The Puck Stays on NBC and Versus

Image via WikipediaDespite pleas from hockey fans and players to move their games back to ESPN, the NHL has decided to stick with Versus and NBC as its American TV partners,  It is a 10-year deal, running through the 2020-21 season, and is reportedly worth at least $2 billion.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman called it the most significant deal in the league's history.  He is correct.  In the checkered history of the NHL on TV in the United States, the 16-year relationship between the league and its current TV partners (and we're counting the years since the lockout) is the longest they've ever had.

Versus--which will get its third name change since they started showing NHL games (They were originally known as the Outdoor Life Network)--and NBC will televise 100 games a year between them.  This includes a Sunday game of the week, the Winter Classic on New Year's Day, the All Star Game, and all of the Stanley Cup playoffs.  Also for the first time, NBC will actually be paying for the rights.  It had been a revenue-sharing arrangement before.

Perhaps the reason the NHL chose to stay on a network now seen in 79 million homes, but is still not carried on some cable providers, is this:  The league would rather be on a startup sports channel where they're the number one attraction than on a high-profile behemoth that sandwiches hockey in between college basketball and poker.  Oh, and the fact that Comcast now owns both Versus and NBC doesn't hurt.

This arrangement must be working because ratings have been on the rise since the lockout, though nowhere near the levels you'd get for, let's say, a typical NFL game.  More like pro golf, minus Tiger Woods.

Now that we know where to find the NHL for the next decade, we'd like to address a few things concerning the coverage.

• Versus will now be showing 90 games a season under the new contract.  Will the coverage of half of those continue to be outsourced to Comcast's regional sports channels and the Canadian networks (not that there's anything wrong with "Hockey Night In Canada")?  Or will Comcast actually spend money to send more crews to cover games?  Great as he is, Mike Emrick can't last forever.
• Will NBC's Sunday game of the week start showing games involving teams west of the Mississippi?  We need a break from Sidney Crosby and the Detroit Red Wings every once in awhile.
• One of the benefits of the Comcast-NBC merger is that the concept of putting an analyst between the benches has extended to games on Versus.  It works as long as Pierre McGuire is doing it.

We've thought that whatever happens to the NHL's TV rights would go a long way toward determining which network gets the Olympics beginning with the 2014 Winter Games.  Now that the former has been determined, how much will Comcast pay to make sure NBC keeps the latter?