBS switched to the Memorial Golf Tournament inDublin, Ohio; the golf announcers repeatedly mentioned that the network would return to hockey in time for the start of overtime, which they did. The Islanders settled matters with a goal byBobby Nystrom at 7:11 of the OT, capturing their first of their four consecutiveStanley Cups.
Not only was it the last NHL contest on CBS (as of 2025), it was the last NHL contest on anyUS TV broadcast network for nearly a decade; not until1990 did the NHL return to one of the major broadcast networks, whenNBC carried theAll-Star Game.
For theUSA Network's1980–81 season, some Sunday night games were added. Dan Kelly once again, did most of the play-by-play alongsideMike Eruzione.[4][5]Dick Carlson,Gene Hart, andJiggs McDonald also did play-by-play work on occasion. In addition,Don Cherry was a commentator for at least one game. Meanwhile,Jim West was the host for most games.
In the meantime, ESPN enjoyed their first go around at NHL coverage during the1980–81 and1981–82 seasons. They had a rather limited slate of games, which were all broadcast from U.S. arenas:Hartford,Washington,Pittsburgh,Buffalo,Minnesota,St. Louis andColorado in 1980–81 and theNew York Islanders (while deleting Hartford) in 1981–82.
In the1981–82 season,Al Trautwig took over as USA's studio host. Dan Kelly did play-by-play with eitherGary Green orRod Gilbert on color commentary. For theplayoffs, Dick Carlson andAl Albert were added as play-by-play voices of some games. Meanwhile,Jim Van Horne hostedStanley Cup Finals games played in Vancouver.
In April 1982, USA outbidESPN for the NHL's American national television cable package with$8 million (at least $2 more than what ESPN was offering).[6]
Things pretty much remained the same for USA during the1982–83 season. Dan Kelly and Gary Green called most games, while Al Albert did play-by-play on several playoff games and hosted two games of theStanley Cup Finals from Long Island.
In the1983–84 season, USA covered over 40 games including theplayoffs. While Gary Green did all the games, Dan Kelly and Al Albert did roughly 20 games each. Meanwhile, Jiggs McDonald helped broadcast at least one game.
For USA's final season of NHL coverage in1984–85, Dan Kelly and Gary Green once again, did most games, while Al Albert and Green called the rest. Also,Mike Liut was added as an intermission analyst for theStanley Cup Finals.
ESPN would next broadcast the NHL in1985–86, taking over from theUSA Network in the American national cable television rights. ESPN aired approximately 33 weekly (Thursdays until the end of theNational Football League season, then Sundays, both evenings at 7:30 p.m.Eastern Time), nationally televised (albeit, subject toblackout) regular season games a year (as well as theAll-Star Game and entireStanley Cup Finals).Sam Rosen,[7]Mike Emrick,[8] andKen Wilson,[9] served as the play-by-play men whileMickey Redmond andBill Clement were the color commentators.[10][11]Tom Mees meanwhile, was the studio host. ESPN would ultimately go on another hiatus (lasting through the end of the1991–92 season) from the National Hockey League following the1987–88 season, whenSportsChannel America outbid them.
Taking over forESPN, SportsChannel's contract paid$51 million ($17 million per year) over three years, more than double what ESPN had paid ($24 million) for the previous three years. SportsChannel America managed to get a fourth NHL season for just $5 million.
Unfortunately,SportsChannel America was only available in a few major markets, and reached only a 1/3 of the households thatESPN did at the time. SportsChannel America was seen in fewer than 10 million households. In comparison, by the1991–92 season, ESPN was available in 60.5 million homes whereas SportsChannel America was available in only 25 million. SinceSportsChannel Philadelphia did not air until January1990,PRISM (owned by Rainbow Media, the owners of SportsChannel, at the time) picked up the1989 Stanley Cup Finals.
