The NHL and Major League Baseball have officially entered into a major partnership.
MLB Advanced Media has agreed to a six-year deal to operate the NHL’s digital platforms, including NHL.com, NHL Network and NHL Center Ice, it was announced Tuesday. The deal is worth $1.2 billion over the life of the contract, according to Sports Business Daily, and will kick in this season.
The news was first reported Monday night by WEEI.
Under the agreement, MLB AM will have exclusive rights to distribute out-of-market NHL games via the NHL Center Ice package, and will also relocate NHL Network operations to the MLB Network studios in Secaucus, NJ. The changes will not take full effect until January.
MLB AM is already in business with ESPN (WatchESPN), Turner Sports (March Madness on Demand), and the WWE (WWE Network), but the NHL deal “is believed to be the most far-reaching of its outside contracts” (SBD, 8/4) and is the the first to involve a television component. The NHL is now the second of the Big Four sports leagues to outsource its digital operations to another company; Turner Sports runs the NBA digital platforms.
(Tue. news from MLB.com, Sports Business Daily)
