NHL on the hunt for new U.S. television deals

Disney, Skydance interested in renewing as team financial evaluations revealed; Blackhawks ranked eighth despite recent subpar seasons 

Historically lagging behind other sports leagues when it comes to television, the NHL is looking to make a big splash in landing another media rights deal.

The current seven-year pact with ESPN and TNT Sports expires at the end of next season. And the league is already gearing up for negotiations that the league hopes will bring in more revenue. According to a CNBC report released Friday, the NHL is looking for rates increases ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent in their next television deal, with negotiations set to begin at the start of the new year.

The NHL returned to ESPN in 2021 after seventeen years away, and added TNT Sports (then known as Turner Sports) for the first time. Games were added to Turner’s HBO Max, and ESPN added games on ESPN+, Disney +, and Hulu. 

The league is looking for increases as the sports’ popularity continues to grow. Last season’s NHL playoffs was the most-watched on record with 1.8 million viewers on average, and the 2026 Stanley Cup Finals matchup between Vegas Golden Knights and the Carolina Hurricanes drew the biggest viewership since 2019 and the most-watched Stanley Cup Finals since 1994 –  despite the absence of more well-known teams in the playoffs, such as the New York Rangers, Chicago Blackhawks, and Pittsburgh Penguins, and some terrible Winter Classic matchups.

The NHL also benefitted from contests featuring its stars – including the Four Nations Face-Off (which this writer made a huge ratings miscalculation) and this Winter Olympics where the United States won the gold medal over archrival Canada for the first time in 46 years.

Both events also created some dramatic and juicy storylines that’s carried over into this NHL season with the departures of American hockey players Brady Tkachuk and Connor Hellebuyck – both who were on Team USA, departed the Ottawa Senators and Winnipeg Jets, respectively for the Florida Panthers and New Jersey Devils, leaving fans from both Canadian franchises scorned and angry.

Adding to Canadian fans’ discontent was the end of Hockey Night In Canada featuring NHL games after 74 years, as games shifted exclusively to Rogers’ SportsNet cable channels in a new twelve-year deal with Monday’s (Sportsnet +) and Wednesday’s games (Prime Video) exclusively to streaming, leaving fans without a cable or streaming subscription with no access to games.

And let’s not forget the success of HBO Max’s Heated Rivalry, as the Canadian-based hockey drama has drawn more than ten million viewers.

So will all of this translate into a bigger payday for the NHL in their next TV deal?

Disney will likely have an easier time renewing than TNT Sports, as parent company Warner Bros. Discovery merged with Paramount as both are under the Skydance umbrella. The merger left Skydance with $80 billion in debt, and with the company looking to retain the NFL, the NHL might not be a priority.

Should Skydance leave, the NHL will have several suitors as the second-rights holder. For one, Nexstar’s The CW is always looking for sports properties to add, as it expands its sports portfolio and has expressed interest. Versant, home to USA Network and the aforementioned CNBC, also could be a landing spot. Streamers could be an option such as Amazon Prime, which already has streaming rights in Canada on Wednesday nights.

Blackhawks struggle, but still valuable

With the upcoming renewal of its TV deal as a backdrop, the NHL and CNBC released its team valuations on Friday, on how each team stacks up financially. Despite several recent subpar seasons, the Blackhawks ranked eighth among all NHL teams, valued at $3.35 billion, with $294 million in revenue and $101 million in gate receipts. The team averaged 18,129 at the United Center last season.

Finishing first in CNBC’s valuation was – no surprise, the Toronto Maple Leafs, worth $5.4 billion, followed by fellow Original Six franchises the New York Rangers and the Montreal Canadiens. Finishing dead last in 32nd place was the Columbus Blue Jackets. 

The ranking comes as the Blackhawks are still in a rebuild – as evidenced by the team’s 5-13-1 start so far this season, despite a young budding star in Connor Bedard and the return of Patrick Kane, who helped the team win three Stanley Cups in the 2010s. Apparently, it was the Stanley Cup run and being an Original Six franchise that has helped the team maintain its strong value, despite numerous missteps in recent years, including a 2021 scandal that tarnished the organization. 

The team’s struggles has generated tons of local press in recent weeks and is also talk of the hockey world (it’s similar to the Dallas Cowboys, which hasn’t had much success in the last three decades but is still one of the most valuable NFL franchises.) On a recent TNT telecast where they played the Florida Panthers, analyst Paul Bissonette blasted the Blackhawks for being “soft” as the team played poorly and lost.

But the game on November 4 drew 454,000 viewers – quite respectable for the NHL, and one of the reasons why the Blackhawks has seventeen national appearances this season (sorry Biz, you’re stuck with them for at several more appreances this year.)

Local Blackhawks games air on the three-year-old Chicago Sports Network (CHSN), which is owned jointly by the team, the Chicago Bulls, and Chicago White Sox with Standard Media s a partner. Unlike several NHL teams that added over-the-air stations to reach more fans as the regional sports network business collapses, the Blackhawks have no such arrangement.