ESPN Interested in Winning Back NHL TV Rights; NBC Wants to Renew 10-Year Deal

[Phil]

Link:

[Blue Heaven]

FUCK ESPN! They'll still put hockey behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, NASCAR, Darts, Dodgeball, and whatever other stupid talk shows that they air. Only good thing about ESPN possibly getting the NHL back would be the possibility of Gary Thorne, Barry Melrose, and Clement Clement Hands Of Cement

[josh]

I dont watch ESPN, but the NHL should pay ESPN to play them/talk about them. Have national games on ABC as part of the deal.

[Sod16]

I like NBC Sports channel's team better. The shaft ESPN has given to hockey is incredible. The only good point is that some bars and restaurants just stick their TVs on ESPN whatever is on.

[LindG1000]

Good. Bidding war between Disney and Comcast.

[BlairBettsBlocksEverything]

FUCK ESPN! They'll still put hockey behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, NASCAR, Darts, Dodgeball, and whatever other stupid talk shows that they air. Only good thing about ESPN possibly getting the NHL back would be the possibility of Gary Thorne, Barry Melrose, and Clement Clement Hands Of Cement

 

If they do win the rights though, they'd for sure start pushing it out there to people. no way they'd spend a ton of money to secure the rights and then just ignore it.

 

getting those guys on would be great. Although I do like Doc. I also LOVE Gord Miller, but since TSN is his priority and ESPN is a part-owner of TSN then maybe he could continue?

[SaveByRichter35]

Gary Thorn, Bill Clement, the theme song > NBC, Penis...I mean Pierre. I love watching the Frozen Four on ESPN and getting that nostalgic feeling. But I kind of agree with Blue Heaven, I can totally see the NHL getting airtime on ESPN the Ocho while there is NASCAR on ESPN and the cornhole national championship on ESPN2, and the show with the "Ding" on ESPN News(I can't seem to remember the name of the show, major brain fart right now, sorry lol)

[josh]

Gary Thorn, Bill Clement, the theme song > NBC, Penis...I mean Pierre. I love watching the Frozen Four on ESPN and getting that nostalgic feeling. But I kind of agree with Blue Heaven, I can totally see the NHL getting airtime on ESPN the Ocho while there is NASCAR on ESPN and the cornhole national championship on ESPN2, and the show with the "Ding" on ESPN News(I can't seem to remember the name of the show, major brain fart right now, sorry lol)

 

the cornhole championship was fucking intense

[BlairBettsBlocksEverything]

Gary Thorn, Bill Clement, the theme song > NBC, Penis...I mean Pierre. I love watching the Frozen Four on ESPN and getting that nostalgic feeling. But I kind of agree with Blue Heaven, I can totally see the NHL getting airtime on ESPN the Ocho while there is NASCAR on ESPN and the cornhole national championship on ESPN2, and the show with the "Ding" on ESPN News(I can't seem to remember the name of the show, major brain fart right now, sorry lol)

 

With the amount of money it’ll take to beat out nbc for the rights, I can’t imagine they wouldn’t put it as front and center as they could. Also I’m sure the nhl would negotiate some kind of guarantees for X number of games on the main channels, plus ABC

[phillyb]

Fuck ESPN

[Parsley]

Two words: Gary Thorne

 

 

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[Blue Heaven]

With the amount of money it’ll take to beat out nbc for the rights, I can’t imagine they wouldn’t put it as front and center as they could. Also I’m sure the nhl would negotiate some kind of guarantees for X number of games on the main channels, plus ABC

 

 

No games would be on Sunday Night in April/May/October b/c of MLB, probably don't want games to be on Sunday Night in October/November/Dec/January to go against NFL

No games on Monday Night in October/November/December/January b/c of NFL

No games on Wednesday Night in April/May/October for Wednesday Night Baseball

No games on Wednesday/Friday Night on ESPN in November/December/January/February/March/April b/c of NBA

No games on Saturdays on ABC January/February/March/April b/c of NBA

No games on Saturdays on ABC/ESPN in October/November/December b/c of NCAA Football

 

So it looks like that leaves the NHL with Tuesday/Thursday nights or wherever they can fit it in on ESPN The Ocho.

As much as NBC sucks with Pierre, Mike Milbury (before he got banned) it makes the most sense to stick with NBC since they are pretty much priority #1.

