NBC’s long run with the NHL is coming to an end.
Sports Business Journal reported Monday that NBC has exited the bidding for the NHL’s remaining media rights after putting forward a $100 million/year bid that was “well below” the league’s desired figure.
The news comes within 48 hours of SportsNet reporter Chris Johnston saying on Hockey Night in Canada Saturday that Fox was the new frontrunner for the “B” package. That no longer appears to be the case, as SBJ’s John Ourand reported Monday that Turner Sports is expected to acquire those rights. TSN’s Bob McKenzie also said Monday that he is hearing that Turner is likely to win out.
ESPN/ABC won rights to the “A” package — including four of the next seven Stanley Cup finals after this season — earlier this year. The NHL has long expressed a desire to split its media rights among multiple partners.
NBC won rights to the NHL in 2004, before the owners’ full-season lockout of players. It would have shared rights with ESPN in the canceled 2004-05 season.
The NHL marked NBC’s return to major sports after a five-year period in which it lost the NFL (1998), Major League Baseball (2000) and the NBA (2002). Between its final NBA game in June 2002 and its first NHL game in January 2006, NBC went nearly four full years between major sportscasts.
At more than sixteen years, NBC’s partnership with the NHL has lasted longer than its ongoing run carrying Sunday Night Football and its memorable 12-year run with the NBA. It is the network’s longest continuous relationship with a major sports league since it last held the NFL’s AFC package in the 1990s.
The end of the NHL on NBC comes within months of NBC announcing plans to shut down NBCSN by the end of the year. It was through the NHL that the Outdoor Life Network — best known at that point for airing the Tour de France — shifted to a focus on indoor sports, rebranded as Versus, and then rebranded as NBCSN following parent company Comcast’s acquisition of NBC Universal.
It also comes less than a year after the retirement of NBC’s longtime NHL voice Mike Emrick and the network’s firing of longtime analyst Mike Milbury.
[News from SBJ 4.26, John Ourand/Twitter 4.26, Bob McKenzie/Twitter 4.26]
