NHL Renews with NBC and Versus

[crashcarson15]

Well if NBC had the MLB rights they'd be showing the Yankees every Saturday...... just like FOX.

NBC Sports is the biggest joke. They have great commentators (Bob Costas, Al Michaels) but have the worst packages besides Sunday Night Football. They show way too little hockey on NBC besides the Stanley Cup Finals and have too much golf, tennis, college rugby, and one time i saw figure skating on NBC.

I take it you don't remember ABC starting their NHL package... in Mid-March.

I thought it was only ESPN2 that was going to get the NHL rights

Yeah with the offer ESPN had on the table it was gonna be ESPN2 all regular season. I was referring to the 99-04 deal where ABC aired a whopping 4 weeks of regular season hockey compared to NBC's (I believe in the new contract) 11 plus the Winter Classic

Right. But didn't ESPN/ABC get an offer for the 2005/06 season?

No. ESPN did not "get an offer" in 2005. They gave a proposal to the NHL, and it was lower than what Comcast/OLN gave the league.

In addition there is in your words "way too little hockey on NBC", because the current NBC deal does not involve broadcast rights fees, rather they split revenues with the NHL after the cost of production.

The new deal if I am correct, NBC starts airing games on Black Friday (day after Thanksgiving)

Yes, because NBC is now paying for the rights to show the games.