NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is keenly aware of the impact the NFL\u2019s early negotiations could have on the media rights market ahead of his own league\u2019s renegotiations.<\/p>\n
In an interview with John Ourand on Puck\u2019s \u201cThe Varsity\u201d podcast<\/a>, Bettman said the timing of the NHL\u2019s media rights negotiations will depend in part on whether the NFL decides to reenter the marketplace later this year, as is widely expected. \u201cObviously, the NFL gets to call the shots in this marketplace,\u201d Bettman said. \u201cSo we\u2019ll have to wait and see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n The current NHL media rights deals expire after the 2027-28 season, and incumbent U.S. rightsholders Warner Bros. Discovery and ESPN will both have exclusive negotiating periods at some point between now and then. Bettman floated the possibility of getting to the negotiating table early \u2014 Ourand reported last month<\/a> that the league had approached ESPN and WBD about that possibility<\/a> \u2014 but also suggested that the league could wait out the storm. Bettman: \u201cIf the NFL is serious and is in the marketplace now, maybe we tuck under, maybe we wait til they\u2019re done.\u201d<\/p>\n Either way, Bettman appeared cognizant of the impact the NFL negotiations could have on the marketplace. \u201cThe NFL has a large footprint, to say the least, and in this environment, if they sneeze, we\u2019ll probably get pneumonia.\u201d<\/p>\n But despite the headwinds, Bettman signaled confidence about the league\u2019s prospects: \u201cI believe in the value of our product. And I believe that whether it\u2019s now or in a couple of years \u2026 I think we\u2019ll ultimately come out in a good place with the fair value that we deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n He was particularly optimistic when the conversation centered on Paramount\u2019s deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery. \u201cI think for the NHL, what\u2019s happening with Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery is potentially very good for us,\u201d he told Ourand. \u201cSo consider me a fan.\u201d<\/p>\n Asked if the Paramount pending acquisition could result in TNT Sports NHL inventory airing on the CBS broadcast network, Bettman said that he has yet to have a conversation with Paramount CEO David Ellison \u2014 who he \u201ccan\u2019t wait to meet\u201d \u2014 but that he would be \u201cvery excited to see the opportunity that being with CBS and CBS Sports would present.\u201d<\/p>\n Paramount has said it expects its WBD merger to be approved by Q3 of this year, though it seems fairly likely that there will be at least some legal challenge mounted by state attorneys general that presumably could delay that projection. Should the merger gain approval on that timeline, it would be complete in time for next year\u2019s Stanley Cup Final, which is the last set to air exclusively on TNT Sports under the current rights deal.<\/p>\n While Bettman gave all indication that the NHL is satisfied with its current rightsholders, he hinted that the league may benefit from additional partners. After Ourand praised the NHL for the simplicity of having all games on either ESPN or TNT Sports, Bettman responded that having two partners is a \u201cmixed bag.\u201d Bettman: \u201cOn the one hand, it\u2019s very fan and user friendly. But if you\u2019re on six or seven outlets, you get promoted in six or seven places. I\u2019m not complaining, and I do believe that ESPN\/Disney and Warner Bros. Discovery do a great job promoting us, but the more places you are, the more visible you are.\u201d<\/p>\n Given the possibility of all the major sports media players having to potentially double their NFL rights fees, it is not entirely clear just how many takers there might be for a third or fourth NHL package, beyond smaller players like Versant, Scripps or Nexstar.<\/p>\n Bettman also addressed the RSN situation, saying that his league is taking an \u201call of the above\u201d approach to local rights distribution. \u201cSome will stay on regional sports channels, a few of them are still viable. Some will go to direct streaming like AMPC [A Parent Media Co., owner of Victory+]. And some are going over the air.\u201d<\/p>\n But the league does not appear to be pursuing the same kind of centralized local rights solution that baseball and the NBA are believed to be developing, at least not yet. \u201cWe\u2019re just making sure we\u2019re going down parallel paths because the economic model nobody\u2019s quite figured out yet.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is keenly aware of the impact the NFL\u2019s early negotiations could have on the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":493787,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5,4,7992],"class_list":{"0":"post-493786","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-hockey","9":"tag-nhl","10":"tag-nhl-media-rights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116195906362672577","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493786","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=493786"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/493786\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/493787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=493786"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=493786"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=493786"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}