Good morning. It’s Monday, April 20, 2011, and this is your weekly Sports article and editorial from Cyn opsis. If you’d like to comment on this story, there is a space for that below the article. Look for more of these in the future!
NHL Deals for Branding Opportunities
In the end, platforms and promotion were worth as much as the dollars for the National Hockey League, which announced its deal with NBC Sports Group yesterday worth a reported $2 billion over the next ten years.
Under the deal, which runs through the 2020-21 NHL season, NBC will remain the exclusive network home for games with Versus (soon to be renamed and rebranded) continuing on as the cable home. The agreement calls for the NBC Sports Group to televise 100 games during the regular season each year.
Versus will showcase around 90 of those games, up from about 50 games this season. In addition, NBC/Versus will get exclusive rights to playoff games starting with the second round for the first time as well as online streaming rights to all their games.
For NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, the newly-combined reach from the Comcast/NBC Universal merger was a deal maker.
“We always viewed, during the process when the two entities were combining to be the largest media distribution company perhaps in the world, that we could perhaps be the single biggest beneficiary of the synergies that these two great companies could bring together,” said Bettman. “The twenty networks, the forty digital platforms, all of that will be at our disposal collectively to continue to grow the game.”
Turner Sports, Fox and ESPN were all part of the negotiations during the process, and an executive from one of those companies noted that ESPN’s bid on the cable rights was actually higher than what Versus was offering. Although NHL executives would not discuss financial terms of their agreement, they made clear that the synergies and promotional opportunities available to the league under one NBC/Comcast banner was a significant factor in their move.
“Those opportunities were absolutely as important as the dollars in our decision,” said John Collins, COO of the NHL. “It’s always important to get the proper value for your rights, but I think the real value in this deal is ultimately how we share our vision and how we executive that vision. Those platforms they bring will allow us to be able to leverage and drive some of our other businesses and those goodies will help us continue to drive growth.”
The deal includes targeted promotion across the combined Comcast/NBCUniversal organization, and would lead to more exposure for the league on platforms that could include the USA Network, Syfy, E! and Bravo.
The partnership with both NBC and Versus officially began with the 2005-06 season and has since seen ratings growth of 84% over the least four years, with the 2011 NHL Winter Classic scoring as the most-watched regular season game in the U.S. in 36 years.
“There is absolutely nothing that fits the NBC Sports Group better on all platforms than the National Hockey League,” said Dick Ebersol, Chairman of NBC Sports Group. “Between the national cable rights, the broadcast rights, the digital rights, and the fact that the NHL is a significant part of some of our strongest RSNs. It brings the strength of that entire group of platforms that nothing else can.”
“The promise of what NBC Universal Comcast is,” said Bettman, “I think is extraordinarily exciting.”
In My Opinion
By outbidding competitors, NBC has flexed its newly collective muscle for the first time since the merger. With Versus now confirmed by Eberson to be undergoing a rebrand as an NBC Sports Network, and opportunities for play on USA and Syfy, that strength could work well as the company moves forward to bid on rights to the Pac-10 and the Olympics over the next few months. With Fox’s move to add sports to FX, as well as CBS renaming the CBS College Sports Network as the CBS Sports Network, it’s clear that cross-channel umbrellas are delivering marketing and distribution potential that is leaving the leagues salivating.
Comment freely below as to what you think about this story, about the idea of our having a Sports related edition, or anything else on your mind. Or, email Cynthia at Cynthia@Cynopsis.com or email Chris Purcell directly here.
Later — Chris
Chris Pursell for Cyn opsis | Sports
April 20, 2011
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