ESPN, NHL agree to 7-year broadcast deal (2024)

The NHL is back on ESPN.

The Walt Disney Company, ESPN and the league reached a seven-year television, streaming and media rights deal this week that will start at the beginning of the 2021-22 season and run through the 2027-28 season. ESPN announced the deal in a news release on Wednesday.

The highlights of the deal include:

• ABC/ESPN will air four of the next seven Stanley Cup Finals.
• ABC/ESPN will have one Conference Final each year of the deal.
• ABC/ESPN will have half of the NHL’s playoff package, with those games simulcast on ESPN+.
• ESPN also can simulcast/"megacast" playoff games like it’s done for other marquee events.
• Twenty-five exclusive national regular-season games on ABC or ESPN.
• NHL.tv will cease to exist in the United States and be folded into ESPN+.
• There will be 75 exclusive games streamed on ESPN+ and Hulu that are produced by ESPN.
• This deal doesn’t impact the NHL Center Ice out-of-market television package sold by providers.

The valuation of the deal hasn’t been disclosed, but it’s believed to significantly increase the value of the current overall TV package, which is centered around a $200-million-a-year national rights deal with NBC. Sources told The Athletic that ESPN will pay more than $400-million annually to the NHL.

“This is a good day for hockey and our bottom line as a league,” said one NHL executive via text on Wednesday.

As part of the NHL’s current TV deal, NBC had the right to negotiate first with the NHL on a new national television package. Once those negotiations happened and didn’t lead to a deal for a full or partial package, the league started its conversations with ESPN and Disney. The league and Disney were already working together after Disney Streaming purchased BAMTech in 2015, and became a streaming and technology partner for the league.

Moving digital programming from NHL.tv to ESPN+, which has more than 12 million subscribers, offers a potential boost in viewership for out-of-market games.

What this means for the NHL?

Sean Shapiro, NHL writer: This is good news for the NHL, on several fronts. Getting a partial national TV deal between ESPN and another network, likely NBC, should net larger revenues and in the long run help raise the salary cap as the league comes out of the pandemic. From a publicity standpoint, the power of ESPN can't be understated, having hockey as part of the regular offering gets the sport back into more mainstream conversations and higher up in SportsCenter highlights.

What does this mean for ESPN?

Richard Deitsch, sports media writer: The NHL returning to ESPN represents a homecoming for both parties. The two entities have a long history together, beginning in 1979 with agreements with individual teams. ESPN was the definitive cable rights partner from 1985 to 1988 and 1992-2004; multiple generation of hockey fans were raised with ESPN on the NHL. The league possesses attractive demos for ESPN (a younger audience than other major sports) and significant hockey inventory will make ESPN+ an attractive streaming option for NHL fans as games will certainly appear on that service. Look for the NHL to get a content push across the ESPN universe.

What does means for NBC?

Deitsch: The answer is we’ll see. NBC certainly has an interest in retaining the NHL but the question is at what price? Comcast Chair and CEO Brian Roberts said earlier this month during a Morgan Stanley conference on technology, media and telecom earlier in the month that his company was prepared to walk away from sports rights (other than the NFL) that it currently carries if the price wasn’t right. If NBC joins ESPN as a partner, you’ll see inventory mixed between USA Network, Peaco*ck and NBC. I still expect NBC to retain, with Fox a dangerous sleeper.

(Photo: Rich Graessle / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

From the NHL:

🤝 @espn pic.twitter.com/KWRHgpM1ep

— NHL (@NHL) March 10, 2021