NHL Could Start Bidding War in Next TV Rights Deal

TMC1982

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Jun 26, 2008
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http://puckthemedia.wordpress.com/2010/10/04/nhl-could-start-bidding-w ar-in-next-rights-deal/
Early signs suggest that a bidding war is developing. The league is
expected to enter an exclusive negotiating period with Versus later
this year, and Versus has made no secret of its desire to renew with
the NHL, which consistently brings the highest ratings to the
Comcast-owned sports channel. NBC also has said that it would like to
keep its rights package.

But others are lurking. ESPN said it wants to be involved. And sources
said Fox Sports is considering whether to bid on a package.
The ACC’s most recent media deal showed how multiple bidders can drive
up rights fees. Sources said that ESPN increased its bid by $35
million per year once Fox Sports showed interest in the conference’s
rights earlier this spring.

NHL executives have worked quietly behind the scenes to fuel that kind
of interest. During the Vancouver Olympics in February, for example,
NHL Chief Operating Officer John Collins was spotted at a high-top
table before the first U.S.-Canada hockey game chatting with ESPN
President George Bodenheimer. Four months later, Collins took in Game
6 of the Stanley Cup Final with NBC Sports & Olympics Chairman Dick
Ebersol. He’s had informal contact with top executives at almost every
TV network.

NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman, Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and
Collins will lead negotiations, which are set to formally begin when
Versus exercises an option to open an exclusive negotiation window.
From there, it’s anybody’s guess what will happen.
I would never, ever want to work with ESPN/Disney again if I were the NHL. It seems like, they're forgetting how badly they screwed them and Fox for that matter over back in the late '90s:
http://www.sportsmediawatch.net/2007/05/how-disney-outfoxed-nhl
 
I cannot imagine why ESPN would possibly want to get back into the hockey business. The 2003 World Championship of Poker reruns, World's Strongest Man and high school cheerleading all get better ratings than the NHL.


Sandra
 
I also find it hard to believe that ESPN wants in.....
Although I would love for them to get the rights again as it gives them the most possible coverage.

ESPN Could be doing it to push up the value of the bidding from VS !
 
It was a bumpy start, but the NHL-Versus ride has really smoothed-out the past couple seasons. If I were Bettman, I would negotiate a "fair" deal with Versus and kick NBC to the curb...although I would not be estatic if they inked a deal with Fox or ABC (which probably won't happen without an ESPN deal). Has CBS ever big involved with the NHL? Perhaps when I was a kid, but I don't have any recollection of such as relationship. Let ESPN continue to broadcast all those sports like Poker and Cheerleading (i.e., non-sports crap nobody would watch if it weren't on ESPN).
 
I would like it back on ESPN. They cover the NHL a lot better. I have a hard time watching it on Versus. For one I do not like the announcers. I get the NHL CI now because I wanted to watch more hockey and not rely on Versus.
 
I would like it back on ESPN. They cover the NHL a lot better. I have a hard time watching it on Versus. For one I do not like the announcers. I get the NHL CI now because I wanted to watch more hockey and not rely on Versus.

When ESPN did cover hockey the coverage was top notch. Verus has come a long way in improving their broadcasts and their picture quality has improved immensely. Any network that covers the NHL will also be compared to the superior coverage that us border town fans are used to in growing up with Hockey Night in Canada.
 
It will happen eventually. ESPN will get it back some day.
 
Does it really matter who gets it? The same thing will happen as before, no one will watch.
There's a reason ESPN dropped the NHL.

ESPN is probably just making noise in order for Comcast to increase their bid.
 
With ESPN, it would just get lost among its various properties. The NHL is top dog on Versus and I like it that way.
 
With ESPN, it would just get lost among its various properties. The NHL is top dog on Versus and I like it that way.

When it was on ESPN at least it was covered, the way it is you hardly ever hear about it.

At least people won't go, do we have that channel ?
If it's back on ESPN, and ESPN can show more than 1 game at a time.
It REALLY SUX watching VS when the playoffs come around and you can't see your game because they have no where to show it .....

