• Loading stock data...
Saturday, August 2, 2025
Tuned In returns to NYC on September 16. Hear from the biggest names in sports media. Click here to get your spot

Back To The Future: ESPN Finalizing NHL TV/Digital Deal

  • New 7-year deal would enable Walt Disney Co. networks to show 4 Stanley Cup Finals.
  • ESPN televised NHL games from 1992-93 through the 2003-04 season.
Hockey
Perry Nelson-USA TODAY Sports

The smartest way for a major sports league to maximize media rights fees is to play multiple networks against each other in negotiations. That’s what the NFL, NBA, and MLB do — and that’s what the NHL is poised to do as well.

NBC Sports, the league’s current U.S. rights holder, is about to have company. The NHL is finalizing a new seven-year broadcast deal with ESPN that will enable Walt Disney Co. networks to televise four Stanley Cup Finals between 2022 and 2028, according to Sportsnet’s Chris Johnston. The deal could be announced this week.

The agreement includes streaming rights for Disney, wrote Johnston. That means ESPN will use live NHL games to lure loyal hockey fans to its ESPN+ streaming service. 

Similar to the NFL and NBA, ESPN would likely choose to televise the Stanley Cup Finals on sister Disney broadcast network ABC, said sources.

Front Office Sports previously reported ESPN wanted back in on NHL TV rights after getting its foot in the door with ESPN+, which costs $5.99 a month or $59.99 a year.  

Over the past decade, NBC has paid the NHL $200 million a year for exclusive U.S. TV rights. During that award-winning run, NBC created innovations like the popular “Winter Classic” outdoor game.

But NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman wants a hefty overall rights increase for the league’s next media rights deal, which begins with the 2021-22 season. The quickest way to achieve that is to split up TV/digital rights among competing bidders.

Sportsnet said ESPN’s pending deal represents only half of the NHL’s U.S. media rights package.

That means NBCUniversal could be finalizing its own deal to retain half of the NHL’s U.S. media rights for its own brands, including the NBC broadcast channel, USA Network and Peacock streaming service.  

Don’t count out other bidders such as former NHL TV partner Fox Sports, inventor of the “glowing puck,” Amazon, which is poised to win the NFL’s “Thursday Night Football,” or CBS Sports. 

The NHL, ESPN and NBC all declined to comment for this story.

The pending deal represents a back-to-the-future moment for ESPN. 

The sports cable network broadcast NHL games from the 1992-93 season through the 2003-04 season. But the NHL lockout wiped out the 2004-05 season. ESPN declined to pick up its option for the 2005-06 season — or to match NBC/Comcast’s bid. 

ESPN has a cadre of hockey TV veterans ready and willing to cover the NHL, including “Monday Night Football” play-by-play announcer Steve Levy, anchors Linda Cohn and John Buccigross, and analyst Barry Melrose. 

This season, ESPN+ will stream 68 NHL games. Cohn and Melrose also anchor “In the Crease,” a nightly show exclusively on ESPN+ during the NHL season. 

During an interview with Front Office Sports, Levy said he’d love to move directly from football season to calling NHL games again.

“Absolutely, bring it on,” Levy said.

Linkedin
Whatsapp
Copy Link
Link Copied
Link Copied

What to Read

Coco Gauff at New York Liberty

How the New York Liberty Became the Hottest Ticket in Town

Once banished to the burbs, the Libs are now Brooklyn’s marquee attraction.
Feb 20, 2011; Calgary, AB, Canada; Canadian hockey fans wave a flag and display a banner before the Heritage Classic between the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames at McMahon Stadium. The Flames beat the Canadiens 4-0

Where Does Hockey Go After the Hockey Canada Verdict?

After the sexual assault trial, hockey is split over the path forward.
Bristol Motor Speedway

MLB’s Long Road to Its Most Unusual Game Yet

The special-event game features a unique blending of baseball and racing.
Troy Taylor

Ex-Stanford Coach Troy Taylor Sues ESPN for Defamation

Taylor was fired after a pair of 3–9 seasons.

Featured Today

Las Vegas sign

College Sports Embracing Vegas After Years of Cold Shoulder

The Big Ten became the latest newcomer to Sin City.
2000, Jupiter, FL, USA; FILE PHOTO; Montreal Expos pitcher Hideki Irabu in action on the mound against the New York Mets at Roger Dean Stadium during Spring Training
July 28, 2025

Dead Sports Franchises Are Alive and Well on Twitter

The Expos, Sonics, and Whalers have active social media accounts.
Limited Hype
July 27, 2025

Sneaker Reselling Was Once Easy Money. Success Is Now Complicated

Vendors need to evolve what they’re selling and how they do it.
HAPPY GILMORE 2. BTS - (L to R) Adam Sandler as Happy Gilmore and Rory McIlroy as himself on the set of Happy Gilmore2.
July 26, 2025

‘Cool As Hell’: How ‘Happy Gilmore 2’ Hooked Golf’s Top Stars

The process was “cool as hell,” Adam Sandler tells FOS.
Jul 15, 2025; Boston, Massachusetts, USA; Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark (22) reacts to the crowd as they take on the Connecticut Sun in the first quarter at TD Garden.

WNBA Viewership Up Across All Networks Compared to 2024

Non-Fever games are up 37% compared to the full 2024 season.
Jul 27, 2025; Chicago, Illinois, USA; Chicago Sky guard Kia Nurse (11) drives to the basket against Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) during the second half at United Center.
July 29, 2025

Fever-Sky Draws 1.5M Viewers Despite Clark, Reese Absences

Clark and Reese both missed the game due to injury.
NASCAR Cup Series driver Bubba Wallace (23) celebrates winning Sunday, July 27, 2025, the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
July 30, 2025

Amazon, TNT Post Near-Identical NASCAR Ratings in Debut Season

The cable channel is a new media-rights partner this season.
Sponsored

Game On: Portfolio Players Stories, Brought to You by E*TRADE from Morgan Stanley

Dealmaker Jeffrey Kaplan maps the evolution of sports as an asset class
July 29, 2025

WBD Restructuring Shows What’s Old Is New Again

WBD will become Warner Bros. and Discovery Global as two separate entities.
July 24, 2025

CBS Sports to Get New Owner As Skydance Merger Clears FCC Hurdle

The long-awaited, but highly debated, merger gains regulatory approval.
Dec 7, 2024; New York, New York, USA; A general view of Times Square during the MLS Cup Times Square Watch Party prior to the game between the LA Galaxy and the New York Red Bulls.
July 24, 2025

MLS Reveals Apple TV Streaming Numbers, Raising Questions

The league gives a rare glimpse inside the high-profile streaming pact.
A Peacock sideline reporter holds a microphone with the NBC Peacock logo during Michigan State's football game against Washington on Saturday, Sept. 16, 2023, at Spartan Stadium in East Lansing.
July 24, 2025

‘Unusual’: NBCU’s Surprise Interest in a New Cable Sports Network

Its previous channel NBCSN was shuttered less than four years ago.