NBC/Comcast and NHL Agree on 10-year $2 Billion Deal for US TV Rights

Reports are out, including this one from Yahoo Sports' Puck Daddy blog, that the NHL is sticking with NBC/Versus for the next ten years. With Fox and Turner sports out of the running, the deal came down to either moving back to ESPN or continuing with the league's current broadcast partners. SBJ's John Ourand confirmed earlier reports of the duration and value of the deal on Twitter this morning. The NHL will receive $2 billion over the course of the next decade from NBC/Comcast to broadcast NHL games on both cable channel Versus and NBC affiliate stations. This deal represents a substantial increase in revenue from the flat fee of nearly $80 million from Versus and the revenue sharing arrangement with NBC. Next on the NHL's agenda will be renegotiating Canadian TV rights. The decision was not a free choice for the NHL. NBC and Versus had the right to match any deal that ESPN or another network could have struck with the league, limiting the NHL's options grea...