
NHL back on ESPN with 7-year multiplatform deal
The NHL will once again be broadcast on ESPN after the league agreed to a seven-year multiplatform deal.
Barry Melrose will have more to do now.
Yes on the Barry Melrose! The only thing is that it going to ESPN+.![]()
NHL back on ESPN with 7-year multiplatform deal
The NHL will once again be broadcast on ESPN after the league agreed to a seven-year multiplatform deal.www.espn.com
Barry Melrose will have more to do now.
25 games a season on the network..Yes on the Barry Melrose! The only thing is that it going to ESPN+.
ESPN and the NHL announced a seven-year deal on Wednesday, returning hockey to ESPN for the first time since 2004. Included will be 25 regular-season games on ESPN or ABC, early-round playoff series and one conference final each year, four Stanley Cup Final series on ABC and more than 1,000 games per season streaming on ESPN+. ESPN+ and Hulu will be home to 75 ESPN-produced exclusive telecasts per season.
The deal also includes opening-night games, the NHL All-Star Game and Skills Challenge and other special events. The NHL's out-of-market streaming package (NHL.TV) is also moving to ESPN+ as part of its subscription offerings.
Not all of it. The postseason will be ABC/ESPN. But, they had to do something to try and make ESPN+ relevant.....Yes on the Barry Melrose! The only thing is that it going to ESPN+.
Actually there is a big difference, those 75 exclusive ESPN+ games include IN market rights and will not be shown on the local RSN. So the only way to watch those games even in market will be with a ESPN+ (or Hulu) subscription. It won't be a ton of games and is capped at 8 per team for the 100 games ABC/ESPN/ESPN+ picks up.The streaming aspect of this deal is little changed from the current deal. A relative few out of market games. ESPN is taking over the marketing of what is now called nhl.tv, which is a separate thing.
In the linear space, which is what really matters, ESPN bought about half of the package now seen on NBC and NBCSN. Someone else will buy the other half. You local team will remain on your local RSN. The amount of hockey on linear TV will remain the same as today, just spread out between ESPN linear and someone else linear.
The big news is that, for better or worse, ESPN linear is going to carry the NHL, which means ESPN's talking heads will cease to ignore the NHL. Of course talking about the NHL requires thought and knowledge, and it continues to be much easier to call for somebody to "get paid" and argue about who "is the man" and other such NBA nonsense.
European Football, not soccer... it is soccer in the US, and they dropped that like a hot potato. They had almost no infrastructure for the Champions and Europa Leagues. And it was all put behind a paywall.Relative to Comcast, are they really serious about making USA Network into some sort of hybrid rerun/live sports channel like TNT? All they have left is some eurosoccer, lesser NASCAR events (that contract runs out after the 24 season), and a handful of mid-major college basketball games.
72 regular season gamesHockey will be interesting, but they don't actually have many games, it'll be more playoffs I think, every other year. Maybe crossover the calling for AEW into the NHL.![]()