If it ain’t broke don’t fix it. That’s how the old saying goes. That also applies to how the NHL views its current media right rights agreements.
It was reported on Tuesday that the NHL and Gary Bettman reached out to their United States media partners about pre-emptively extending their media rights deals. Currently national media rights are held by ESPN (which also includes ABC) and TNT sports. The current media rights deals are worth a combined $625 million and expire after the 2028 season.
Getting early extensions done is something out of Gary Bettman’s playbook the first few years, especially when it comes to player relations and how the current CBA was handled. Since that worked out well, why not extend what has seemingly be a successful partnership with media rights to provide the league a more long term financial outlook, especially as the salary cap finally starts to make meaningful increases? Why are the networks saying “not so fast”?
Well the NFL is expected to move up its media rights negotiations. From the NHL’s perspective they want a deal done earlier than later before the media networks commit big money to their pigskin counterparts. The media networks know that the NFL will command a pretty penny, one that makes the NHL’s look like pocket change, and wants to save every available financial resource for when that happens.
There are a few media wild cards in this that are seemingly being overlooked. Previously the NHL’s national media rights were held by NBC who has since acquired NBA programming. Part of that includes the resurrection of an NBC sports specific channel (remember the old NBCSN of the mid 2010’s). Could that make NBC another potential bidder to get hockey back if the price is right?
ESPN might remain the biggest player in sports broadcasting, but they’ve committed significant resources to expanding their portfolio in the midst of their current NHL deal. Federal regulators just allowed their acquisition of NFL Network to proceed. Part of that deal includes the NFL getting 10% of ESPN itself.
A separate media rights deal with Major League Baseball makes ESPN the new rights holder for MLB.TV. Next year is the first year ESPN will broadcast the Super Bowl (the event returns to their owner ABC). If ESPN wants to bid on any other future editions of the NFL championship that will command significant financial capital as well.
Among all of this is the continued demise of regional sports networks. Six MLB teams are leaving embattled Main Street sports (previously known pre bankruptcy as Sinclair Sports Group) to have their games broadcast directly by MLB. Those same Main Street sports stations, operating under the name Fan Duel Sports Network, also hold regional media rights for seven NHL teams. Could the NHL be anticipating it will have to take over those broadcasts in the near future like MLB has done for some of their teams? Could the possibility of that be worked into these future national media rights deals?
The questions surrounding the sports broadcasting and media rights landscape are more complicated that the average fan would be lead to believe. Getting these deals done now, as opposed to later, allows the NHL to get a meaningful head start on their competition. That’s especially important as the sports broadcasting industry and traditional models continue to change. Stability would be an invaluable asset for the NHL to have.