With its newest network partner, NBC, the NHL has a real chance to be the first major American sports league to have a true national home. The change from Versus to NBC Sports Network won’t just open up hockey to an entirely new realm of viewers, it could also bring the game back into nation-wide American recognition.
NBC Sports Network’s ties to the NHL go back to the beginning of the 2005-06 season when the company acquired the rights from ESPN for its hockey coverage. This marked the first time a major television network would regularly broadcast NHL games, with regionalized broadcasts having been the norm prior to this.
In addition to acquiring the rights to regular season and playoff games, NBCSN acquired a number of other exclusive NHL programming. This included the annual NHL Winter Classic, Sunday afternoon games at 12:30 p.m. Eastern Time, and six weekends of Stanley Cup Finals action. The latter games were buried on the NBCSN cable channel instead of being broadcast on NBC, which meant that each Final series only averaged four to five million viewers at the height of the original deal.
One of the biggest changes to NBC’s NHL coverage came in the 2007-08 season when the network incorporated flex scheduling for its regular season games. This essentially allowed them to choose between three possible games at the start of each week, with the remaining two being relegated to the teams’ regional television carriers. The NHL hoped that this strategy would boost ratings by giving fans a chance to see more of their favorite teams.
While NBC remained committed to the NHL after incorporating flex scheduling, ratings for the game were still relatively low. This was partially due to the fact that a large portion of the games were being broadcast on NBCSN, which had much less name recognition than NBC. NBC also decided to drop the game of the week format, and rely on the telecast of the Stanley Cup Finals to drive viewers to the network.
NBC’s regular season broadcasting of the NHL improved significantly in the 2008-09 season, and the network finally became a reliable destination for the sport. The Sunday afternoon games, in particular, have become one of the most popular NHL events, and have shown significant increases in viewership since NBC began airing them in 2007. In addition to its regular season games, NBC also carries a full lineup of Stanley Cup playoffs games on its main cable channels, including NBCSN.
NBC’s Stanley Cup coverage has been anchored by Mike “Em” Emrick, Eddie Olczyk, and Pierre McGuire, with a variety of “Inside the Glass” reporters (including Cammi Granato, Joe Micheletti, Darren Pang, and Peter McNab) serving as backups. However, if the NHL wants to grow its audience, it will need to do more than simply broadcast games on a cable channel. It needs to provide more high-profile coverage that can attract more attention from the mainstream media.