On June 7, 2004, the Tampa Bay Lightning closed out the Stanley Cup Final with a 2-1 win over the Calgary Flames in Game 7.
There were no posts from overjoyed Lightning fans on Instagram or TikTok. No viral memes to share on Twitter. No discussions about the Game 7 heroics of Tampa Bay goalie Nikolai Khabibulin on WhatsApp or Reddit. No championship merchandise to show off on Pinterest. No rides home from Amalie Arena on Uber or Lyft to grab a late dinner from DoorDash paid for with Venmo.
Seventeen years ago none of those technological advancements that now seem so common existed. (Some things remain the same: The Lightning are two-time defending Stanley Cup champions).
That also marked the last National Hockey League game — shown on ABC to a reported 6.3 million people — to air on the Disney family of networks, and it is into that world that the NHL will embark on new media deals with not one but two partners: the resumption of a relationship with Disney (NYSE: DIS) and the launch of another with Turner Sports.
It’s perhaps the biggest part of one of the most seismic business seasons one league has ever had. Never in recent memory has a major professional league introduced two new rights-paying TV partners, an expansion team and a new arena in the same season.
But the presence of Disney and Turner, the Seattle Kraken and Long Island’s UBS Arena also come in a season that would be critical for another reason: This will be the NHL’s first full 82-game schedule since 2018-19 and will take place against the ongoing realities of the pandemic.
If that weren’t enough, the league’s players will return to the Olympics for the first time since 2014, its three marquee stadium events and All-Star Game will take place for the first time in two years and its reigning champion will try to pull off the first three-peat in a major North American team sport since the NBA’s Los Angeles Lakers won three straight from 1999-2000 through 2001-02.
Perhaps the broadest change for the NHL in this season of opportunity comes through its deals with Disney and Turner, which are separate seven-year, agreements that average up to $625 million annually, according to sources. They start at a time that digital and social media are more a part of the strategy than ever before, and that will heavily influence how both properties present the sport to the public.
“As someone who has been in the media business for quite a while, you can see the seismic shift that’s coming with digital,” said the NHL’s David Proper, executive vice president of international and media strategy. “We’re going to be at the forefront in terms of how that is going to develop as a result of these deals.”
For the last 16 years, NBC exclusively held the NHL’s domestic media rights. Before that, however, ESPN and ABC served as the U.S. home for the sport from 1992 to 2004 (viewers will be glad to know that the network’s iconic hockey theme music is returning).
In its first season back, Disney will broadcast 103 exclusive regular-season games across ABC, ESPN, ESPN+ and Hulu, while this season will mark the first of four Stanley Cup Finals aired over the deal’s term.
ESPN’s first game back will be, appropriately, in Tampa, where the Lightning open defense of their title against the Penguins. Meanwhile, Turner Sports, which has never had a deal with the NHL, boasts a 50-game regular-season slate starting Oct. 13. That will include the NHL’s three outdoor games: Winter Classic (Wild vs. Blues, Jan. 1), Stadium Series (Predators vs. Lightning, Feb. 22) and Heritage Classic (Maple Leafs vs. Sabres, March 13).
“This really is what we hope will be a paradigm-shifting deal in how we acquire rights at The Walt Disney Company,” said Ilan Ben-Hanan, ESPN’s senior vice president of programming and acquisitions.
More than 1,000 out-of-market regular-season games will appear on ESPN+, as well as 75 contests on Hulu. Tying in that kind of digital content, as well as emphasizing social media to enhance and complement game coverage; exposing the NHL’s brand to new and younger fans; and leaning into heightened access to players and coaches are all appealing elements to both networks’ plans.
“We’re storytellers,” said Linda Cohn, host of the ESPN+ nightly hockey show “In The Crease.” “We’re going to create those emotional connections that the casual sports fan may not have with an NHL player, with an NHL team, with an NHL coach. It’s how you bring in new fans.”
