The NHL Reups with Versus, To Be Rebranded NBC Sports Channel

[HanoverPretzel]

The NHL has just announced a 10-year deal with Versus, which will soon be known as NBC Sportschannel:

NHL announces 10-year television deal with NBC - Capitals Insider - The Washington Post

This means for the long-term future, there will be exclusive national regular season games on Versus/NBC Sportschannel, plus some exclusive conference final and Stanley Cup Final playoff games, in addition to a lot of non-exclusive games.

This is a little bit like a knife to the gut for hockey fans with lower tier Dish Network packages. Versus is available on Dish, but only with AT 250 package or higher. Meanwhile, Versus is part of standard Comcast cable packages. The NHL is the only major sport that has games from it's championship series that are not part of the AT120 package. It's a big omission for hockey fans.

This deal is for the next 10 years. It's time to get something done with Versus to make it more widely available on Dish. Come on, Charlie, let's do something to fix this.

 

[CK SatGuy]

I made a prediction in an older thread that Versus would be rebranded as an NBC Sports Channel to better compete against ESPN, and it turned out I was right.

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

You win a cupie doll, congrats!

 

[HDRoberts]

I'm guessing this will be home to a ton of Olympic coverage next year as well, probably billed as the primary cable home of the Olympics.

 

[dwarren2]

Wonder if the content will be what's on Universal Sports. Hope so.

 

[cosmo_kramer]

The re-branding of Versus also suggests that NBCU is serious about creating a head-to-head competitor to sports powerhouse ESPN.

In addition to NBC and Versus,Games will be shown on Versus and NBC, but Ebersol added that some playoff games would be shown on other national cable channels that are part of NBCU. He declined to say what channels, but clearly the USA Network has to be under consideration given its full carriage and its history of once broadcasting sports.

NBCU seals 10-year NHL rights deal - Entertainment News, Business News, Media - Variety

 

[chuckster_dude]

This is a little bit like a knife to the gut for hockey fans with lower tier Dish Network packages.

You got that right. I was hoping for an ESPN deal but I guess this kind of kills that. Maybe we can hope for the power of NBC Comcast to now help that along but I doubt it.

 

[Teehar]

One could assume that NBC sports channel could also be competition for CBS sports network.If thats the case then it should be offered in the lower tiers.

 

[JosephB]

This is completely off topic from the NHL, but on topic with what NBC plans to do with Versus. If they're going all in and branding this NBC Sports, I wonder if they try to pull ABC's IndyCar coverage (Indy 500 + the other couple of races ABC airs). Too bad for the NCAA, I think NBC would have been a better (single) partner now that they have Versus and other Comcast properties than the combined CBS/Turner group.

 

[JosephB]

Also read something in the USA Today article about this, and it makes sense. Now that all the other NBCU channels are under Comcast's domain, Comcast can now push harder to get Vs. in a lower package. They have much better leverage now, much like Disney/ESPN. Obviously Comcast wants them in lower packages (see the DirecTV dispute) and now they have the contracts with leagues to demand that + pricing.

 

[DishSubLA]

Wonder if the content will be what's on Universal Sports. Hope so.

I hope so too. It would make good sense to just dump the whole Universal Sports channel as it is only filler on NBC's and some affiliates OTA multi-plex channels. In other words, virtually nobody watches it.

Yes, fold all the Universal Sports events over to the NBC Sports channel. I would love to see gymnastics, swimming, and winter sports now on US on NBC Sports. Let's hope so.

 

[boddah44]

I hope that they don't quit showing the hunting shows in the morning.

 

[calrich]

Versus rebranded as NBC Sports

With the new NHL/Versus/NBC contract there is talk that Versus will be renamed NBC Sports or something like that to try to bring it up to ESPN level. There's also talk of it going after contracts with leagues in other sports. Could this get the channel moved to a lower tier Dish package, more accessible to the most subscribers?

 

[Jhon69]

With the new NHL/Versus/NBC contract there is talk that Versus will be renamed NBC Sports or something like that to try to bring it up to ESPN level. There's also talk of it going after contracts with leagues in other sports. Could this get the channel moved to a lower tier Dish package, more accessible to the most subscribers?

That's what Fox Sports wanted in their last contract(they want to be like ESPN too),Dish Network's response to that? No way.

Personally I would like all sports channels put in Dish Network's MultiSports package because then those who want sports can pay for them and by what these sports channels are costing in our packages they need to be listed as Premium channels.

 

[riffjim4069]

This is completely off topic from the NHL, but on topic with what NBC plans to do with Versus. If they're going all in and branding this NBC Sports, I wonder if they try to pull ABC's IndyCar coverage (Indy 500 + the other couple of races ABC airs). Too bad for the NCAA, I think NBC would have been a better (single) partner now that they have Versus and other Comcast properties than the combined CBS/Turner group.

NBC/Versus/NBC Sports provides another credible avenue for NCAA Hockey which, in my opinion, has been inadequately covered by the ESPN family of channels. Offhand, I cannot why NBC would not compete head-to-head against ESPN/ABC for carriage of a variety of sports and sports-like activities, like IndyCar racing. If nothing else, this should serve to wake-up ESPN who have completely underwhelmed me in recent years.

 

[Doc6666]

One thing in the original press release, they said that Versus and NBC were going to show all the playoff games. Right now that isn't possible unless you bring the Universal Sports into it. Unless the NHL changes their schedule so they don't have 4 games per night in the first round, Universal is going to have to carry games.

 

[JosephB]

I think this is where CBS had *wanted* to go with CBS College Sports, but they didn't have the clout to pull it off. Same thing with Fox. Can't compete with ESPN with RSNs only nor with a college-only network.I think NBCU has the clout with their broadcast network along with everything they carry (Olympics, NHL, IndyCar, etc) PLUS they have something ESPN doesn't: RSNs. The one thing that this guarantees is that rights fees will go through the roof. They've doubled or so the NHL's fees, so watch out when the NFL, MLB, and NASCAR agreements come up again. Even if NBC doesn't win them, they'll make ESPN pay dearly for them.

ESPN can't be everything to everyone, so I'm very glad someone is finally big enough to compete. NBC just needs to get a deal with someone like MLB, the NFL, or the NBA OR with a major college conference or two. As big as NBC Sports could be, it'll always kind of be an 'also ran' if they only focus on the stuff ESPN doesn't care about. They need to steal something from ESPN. Even if it's partial rights to MLB games or something.

 

[Super Dave]

One thing in the original press release, they said that Versus and NBC were going to show all the playoff games. Right now that isn't possible unless you bring the Universal Sports into it. Unless the NHL changes their schedule so they don't have 4 games per night in the first round, Universal is going to have to carry games.

I would like to see this happen. As it stands Philadelphia Comcast Sportsnet has exclusivity for the first 2 rounds of Flyers playoff coverage, keeping it off both Sat providers. I can't see them giving this up, but you never know.

 

[CK SatGuy]

One thing in the original press release, they said that Versus and NBC were going to show all the playoff games. Right now that isn't possible unless you bring the Universal Sports into it. Unless the NHL changes their schedule so they don't have 4 games per night in the first round, Universal is going to have to carry games.

Unless they do it like the olympics and show games on ALL NBC-owned channels like USA, CNBC, MSNBC, etc...

 

[JosephB]

They said they would have all games of the playoffs on "national NBC cable networks". You can read that to mean NBC, Vs, USA, and probably something like CNBC. Don't be surprised if Universal Sports goes away (or, at the very least, doesn't become any more than a digital subchannel filler like it is now)