SportsChannel America would televise about 80–100 games a season (whereas ESPN aired about 33 in the1987–88 season). Whereas the previous deal with ESPN called for only one nationally televised game a week, SportsChannel America televised hockey two nights a week in NHL cities and three nights a week elsewhere.
In1989, SportsChannel America provided the first ever American coverage of theNHL Draft.
In September 1989, SportsChannel America covered theWashington Capitals training camp inSweden andpre-season tour of theSoviet Union. The Capitals were joined by the Stanley Cup championCalgary Flames, who held training camp inPrague, Czechoslovakia and then ventured to the Soviet Union. Each team played four games againstSoviet National League clubs. Games were played inMoscow,Leningrad,Kiev andRiga. The NHL clubs finished with a combined 6–2 record against the top Soviet teams, including theRed Army club andDynamo Moscow. Five of the eight contests were televised by SportsChannel America.
SportsChannel America was the exclusive broadcaster of the1989 All-Star Game.
Many regular-season games were actually simulcasts of games produced for local telecast by regional cable sports networks that carried the broadcasts.
In1990, SportsChannel America covered the first ever NHL Skills Competition and Heroes of Hockey game. To accommodate the altered activities, the game itself was played on a Sunday afternoon instead of a Tuesday night, as was the case in previous years. This allowed American broadcaster NBC to air the game live across the United States – marking (surprisingly) the first time that a national audience would seeWayne Gretzky andMario Lemieux play. Referees and other officials were also wired with microphones in this game, as were the two head coaches. Finally, NBC also was allowed to conduct interviews with players during stoppages in play, to the chagrin of theHockey Night in Canada crew, whose attempts to do likewise were repeatedly denied by the league in past years.
From1990–1994, NBC only televised the All-Star Game.Marv Albert andJohn Davidson called the action, whileMike Emrick served as an ice-level reporter in1990. Meanwhile,Bill Clement served as an ice-level reporter in1991,1992 and1994.Hockey Night in Canada'sRon MacLean also served as an ice-level reporter and was the lone correspondent for NBC for the44th National Hockey League All-Star Game[12] in1993.
In1991, NBC broke away from the telecast in the third period to televise a briefing from thePentagon involving theGulf War.SportsChannel America included the missing coverage in a replay of NBC's telecast.
There were reports about NBC making an arrangement to air four to eight regular season games for the1992–1993 season[13] but nothing materialized. NHL officials had arranged a 4–8 game, time-buy package on NBC, but that fell through when the NHL wanted assurance that allNBC affiliates would carry the games. (Since 2006, NBC has generally gotten all but a couple of affiliates in the Top-50 markets to carry the games.) For instance, in1990, NBC stations inAtlanta,Charlotte,Memphis,New Orleans,Indianapolis andPhoenix didn't clear the game. As a matter of fact, roughly 15% of the nation didn't clear the game. More to the point, NBC's coverage of the 1992 All-Star Game aired on theindependent stationWTLK in Atlanta.
From its debut in the1992–93 NHL season until the2001–02 NHL season, weekly regular season games were broadcast on ESPN on Sundays (betweenNFL andbaseball seasons), Wednesdays, and Fridays, and were titledSunday/Wednesday/Friday Night Hockey. Prior to the1999, these telecasts were non-exclusive, meaning they were blacked out in the regions of the competing teams, and an alternate game was shown in these affected areas.
In the1992–1993 season, ABC televised five weekly playoff telecasts[14][15][16] (the first three weeks were regional coverage of various games and the last two were national games)[17][18] on Sunday afternoons starting on April 18 and ending on May 16.[19][20][21] This marked the first time that playoff (or any) National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television[22][23] since1975 (whenNBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner[24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]).