At least they finally got a 2nd feed for VS, lets hope they use it.
 
It REALLY SUX watching VS when the playoffs come around and you can't see your game because they have no where to show it .....
Once Comcast finishes the buyout of NBC, they'll probably copy Disney and turn NBC Sports into "Versus on NBC", so all the overflow can go there.
 
It was a bumpy start, but the NHL-Versus ride has really smoothed-out the past couple seasons. If I were Bettman, I would negotiate a "fair" deal with Versus and kick NBC to the curb...although I would not be estatic if they inked a deal with Fox or ABC (which probably won't happen without an ESPN deal). Has CBS ever big involved with the NHL? Perhaps when I was a kid, but I don't have any recollection of such as relationship. Let ESPN continue to broadcast all those sports like Poker and Cheerleading (i.e., non-sports crap nobody would watch if it weren't on ESPN).

CBS was actually the first American broadcast TV network to cover the NHL back in the 1950s. They renewed their relationship with the NHL from about 1967-1972, when NBC took over. The last time that CBS showed an NHL game was Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals as a special episode of The CBS Sports Spectacular. It was actually, the last time that an NHL game was nationally televised on an over-the-air network for ten years (until NBC showed the 1990 NHL All-Star Game).

NHL on CBS - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Once Comcast finishes the buyout of NBC, they'll probably copy Disney and turn NBC Sports into "Versus on NBC", so all the overflow can go there.

That's my biggest fear regarding what will happen to NBC Sports once Comcast takes over. I hope that Comcast will realize that there's way more prestige in the NBC Sports legacy than the Versus legacy (something that Disney doesn't care about regarding ABC Sports). Disney doesn't seem to care also, that taking sports away from ABC for the benefit of ESPN (while makes sense from an economical standpoint due to the due revenue stream system), seriously alienates affiliates. Not to mention, that it's harder to train viewers to watch new shows/episodes if big time sporting events are not on the flagship broadcasting outlet.
 
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NHL and ESPN: Paradise Found Or a Disneyfied Disaster?

Here's another valid argument towards why the NHL should never, ever go back to ESPN/ABC/Disney:
By
Stephen Dupej
(Contributor) on August 8, 2009

As a Canadian myself, I find the NHL and ESPN affair very interesting. While the NHLPA desperately want the game back on ESPN, (and I understand many U.S. hockey fans do too) one thing keeps popping into my head; Does ESPN want the NHL? Are they going to make a bid for a share of the NHL TV rights?

After all these stories I've heard of ESPN not showing any hockey highlights on SportsCenter, It gives me the impression they are not interested in bidding when the NHL cable and broadcast rights expire in 2011, perhaps the most important TV deals the NHL will make.

It leads to think about an article on Sportsmediawatch called "How Disney out foxed the NHL." In the summer of 1998, talks for a new NHL TV contract for 1999-00 began to heat up between FOX and ESPN. FOX wanted to televise all games of the Stanley Cup Finals, as early as 1999, the first U.S. broadcast network to do so. FOX also wanted to bring their network FX, in the game to bid for the rights as well. ESPN, alarmed by this, made a massive $600 million offer which called for ABC to pick the network TV rights.

To make a long story short, the NHL went for the money and less exposure too. ABC only televised four regular season games in their first season (five in their last four), down from eleven in Fox’s final two seasons in the NHL, and NBC's present day coverage of ten games, while ESPN covered the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals, and ABC carrying the rest.

Minimal coverage on network TV did not help the NHL progress, both in ratings and in interest. Perhaps the reason was because when ESPN made their massive bid to retain the NHL rights, ABC said they had little desire to have the NHL. But ESPN didn't sound like a committed home for the NHL either.

Almost four years later, ESPN acquired the cable and network rights for the NBA which spelled death knell for the NHL on ESPN. ESPN cut their NHL schedule from over a hundred games on both ESPN and ESPN 2 in 2001-02, to 71 for 2002-03. When talks for re-newel came up, ABC wanted to rollback on their already minimal coverage windows (which led to the NHL making a revenue sharing agreement with NBC), and ESPN admitted they made a mistake by paying $600 million, and was only offering $60 million a year for two seasons, and only 40 games, all on ESPN 2. (Note that NHL 2night was pulled off the air before the NHL and ESPN officially cut ties.)

