NBC Agrees To Massive 10-Year, $2 Billion NHL TV Rights Deal

Last year, when the NHL and NBC agreed on a 10-year American television contract that will keep hockey on the Peacock until 2021, one of the major improvements was the news that every single Stanley Cup Playoffs game will be on national TV.

The problem, of course, is that NBC Sports Network can only show one game at once. So which member of the massive NBC Universal family would be the overflow channel on nights where two games are going on simultaneously? A promo aired during Sunday’s Super Bowl on NBC might have given away the answer.

I try very hard to not be cynical, which is one of the most difficult things a relatively healthy, middle-class caucasian male can do. I mean, let’s face it, if you have the ability to read this frivolous essay on televised hockey, you probably don’t have too many things going wrong in your life right now.

The first couple of years I wrote about hockey, I tried really hard to adopt that snarky style. I dropped it eventually for two reasons.

It’s the largest TV deal in the history of the NHL, and as officially announced on Tuesday afternoon, NBC Sports Group will pay $2 billion over the next 10-years to retain the rights to hockey on American television. The deal is in effect until the 2020-21 season.

For hockey fans in the United States, it’s essentially the status quo. Versus, now part of that NBC Sports Group after their parent company, Comcast, purchased NBC Universal, will still be the national cable home of the NHL, while NBC will remain the broadcast home of the league.