In the1993–94 season, ABC televised six[16] weekly regional telecasts[17][18] on the last three Sunday afternoons beginning on March 27, 1994, marking the first time that regular season National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television[23] since NBC did it in1974–75.[33][34][35][23] ABC then televised three weeks worth of playoff games on first three Sundays[36][32] – the final game was Game 1 of theEastern Conference Semifinals between theBoston Bruins and theNew Jersey Devils, a game that was aired nationally. The network did not televise theStanley Cup Finals, which instead, were televised nationally byESPN and byPrime Ticket inLos Angeles (1993) andMSG Network inNew York (1994). Games televised on ABC were not subject toblackout.
These broadcasts (just as was the case with the2000–2004 package) were essentially,time-buys[37] by ESPN,[38][39] In other words, ABC would sell three-hour blocks of airtime to ESPN.[40] who in return, would produce and distribute the telecasts.[23] Overall, ABC averaged a 1.7rating for those two seasons.[41][42][43] The main difference is that the graphics were ABC Sports' instead of the ones seen onESPN National Hockey Night. In later years, the roles would be reversed as ESPN's graphical style would be used except for intermission reports. ABC even used ESPN's theme music for the 1992–1994 coverage.
While ESPN regained the national hockey contract in 1992–93 (as previously mentioned), they were joined by theFox network in1994–95. Fox televised between five and eleven regionally distributed games on Saturday or Sunday afternoons during the regular season, where anywhere from three to six games ran concurrently.
For Fox's coverage of theAll-Star Game, Conference Finals, and Stanley Cup Finals, the games (which were national telecasts) were hosted from the arena. The 1996 and 1997 All-Star Games were televised inprime time.
Fox had put much effort into trying to stimulate American interests in the game, but had achieved little success. One of their schemes was to make thehockey puck more visible by highlighting it on television with a blue comet, usingFoxTrax. When aslapshot over 70 miles per hour was made, the puck would leave a redcomet trail on the television. This idea was met with great derision in Canada, especially to diehard hockey fans, and also met with little success in the United States.
The main broadcast team for Fox wasMike Emrick andJohn Davidson, while regionally distributed games were handled by a variety of announcers. In the first four years of the deal,James Brown andDave Maloney hosted the show from the Fox studio inLos Angeles. In the final year, it wasSuzy Kolber andTerry Crisp.
Fox split coverage of theStanley Cup Finals withESPN. Game 1 of the1995 Stanley Cup Finals was the first Finals game shown on network television since1980 and the first inprime time since1973. Games 1, 5, and 7 were usually scheduled to be televised by Fox; Games 2, 3, 4, and 6 by ESPN. However, from1995 to1998, the Finals were all four game sweeps;1999 ended in six games. The consequence was that – except for 1995, when Fox did televise Game 4 – the decisive game was never on network television. Perhaps in recognition of this, Games 3–7 were always televised byABC in the succeeding broadcast agreement between the NHL andABC Sports/ESPN.
The deal between Fox and the league ended when the NHL announced a new television deal withESPN that also called forABC to become the newnetwork television partner. Fox challenged that it had not been given a chance to match the network component of the deal, but ABC ultimately prevailed[44][45] (perhaps barring a large NHLratings increase).
In August 1998, ABC, ESPN, andESPN2 signed a five-year deal worth a total of approximately$600 million (or $120 million per year).[44]
This time around, ABC televised four to five weeks worth of regional games on Saturday afternoons beginning in January. ABC also televised theNational Hockey League All-Star Game and Games 3–7 of the Stanley Cup Finals inprime time.
Following the 2003–04 season, ABC/ESPN was only willing to renew for two years at $60 million per year. ABC executives later conceded that they overpaid for the 1999–2004 deal, so their offer to renew the television rights was lower in 2004.[46]
Before the 2004–05 lockout, the NHL had reached two separate deals with NBC and ESPN. The NBC deal stipulated that the network would pay the league no rights fees – an unheard of practice to that point. NBC's deal included six regular season windows, seven postseason broadcasts and Games 3–7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in primetime. The contracts were to commence when the lockout ended. The NBC deal expired after the 2006–07 season, and NBC had picked up the option to renew for the 2007–08 season (Just like theAFL/NBC agreement, which the network did not renew in 2006). The NHL and NBC share in revenues from advertising.
