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For the past year this blog has covered what is normally a category that “takes care of itself”. A few years back the NHL couldn’t get NBC to move past the 220m mark for broadcast revenue and so Bally Sports and ESPN came in more than doubling that mark, for about a year. 220m from Bally and 330m from ESPN with customers needing up to 4 subscriptions if they weren’t using a VPN.
Yesterday we covered Bally and the “under the radar” insertion of Amazon into the mix. Yesterday also marked the end of ESPN to have exclusive negotiating rights with the NBA and that IS going to affect the entire platform if Apple, Youtube or Amazon make a deal too good to pass up.
Bally’s bakruptcy resulted in 2 markets (Chicago and AZ) leaving the provider and the remaining markets taking a 20% discount. ESPN is now bound for complete transition to streaming and risks losing (more than the NBA fans) advertising revenue. While collegiate basketball saw a big surge a superstar in the women’s division has moved on to the WNBA, a league subsidized by the NBA. It may be hitting now how much of a shift this could be.
You know the NHL has been making 330m, the NBA has been getting 2.7B and the ask is 70b over 10 years now. “Never going to happen” is the popular response. Right up until you see Netflix, Google, Apple and Amazon’s pockets and what they could do to pull fans over to their subscription service. Apple seems to be securing FIFA worldwide, final numbers aren’t in yet.
So, what is the big deal? Going to streaming puts the NBA in a much more adaptable world wide model. Even at 1.4m regular season per game that’s around double the NHL’s average numbers. The NHL has added advertising to jerseys, helmets, virtual, etc but been hit with tough costs as well. All of a sudden the 2 partner deal in Bally’s and ESPN may be a casualty as a lot of ad revenue from global brands will still follow the league.
For the past year, the coverage of this has been exhausting and incredible. 10 years ago roughly 100 million homes had cable subscriptions. On average, $10 per home (whether they watched or not) went to ESPN and parent properties. As of now it looks like cord cutting may be down below 70 million homes with 2/3s of viewers saying they don’t use the product they’re forced to pay for.
Whatever shapes up for 2025 we’re seeing cost cutting measures (draft), a team finally pulled from an ownership group that was pulling down average league revenues with an NHLPA keeping a close eye. If last year’s changes weren’t enough to keep an eye open, this summer’s result in the changing landscape clearly ups the ante.
Let me know your thoughts. There is a way for the NHL to take advantage of the changing tide with a growing global fan base and potentially offset some of the changes. They just have to find the right partner for that dance.
Detroit Red Wings Blogger • 
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