In early April, I predicted that NBC might pick up the NHL broadcast deal on the cheap.
In the NY Times, Richard Sandomir reports: N.H.L. Games Go to NBC Next Season
NBC will carry a regionalized package of regular-season games on six or seven Saturday afternoons, followed by playoff games every Saturday until the Stanley Cup finals, when the network will pick up coverage with Game 3 and continue through Game 7, if necessary.
The league will not receive the kind of upfront fees that are common in most network television contracts….In this deal, which is structured like the one NBC has with the Arena Football League, the network and the N.H.L. will share revenue. NBC will take the first chunk to cover its production and distribution costs, and the cost of pre-empting other programming during the Stanley Cup finals. The league will then get the major part of the next set of revenue, and then an even split of what remains.