ESPN had a two-year deal that they opted out of after the lockout, leaving the NHL without a cable partner. In August 2005,Comcast (who owns thePhiladelphia Flyers) paid $70 million a year for three years to put games (54 or more NHL games each season under the agreement, generally on Monday and Tuesday nights) on the OLN network, now known as theNBC Sports Network. Due to the abbreviated off-season, the 2005–06 schedule did not offer OLN exclusivity, which they received in 2006–07. Versus also covered many playoff games and exclusively airs two games of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Included in Versus' schedule was a "Game of the Week" for selected dates. In this "Exclusive" time period, which was created in 2006–07, no otherNational Hockey League game could be broadcast in the United States and, in most cases, no other game is scheduled unless it involves two Canadian teams. Regional carriers were allowed to air games outside Versus' exclusive window. This was usually for about 2 hours and 30 minutes. These Stipulations continued when the network merged with NBC Sports.
Like NBC, games aired onThe NHL on Versus usually featured teams based in the United States, with the exception of playoffs. In the case of playoffs, Versus would occasionally simulcastTSN orCBC, although this mostly occurred in 2005–06; in seasons after and up to the creation of NBC Sports Net, Versus made a greater commitment in offering its own production whenever possible. After the NBC takeover they still occasionally used a fewComcast SportsNet feeds.
The selection of teams forThe NHL on Versus was somewhat more diverse (possibly due to there being more game slots to air) than its broadcast partner,NBC. Because of inordinately high ratings in theBuffalo andPittsburgh markets, Versus made note to air a significant number of games featuring theBuffalo Sabres andPittsburgh Penguins. TheNew York Rangers,Philadelphia Flyers,Detroit Red Wings, andBoston Bruins also got selected regularly, frequently at or near the maximum of nine appearances per team during the regular season.
Any regular season game selected by Versus aired exclusively on that network. During the playoffs, Versus' first-round and second-round games were subject to blackouts in the participating teams' regional markets (although they had exclusivity for two second-round games per series). Versus regained full national coverage for its Conference and Stanley Cup Finals telecasts.
In2006, NBC televised Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between theBuffalo Sabres and theCarolina Hurricanes on the same day as the Preakness. Before the game, Bill Clement advised the audience that in the event that the game went into overtime, it would be televised on OLN. The Sabres won the game in regulation.
For the2006–07 season, NBC broadcast three regional games per weekend of coverage during the regular season. They also scheduled ten coverage windows during the playoffs (not including Stanley Cup Finals). The additional broadcasts were expected to replace theArena Football League, which NBC dropped after the2006 season as previously mentioned. NBC also produced two games per week in high definition, up from one in 2005–06.
The newly titledNHL on NBC Game of the Week premiered for a second season January 13, 2007 with three regional games (LA vs.STL,BOS vs.NYR,PIT vs.PHI) at 2:00 p.m.ET. Games started at various times, ranging from 12:30 to 3:30 during the season (this variation primarily resulted from NBC's commitments to thePGA Tour and other programming).
It was also rumored that the league wanted to stage (and for NBC to broadcast) an annual outdoor game (specifically, theNew York Rangers vs. theNew York Islanders atYankee Stadium). Having lost rights to theGator Bowl onNew Year's Day toCBS, the possibility of doing a New Year's Day game increased, assuming that NBC would renew its broadcast contract. An outdoor game (instead involving theBuffalo Sabres andPittsburgh Penguins) did end up being added for the 2007–2008 season.
The NHL on NBC moved to Sundays after its season premiere for the final eight dates of the season. NBC's nine games amounted to the league's most extensive U.S. broadcast television coverage since1998, duringFox's tenure.
