Reports are that the NHL and Comcast will announce a MAJOR NHL deal in the area of $200 Million per year today. Rumors are that Comcast/NBC outbid ABC/ESPN and TBS/TNT for the NHL offer.
This is a big frigging deal.
I remember back to after NHL lockout when ESPN came to the NHL with a deal where the NHL would actually have to pay money to be on a very limited ESPN2 schedule. The NHL at the time was under a ton of pressure to re-up with ESPN because everyone was looking to see if the league would survive the lockout and return with any national exposure in the USA on TV.
It would have been easy, after all they had gone through, to return to ESPN, but Gary Bettman and Bill Daly turned away ESPN and went with Comcast and an unknown Versus network. I remember at the time I wrote a blog saying how proud I was that the NHL had enough self pride to walk away from the weak ESPN deal.
The only thing I really miss about ESPN hockey was Thorne/Clement...who have lived on as a combo on the EA Sports NHL franchise...but they are a combo I would love to see call NHL games once again.
Besides the announcer in-game ESPN continually pushed NHL hockey down the priority chain always behind poker and live billiards. At the time Comcast had a small network called the Outdoor Living Network, OLN, which really focused on hunting, fishing, camping, racing types of shows...The NHL would put OLN on the map and Comcast would soon re-brand themselves into "Versus."
It took time to get Versus into millions of homes, but Comcast had the advantage of at least putting it onto their own cable line-ups...and over time other cable providers and Dish networks were won over. Of course, hotel chains, with their 10 or so channels, still don't often put Versus into their rooms...but really, with NHL Gamecenter and Slingboxes everywhere, TVs in hotel rooms have long been over-valued as a measure of how big a network is.
Later on, the NHL would sign the Winter Classic and some afternoon/playoff games over to NBC (who was loving the ratings) while friends of mine at ESPN were telling me memos were circulating that the network was missing the ratings boost they once saw with NHL playoff hockey on ESPN and ESPN2.
So in just 5 years the NHL has gone from ESPN offering to show the game if the NHL paid for it, to a $200 Million TV deal with Comcast/NBC. Pretty impressive and a huge indicator of the game's strength in America. This is a great day for hockey in America.
When I think of hockey on NBC I can't help but think about Peter Puck. As a kid, years ago....and I mean YEARS ago...the NHL was on NBC in the 70's and Peter Puck, and animated puck, would explain hockey to American viewers during the intermission. Peter Puck was also on CBC's Hockey Night in Canada....
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