Who says Pierre wouldn't jump ship to ESPN if ESPN gets the NHL, still might have to deal with him on ESPN.

[Pete]

Yea ESPN buying the NHL is like EA Sports buying the other NHL games just to eliminate competition.

 

They'd have zero interest promoting the game.

[LindG1000]

No games would be on Sunday Night in April/May/October b/c of MLB, probably don't want games to be on Sunday Night in October/November/Dec/January to go against NFL

No games on Monday Night in October/November/December/January b/c of NFL

No games on Wednesday Night in April/May/October for Wednesday Night Baseball

No games on Wednesday/Friday Night on ESPN in November/December/January/February/March/April b/c of NBA

No games on Saturdays on ABC January/February/March/April b/c of NBA

No games on Saturdays on ABC/ESPN in October/November/December b/c of NCAA Football

 

So it looks like that leaves the NHL with Tuesday/Thursday nights or wherever they can fit it in on ESPN The Ocho.

As much as NBC sucks with Pierre, Mike Milbury (before he got banned) it makes the most sense to stick with NBC since they are pretty much priority #1.

Who says Pierre wouldn't jump ship to ESPN if ESPN gets the NHL, still might have to deal with him on ESPN.

 

ESPN's pitch is 100% going to be "NHL will get every Tuesday night and will be the flagship ESPN+ product"

[BlairBettsBlocksEverything]

No games would be on Sunday Night in April/May/October b/c of MLB, probably don't want games to be on Sunday Night in October/November/Dec/January to go against NFL

No games on Monday Night in October/November/December/January b/c of NFL

No games on Wednesday Night in April/May/October for Wednesday Night Baseball

No games on Wednesday/Friday Night on ESPN in November/December/January/February/March/April b/c of NBA

No games on Saturdays on ABC January/February/March/April b/c of NBA

No games on Saturdays on ABC/ESPN in October/November/December b/c of NCAA Football

 

So it looks like that leaves the NHL with Tuesday/Thursday nights or wherever they can fit it in on ESPN The Ocho.

As much as NBC sucks with Pierre, Mike Milbury (before he got banned) it makes the most sense to stick with NBC since they are pretty much priority #1.

Who says Pierre wouldn't jump ship to ESPN if ESPN gets the NHL, still might have to deal with him on ESPN.

 

So they can do Sunday nights for 5 of the 7 nights of the regular season

Monday night games for at least half the regular season

 

Not saying they won’t have to compete, but considering the amount of networks they have, and the amount of money they’d be spending to get the rights, I can’t imagine they wouldn’t make it work. This is from the espn perspective, not NHL. why spend billions on the rights to show hockey if they werent gonna show hockey

 

I do think nbc does a pretty good job and I’m not anti-nbc. But sports fans just flipping channels will always flip around ESPN. They aren’t exactly scrolling to nbc sports.

[Pete]

So they can do Sunday nights for 5 of the 7 nights of the regular season

Monday night games for at least half the regular season

 

Not saying they won?t have to compete, but considering the amount of networks they have, and the amount of money they?d be spending to get the rights, I can?t imagine they wouldn?t make it work. This is from the espn perspective, not NHL. why spend billions on the rights to show hockey if they werent gonna show hockey

 

I do think nbc does a pretty good job and I?m not anti-nbc. But sports fans just flipping channels will always flip around ESPN. They aren?t exactly scrolling to nbc sports.

ESPN ratings are at an all-time low.

 

Their sports dominance is wildly over estimated based on reputation.

[BlairBettsBlocksEverything]

Is the actual sports ratings low or their terrible day time tv? I do t actually know so I’m asking

[Kevin]

ESPN ratings are at an all-time low.

 

Their sports dominance is wildly over estimated based on reputation.

 

Good. They've earned that thanks to hyper-focus on basketball and being at the forefront of politicizing sports.

[Blue Heaven]

I pretty much stopped watching ESPN except for the NFL, occasional MLB game, and 30 for 30 or E:60. Cant stand SportsCenter anymore. Patrick/Olbermann were awesome, then it slowly went downhill from there. Now its unwatchable. Use to watch NFL Countdown every sunday but with the NFL Network coming into existence I go there for NFL news. I use to watch Baseball Tonight, but MLB Network has superior MLB coverage. The sports leagues with their own channels doesnt really have a need for ESPN. ESPN talk shows is just shouting over each other.