On May 19, 2007, during theStanley Cup playoffs, NBC angered many fans and journalists when it pre-empted coverage of the overtime period of the tied Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Finals between theOttawa Senators andBuffalo Sabres, instead going directly to pre-race coverage of the2007 Preakness Stakes (a horse racing broadcast generally contains about two hours of pre-race coverage, with the actual races lasting two or three minutes). Coverage of the overtime period was shunted toVersus, the league's cable partner, although viewers in the Buffalo and Rochester markets were able to continue watching the game onWGRZ andWHEC, their local NBC affiliates.
The move was originally seen not only as a snub of small-market teams (such as the Sabres), but of hockey in general. However, NBC and the NHL later revealed that the Preakness deal had been made several years before and contained mandatory advertising commitments during the pre-race build-up. Both sides could have agreed that the entire game would air only on Versus or begin earlier in the day, but the NHL wanted at least one Eastern Conference Finals game to air on NBC, and said that it doesnot schedule with the assumption that games will go into overtime. Moreover, an earlier start time could not be arranged because the broadcast window was fixed in advance, and both the NHL and NBC needed the flexibility to pick the Western Conference Finals for that window if they so desired.
On March 27, 2007, NBC Sports and the NHL agreed to a one-year contract extension with a network option for a second year.
Beginning in2007–08, NBC has "Flex Scheduling", similar toNFL broadcasts. The league selects at least three potential games at the start of the season for most of NBC's regular-season coverage dates. Thirteen days prior to the game, NBC selects one to air as itsGame of the Week. The other two games move outside of NBC's broadcast window and return to teams' regional carriers. Since the league made network coverage a priority in the 1990s, regionalized coverage had been the norm; NBC is the first network to try regularly presenting one game to the entire nation. Additionally, studio segments now originate from the game site instead of 30 Rockefeller Center. All games are produced in high definition.
OnNew Year's Day, January 1, 2008, NBC began its 2007–08 schedule with an outdoor hockey game (theAMP NHL Winter Classic) between theBuffalo Sabres andPittsburgh Penguins atRalph Wilson Stadium. The game went head to head with some of the New Year's Day college football bowl games, but none of the featureBowl Championship Series games. While never expected to beat or directly compete with football ratings the timing was designed to take advantage of the large audience flipping between channels to watch the different bowl games. It was the first such game to be televised live by an American network and the NHL's first outdoor regular season game since theEdmonton Oilers andMontreal Canadiens played theHeritage Classic, which aired onCBC. CBC also showed the 2008 outdoor game. Although originally maligned as a mere publicity stunt by some in the media, the 2008 Winter Classic drew a 2.6 Nielsen rating in the U.S. (or about 2.9 million viewers), the highest rating for a regular-season contest since February1996, when Fox was the league's network partner.[47][48][49] By comparison, CBS received a 2.7 rating for the Gator Bowl, which also had a 1 p.m. start.[50]
Except for New Year's Day and a day-after-Thanksgiving broadcast beginning in 2011, all regular-season telecasts now air on Sunday afternoons.
In April 2008, NBC announced the activation of its option to retain broadcasting rights for the 2008–2009 season. NBC's scheduling will be similar to the 2007–2008 season (flex scheduling for regular-season games, games three through seven of the Stanley Cup Finals, etc.) except that all (or nearly all) of the Sunday-afternoon games will begin at 12:30 p.m. Eastern time. Coverage again included an outdoor game, which was between theDetroit Red Wings and theChicago Blackhawks atWrigley Field on January 1, 2009.
The NHL on NBC usually only features U.S.-based teams, except during theStanley Cup playoffs when broadcasting a game involving a Canadian team might be unavoidable. NBC has the first choice of games and times on its scheduled broadcast dates. CBC and TSN are required to adjust accordingly during the playoffs, even though both pay the league substantial rights fees.
