NHL x ESPN
In October 2021, the NHL officially returned to ESPN with an opening night doubleheader. While it was good to be back on the network that started it all for the NHL, there was without a doubt, lots of work needed to be done in order for ESPN to please NHL fans. Now, as we are in year three of this television contract, ESPN has listened to the feedback from hockey fans and has once again strived to make its coverage prestigious.
Tuesday’s Frozen Frenzy coverage from ESPN is only a part of the overall step they’ve made in promoting and covering the NHL correctly. Before the 2023-2024 season even began, ESPN was seen promoting opening night throughout their shows and social media way more than they did in the previous two years. This year, NHL on ESPN personalities, such as P.K. Subban, appeared on some of ESPN’s most-known daily talk shows like Get Up and First Take promoting the league’s opening night. In addition to this, we also saw one of the most anticipated rookies in league history, Connor Bedard, make an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. All of this was even before the puck would be dropped to begin the 2023-2024 season.
Now, as we are a little over two weeks into the season, The Pat McAfee Show has become a gift for the NHL with promotion. New to the show this year is a daily “Hockey Is Awesome” segment where Pat goes through the highlights of the previous night’s action on the ice. There have also been several more hockey personalities on the show with P.K. Subban, John Buccigross, and most recently, Auston Matthews. This is a show that obviously has a fairly large following on social media and averages a good number of viewers on the networks of ESPN, so it will only continue to help the NHL out with growth.
Not only has the promotional side of the NHL on ESPN changed, but the coverage of the games has as well, and it is for the better. At this point, ESPN has pretty much nailed the broadcasts with great up-and-coming hockey commentators like Bob Wischusen and Mike Monaco mixed in with the faces we hockey fans all love with John Buccigross and Steve Levy.
While the traditional broadcasts have become very good for ESPN, they’re also not afraid to take some risks when it comes to new ways of broadcasting the sport. Last year, we saw ESPN try their first-ever fully animated broadcast with the NHL Big City Greens Classic with Drew Carter and Kevin Weekes commentating on the Capitals-Rangers game through Disney Channel, Disney XD, and Disney+. Then, this year we most recently saw the extremely successful NHL Frozen Frenzy Whip-Around Show on ESPN2 with John Buccigross and Kevin Weekes.
Since this television deal began, it has become vividly clear that ESPN’s approach towards marketing and broadcasting the NHL has only gotten better, so the question remains, what caused them to have the change of attitude? At this point, there isn’t one clear answer, but I do have two propositions for why this could be the case.
The first of which is what appears to be the most answered one, and that is the fact that at the end of the 2024-2025 NBA season, ESPN is destined to have a lesser presence with the NBA when it comes to broadcasting. Currently, the NBA’s striving to have as many as five partners for their new rights deal, one of which is destined to include a streaming company for weeknight games, along with another over-the-air company for weekend games. Both of these will take a load of games away from ESPN’s current deal with the league, and they will need a replacement, which seems to be the NHL. Though, this wouldn’t be the first time that ESPN has switched gears on what league’s they promote. In 2002, something similar happened at ESPN as the NHL was left in the past for the network as they garnered the NBA rights. What happened just shortly after this? The NHL left ESPN in 2004 for NBC Sports.
That argument seems reasonable to believe, but here is another reason behind why ESPN might be covering the NHL better. ESPN has realized that the NHL is more valuable than what they might have thought. It is no secret that while this current television deal is much better for the NHL, they are still being pretty drastically underpaid. Currently, ESPN is paying $400M annually to broadcast the NHL, and with the ratings the league provides, it deserves more than that. ESPN and WBD have both seen the drastic positives to their networks during the months of both the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the NBA Playoffs. Both networks are averaging at least 1M viewers a night during that span! With this, and maybe some help from the original NHL on ESPN personalities (John Buccigross, Steve Levy, Linda Cohn), ESPN decided to use that as a reason to advertise the league more.
At the end of the day, with ESPN’s help, the NHL is currently seeing a resurgence in popularity throughout the United States. Viewership for the 2023-2024 season on ESPN is up 26% to start the year and has garnered all-time high numbers in addition to that. The bottom line is this, as long as ESPN and TNT continue to promote the league in the fashion that they are, the viewership will only continue to climb as this deal continues. The NHL’s resurgence in the United States is here.