[Rizz GAWD Lav No Cap FrFr]

Good. They've earned that thanks to hyper-focus on basketball and being at the forefront of politicizing sports.

 

Basketball is their biggest draw from a live sports standpoint, their issues with ratings in general is that the news cycle for sports has moved to Twitter, as has the hot take wars. It's more instant than network television can ever be.

 

That being said, the 6pm Sports Center telecasts have been gaining viewership, not losing, since COVID.

 

As for this notion that there is a political reason, ESPN has been in decline since social media really took off. Their numbers have been consistently moving down year over year for non-live sports. It has nothing to do with politic, and if you believe that, that's great. But it's also wrong. :)

[Kevin]

Basketball is their biggest draw from a live sports standpoint, their issues with ratings in general is that the news cycle for sports has moved to Twitter, as has the hot take wars. It's more instant than network television can ever be.

 

That being said, the 6pm Sports Center telecasts have been gaining viewership, not losing, since COVID.

 

As for this notion that there is a political reason, ESPN has been in decline since social media really took off. Their numbers have been consistently moving down year over year for non-live sports. It has nothing to do with politic, and if you believe that, that's great. But it's also wrong. :)

 

Not sure how what you just provided proves that their politically motivated skew has nothing to do with their reduced viewership. Regardless, real people, that I know, have stopped watching because of the two very things I mentioned. Obviously a very small pool of people (in the global spectrum), but to discredit something out of hand as just being social media driven is also wrong.

[Rizz GAWD Lav No Cap FrFr]

Not sure how what you just provided proves that their politically motivated skew has nothing to do with their reduced viewership. Regardless, real people, that I know, have stopped watching because of the two very things I mentioned. Obviously a very small pool of people (in the global spectrum), but to discredit something out of hand as just being social media driven is also wrong.

 

No it's not, because there are numbers that give us all the info we need. You have friends who don't like the politics, great. The diversity initiative at ESPN began in 2017, which is where the modern "politicizing" narrative comes from.

 

Espn has been dropping year over year because people stream more and have a different way of viewing their news cycle/engaging in sports discussions.

 

Here are some great references:

 

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20181126/09313541105/espn-has-lost-14-million-viewers-7-years-thanks-to-cord-cutting.shtml

 

https://www.statista.com/statistics/648072/espn-primetime-viewership-usa/

 

ESPN has been in a serious decline since about 2010-11. This isn't new, and while you may have friends who stopped watching, I'm sure there are others who appreciate the content that you and your group dislike, so the loss is provably moot.

[Slobberknocker]

FUCK ESPN! They'll still put hockey behind the NFL, MLB, NBA, NCAA, NASCAR, Darts, Dodgeball, and whatever other stupid talk shows that they air. Only good thing about ESPN possibly getting the NHL back would be the possibility of Gary Thorne, Barry Melrose, and Clement Clement Hands Of Cement

 

Agreed. Disney bailed on the ducks... espn will always treat the nhl like the red headed step child. they are so star fucked over the nba and ncaa.

 

that being said money does the talking.

[Rizz GAWD Lav No Cap FrFr]

For everyone who shits on ESPN, what exactly has NBC done in its time that makes you prefer it?

 

You get mad that ESPN relegated the nhl in non-game day shows like sports center, etc. yet NBC doesn’t even have any investment in non-game day programming. Comparing apples to apples, the telecasts for ESPN were bookended with more content, better content, and they had a much more qualified set of commentators and analysts. The guys they employed all covered hockey in major markets or coached/ran teams. It wasn’t Canadian rejects like Milbury, who fans have complained about forever but yet still has a job, or Pierre, who again no one particularly likes but yet consistently is still used in broadcasts.

 

ESPN actually knows how to create content and build up narratives. They also know how to make good game day and broadcast television. Nothing nbc sports has shown since 2006 has proven that they can compare to the level of broadcasting that ESPN delivers, nor have they ever seemed in anyway committed to the sport.

[BlairBettsBlocksEverything]

Nbc puts out a lot more non game day content for soccer than for hockey.

 

Nbc has some good people. I like Kathryn Tappen. Patrick sharp does really well. Anson Carter is doing well. the in game crews (minus Pierre) are still good. But they realistically don’t cover hockey aside from during the game. Maybe the NHL makes them not do it so people get NHL Network?