In 2008, this changed as theMontreal Canadiens was the first Canadian team featured on theNHL on NBC during the regular-season (NBC Sports'Dick Ebersol is rumored to have specifically wanted to do a game from Montreal at some point). They played the New York Rangers on February 3 (which wasSuper Bowl Sunday that year; Montreal traditionally hosts a matinee game on Super Bowl Sunday).
Like its predecessors, NBC frequently chooses games with a focus on about five teams (New York Rangers,Detroit Red Wings,Philadelphia Flyers,Pittsburgh Penguins, andBoston Bruins). The relation has very little correlation with team success; for instance, theAnaheim Ducks won theStanley Cup in2007, and theBuffalo Sabres made it to the conference finals in both 2006 and 2007. Those teams received one and two potential games respectively in the 2008 season, compared to the seven potential games given to the Rangers and the four games which could include the Flyers. However, no team can air more than four times during the regular-season.
The most frequently cited reasons for this relative lack of diversity are low ratings in a market (such as for Anaheim, which competes with the olderLos Angeles Kings in its market) and market size (such as for Buffalo, where hockey ratings are the highest in the league, but themarket itself is the smallest of any American NHL team).
NBC did also televise the2011 NHL Winter Classic between thePittsburgh Penguins andWashington Capitals on January 1, 2011, from Pittsburgh. The Penguins become the first NHL team ever to play more than one outdoor game.
On April 19, 2011, NBC Sports and then Versus announced they had reached a ten-year extension (through 2020–2021) to the television contract with the National Hockey League worth nearly 2 billion dollars over the life of the contract. As part of the announcement, the chairman of NBC Sports,Dick Ebersol announced that theVersus channel would be renamed "within 90 days," in order to reflect the synergy of the two networks after theUniversal-Comcast merger.[51] The said network was renamed theNBC Sports Network on January 2, 2012.[52] Under this new contract, the NHL would get the following from NBC:[53]
As part of the NHL's new American television contract withNBC, this will be the first time that all playoff games will air nationally in the United States on NBC andNBC Sports Network, with overflow feeds airing onCNBC,NHL Network and (for the first time since 1985)USA.[55] Americanregional sports networks and broadcast television stations holding local rights to NHL teams will still carry their teams' first-round games not on NBC's broadcast network, but games from the second round onward are exclusive to one of NBC's networks.[56]
Univision Communications handles Spanish-language television rights through a separate contract deal with the NHL.
Starting in the2018–19 NHL season, ESPN began carrying selected out-of-market games on theESPN+ streaming service.[57]
In the years before the end of NBC's latest contract with the NHL, the league explored options for splitting its national broadcast rights, similar to the television deals of theNFL,NBA andMajor League Baseball. This included selling packages to streaming services, aiming to maximize the value of its broadcast rights.[58] On March 10, 2021, Disney, ESPN, and the NHL announced that a seven-year agreement was reached for ESPN to hold the first half of its new media rights beginning in the2021–22 season;[59][60][61][62]
On April 27, 2021,TNT Sports (Turner Sports at the time), agreed to a seven-year deal with the NHL to broadcast at least 72 games nationally onTNT andTBS. The deal will include three Stanley Cup Finals, half of the first two rounds of playoff games, one conference finals, theWinter Classic, and theHeritage Series. The deal also givesHBO Max live streaming and simulcast rights to these games as well.[70]
The NHL's deal with ESPN is reported to bring in $400 million annually, while Turner's portion of the contract is reportedly worth $225 million per year.[71][72]
The Stanley Cup Finals will air on ABC in 2022, 2024, 2026, and 2028, while TNT will air the Stanley Cup Finals in 2023, 2025, and 2027.[73] In addition, the NHL Awards show will alternate between TNT and ESPN.
[Y]ou'll not only need a cable or satellite subscription to access your team's RSN and ESPN, but you'll also need a subscription to ESPN+ or Hulu. 75 games will be streaming exclusive in this TV deal, and while you previously got everything you needed with the cable sub, you now will need to jump into the streaming waters to see every game.