History of The National Hockey League On United States Television - 2010s

2010s

NBC did also televise the 2011 NHL Winter Classic between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals on January 1, 2011 from Pittsburgh. The Penguins become the first NHL team ever to play more than one outdoor game.

On April 19, 2011, NBC Sports and then Versus announced they had reached a ten-year extension (through 2020–2021) to the television contract with the National Hockey League worth nearly 2 billion dollars over the life of the contract. As part of the announcement, the chairman of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol announced that the Versus channel would be renamed "within 90 days," in order to reflect the synergy of the two networks after the Universal-Comcast merger. The said network was renamed the NBC Sports Network on January 2, 2012. Under this new contract, the NHL would get the following from NBC:

• A rights fee of roughly US$200,000,000 per year for the combined cable and broadcast rights, nearly triple that of the previous contract.
• An annual Thanksgiving Weekend game that will be aired on the Black Friday Shopping day. In 2011, it was between the Boston Bruins and Detroit Red Wings. A "Black Friday" game in 2012 between the Boston Bruins and the New York Rangers was canceled due to the 2012 NHL lockout.
• The NHL Winter Classic remaining on NBC on New Year's Day (the 2012 edition was played on January 2; the 2013 game was canceled as a result of the 2012 lockout; the 2014 game between Detroit and Toronto at Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, Michigan, will be played on the evening of January 1, 2014).
• A national "Game of the Week".
• The annual Hockey Day in America.
• Digital rights across all platforms for any games broadcast by NBC or NBC Sports Network
• Increased coverage of Stanley Cup Playoff games (all playoff games will be aired nationally on NBC, NBC Sports Network, or if necessary, another NBC-owned network), with NBC's cable partners getting exclusive in-market rights to all games after the opening round.
• Continued sharing of the Stanley Cup Final with NBC Sports Network (NBC aired Games 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7 in 2012; the network will air Games 1, 4, and if needed 5,6, and 7 of the 2013 Finals; a similar pattern is expected to continue in future years).

As part of the NHL's new American TV contract with NBC, this will be the first time that all playoff games will air nationally in the United States on NBC and NBC Sports Network, with overflow feeds airing on CNBC and NHL Network. American regional sports networks and broadcast TV stations holding local rights to NHL teams will still carry their teams' first round games not on NBC's broadcast network, but games from the second round onward are exclusive to one of NBC's networks.