NBC, Versus win NHL TV rights in war vs. ESPN; source says 10 years – Puck Daddy – Yahoo! Sports
The NHL and NBC are going to announce that they’ve renewed their TV rights deal today, with Gary Bettman and Dick Ebersol scheduled for a news conference at 1 p.m. ET. […] A source with knowledge of the NBC/NHL relationship told us this morning that it’s a 10-year deal. Yes, 10 years.
[According to] Sports Business Journal […]: “Specific deal terms are not known, but the bidding had gone above $200M per year.” [T]he current TV rights deal has VERSUS paying $77.5 million and NBC in a revenue-sharing contract with the NHL.
I wonder how much, if at all, this will effect this season’s revenues, and in turn, next year’s salary cap. Anyone who knows, please chime in.
[The] Winter Classic, an NBC-driven creation [has] became the second most-important TV property for the NHL besides the Stanley Cup Finals […] The points of intrigue here, beyond the cost and the term: What does retaining the NHL do for NBC’s makeover of VERSUS, which is expected to be rebranded as an NBC Sports network within the year? Will it still be a disparate collection of cage-fighting, car races, outdoorsmen shows and strained reality TV; or will it be better positioned as a challenger to ESPN, with the NHL and college sports as its main draw? Also, what about the Olympics in 2014? If NBC does Sochi, will the NHL go? […]
All we ask is that they continue to listen to us, adapt and, occasionally, turn off Pierre’s mic during game play.
Please, God, let that have been a condition of the deal. As knowledgeable as McGuire is, sticking him between the benches in a little glass partition is an SNL skit waiting to happen. Why don’t they just put him in a harness and zip him around fifteen feet above the ice? They can give Gary Thorne or whoever a remote to navigate him around. But I digress.