Let's get off hockey for a few minutes. When ESPN won the NBA cable and network, it was almost similar to the ESPN/ABC NHL deal: Taking many games off network and putting them on cable. The NBA's former network home, NBC, showed about 33 regular season games a year, several first and second round games, and the majority of the conference finals.

ABC in their first season of NBA coverage showed 14 regular season games in their first season. (They have recently announced to televise only 15 games for the 2009-10 season.) The NBA has seen TV ratings plunge to all-time lows, and fan interest decrease ever since ESPN/ABC won the TV rights for NBA.

Currently, ABC shows very few first and second round playoff games compared to NBC's 12 year bond with the NBA, and ABC only shows weekend games of one conference final series while the rest of the conference finals are on ESPN, and the entire other conference final is televised on the NBA's other cable partner, TNT, a format that has been disliked by NBA fans who lived through the NBC and CBS days.

On the whole Versus thing, in my opinion hockey should stay there. There is no doubt they treat hockey the right way, not the second, third, or even the fourth string if the NHL was on ESPN. The network's availability is only at 75 million homes a far cry from ESPN's 96 million, but the availability is growing, and so are the ratings.

If ESPN gets back into the NHL, there are no guarantees that they’ll put games on the main ESPN, or put more highlights on SportsCenter. There is also no way they’ll pay $90 million a year to put all games on ESPN 2, and miss a few nights a week of the Stanley cup playoffs due to other commitments. They’ll possibly want to move the entire Stanley cup Finals to cable. (Bad idea, it would show you ESPN is only doing what’s right for themselves, and not for the NHL long term.)

Don’t start on if ESPN would bid on the NHL again, they’ll bring ABC back to NHL. Ever since ESPN’s takeover of ABC’s sports division in the late 1990’s, it’s been evident they want nothing to do with ABC. If ESPN truly cared about ABC, ABC’s NBA and NHL broadcast windows wouldn’t be at a minimum, and ABC Sports would’ve never dissolved to become “ESPN on ABC.” (In my opinion “ESPN on ABC” is stupid, confusing, and major waste of marketing.)

Drop it with the great broadcast duo of Gary Thorne and Bill Clement, okay? They can be hired by Versus or NBC tomorrow and you’ll be raving over how great Versus/NBC are.

Even if ESPN will bid on the NHL TV rights again, and somehow make a time-buy arrangement with ABC, they’ll probably use the shameful tactic of using musical acts for their intros, just like in their NBA coverage. ABC has used such artists including Rob Thomas, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, and The Pussycat Dolls. Who would be on their list if they televise the NHL again? Hilary Duff? Katy Perry? The thought sounds more horrifying and dumber than Fox’s glow puck.

But oh well, sounds like American hockey fans, the NHLPA, players, and owners want the NHL to return to ESPN, whatever the cost. Even if it's a Disneyfied disaster.

Which network did the best job of broadcasting the NHL--ABC, NBC, FOX? - HFBoards
 
Versus does a decent job covering the game for cable and when the NBC / Comcast merger is finally approved I see no reason why the relationship between Comcast and the NHL wouldn't continue.

Hockey fans know where to find VS.
 
Versus does a decent job covering the game for cable and when the NBC / Comcast merger is finally approved I see no reason why the relationship between Comcast and the NHL wouldn't continue.

Hockey fans know where to find VS.

My only problem is they can only show one game at a time on thier network.

So, if your a Penguin's fan GREAT, any others won't be seen.
 
My only problem is they can only show one game at a time on thier network.

So, if your a Penguin's fan GREAT, any others won't be seen.

They have alt. stations.

604-1 on D* is a alt. VS. station.

I'm sure if they get bigger they will show more, just like the big 10 network or ESPN has alt. stations.
 

I cant get into the506.com!!!

Tony Gwynn has cancer....

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