That starts with access, both on and off the ice, and it is one of the key facets of the strategy for both Disney and Turner Sports. It’s being driven by league and player buy-in but also newer technologies and continued emphasis on social media platforms, that at least in ESPN’s case, were hardly existent during their last cycle of NHL rights.
“Access is something that we know that fans crave to get closer to the players and closer to the game,” said ESPN’s Mark Gross, senior vice president of production and remote events who will oversee the network’s coverage of the sport. “I don’t know if we knew that close to 20 years ago that that would be a selling point.”
What is a player’s lifestyle like in the offseason? How do some players dress for game days? What shoes do they wear away from the rink? It’s all a part of “cultural access,” said Craig Barry, executive vice president and chief content officer at Turner Sports.
“This all sounds so simple,” he added, “but then suddenly you have a touchpoint for casual fans who may have something in common with a player or it reinforces that they really like a certain player.”
Turner’s sports cultural and lifestyle brand Bleacher Report, and its newly launched hockey vertical B/R Open Ice, will be key in “exposing the players for the superstars they are,” according to Bennett Spector, B/R’s senior vice president of programming.
“We get to build a hockey brand for the next generation,” said Spector, citing the company’s seven-plus million self-identified hockey fans across its digital properties, including its website, app and social platforms. “They’re already getting a product that’s news and information, and now we get to unlock all the entertainment and storytelling that we do so well.”
Turner also plans to leverage the broader Bleacher Report portfolio — including the popular B/R Kicks and B/R Gaming, among other franchises — for distribution. For example, “Underrated” is a newer content series developed by Bleacher Report, which works with sports gaming publishers such as EA Sports. There are plans for select episodes of NHL players performing different skills in the game to get their ratings up. And while integrating real-time highlights will remain an ingredient for Bleacher Report, showcasing “everything that surrounds the game,” as Spector puts it, will be central to its NHL coverage.
ESPN likewise carries a massive social footprint that the league is eager to benefit from. “Not only on the linear side but on the social side, they have massive reach,” said Steve McArdle, NHL executive vice president of digital media and strategic planning, of ESPN’s “SportsCenter” brand, which has nearly 80 million followers across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. “Being integrated into that platform in new and different ways is exciting for us.”
For its NHL coverage plans, ESPN’s Gross said “speed, skills and strategy” are the three cornerstones to the company’s approach. It’s why ESPN will have a camera positioned in the Toronto-based replay room to begin the 2021-22 season, the first time an NHL broadcast partner will do so. ESPN hired Dave Jackson, a retired 25-year NHL referee, to break down the on-ice calls. Both Turner and Disney will continue to integrate an ice-level analyst between the teams’ benches, a measure first enacted by NBC Sports.
Though Gross couldn’t disclose specifics, he did say ESPN is “exploring more aggressive camera placements” for documenting goals and providing more comprehensive and detailed replay sequences. Meanwhile, he added that Disney will utilize microphones for players and coaches.
The NHL’s puck and player tracking system, which the league first tested at the 2019 All-Star Game in San Jose, will also be widely deployed at all 32 NHL venues beginning in 2021-22. Though a specific timeline wasn’t provided for when hockey fans could see the data woven into game broadcasts for the two U.S. partners, the NHL’s McArdle said “we hope to see it early in the season.”
There will be new programming too. “The Point,” a Thursday afternoon show on ESPN2, will debut on Oct. 12 and feature a rotating cast of hosts including John Buccigross and Arda Ocal. Cohn’s “In The Crease” will be the nightly hockey postgame show on ESPN+. Turner’s pregame show, hosted by Liam McHugh, will be called “Faceoff,” while its postgame show will be referred to as “NHL on TNT.”
Among Turner’s newly-hired analysts is Wayne Gretzky, and having the sport’s most famous player will lend unmistakable gravitas to this new era for the sport.
It’s just another sign that all involved are sure it will be a great one.
