The NHL's new production operation will serve six teams ahead of U.S. rights talks
The NHL is debuting its own centralized production operation that will serve six teams this season, according to Sports Business Journal. The distribution agreements it negotiated for those clubs all include streaming via Amazon's Prime Video. Its growing local role could give the league more options for packaging national and local rights once exclusive U.S. talks with ESPN and TNT Sports open Jan. 1. Monday matinees for European prime time start Nov. 30.
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Key facts, context, and what it means.
Key takeaways
When exclusive U.S. rights talks open Jan. 1, the NHL's new centralized production operation will already be serving six teams, and the distribution deals for those clubs all include streaming via Prime Video.
The NHL and NBA are taking two different routes into local media: the NHL lets each club pick its own distribution, while the NBA plans a single streaming hub for 2027-28, the final season of the NHL's current U.S. national deals.
Clubs asked to host a Monday afternoon game have one benchmark so far: a Nashville pilot that drew 17,300, slightly above the Predators' season average. That figure measures the crowd in the building, though, and says nothing about the European TV audience the games are built for.
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Following the shuttering of Main Street Sports and Victory+, the NHL is debuting its own centralized production operation that will serve six teams this season, Sports Business Journal's Alex Silverman reported. The league has also negotiated distribution agreements on behalf of those clubs. The deals come in a variety of configurations. All of them include streaming via Amazon's Prime Video service.
The timing makes this bigger than a production contract. The league's U.S. national contracts with ESPN and TNT Sports are in their final stretch, and exclusive negotiating periods with those partners open Jan. 1. When exclusive U.S. rights talks open Jan. 1, the NHL will walk in already producing local games for six teams, every one of them streaming on Prime Video.
For anyone who prices, buys or distributes hockey, the useful question is what the league can now put on the table. Its larger role in local production and distribution suggests the answer could go beyond national games.
Six teams, one league production operation
The setup splits two jobs that regional networks have traditionally done together. The league handles production centrally, while distribution is arranged club by club in whatever configuration suits each market. Prime Video is the one constant across all six.
NHL Chief Media Officer David Proper has said the league chose to give teams flexibility on the local side rather than push them into a centralized streaming hub, which the NBA plans to launch in 2027-28. That leaves two models in the market. A club business executive on the NHL path hands production to the league but keeps a say in where its games are distributed. Under the NBA's model, the league picks one destination for everyone.
Silverman's reporting suggests the bigger payoff is at the national table: the league's growing local role could give it more ways to package national and local rights in its next negotiations. That is a possibility, not a plan the league has announced. Still, one streaming partner already carries local NHL games in six markets. For buyers, that arrangement could serve as a reference point if the league decides to bundle.
The NHL's rights calendar
Sports Business Journal
Canada is the settled side of the map. The Rogers Communications extension takes effect this season, giving the league an immediate revenue lift and long-term stability north of the border.
Monday afternoons, European evenings
The league's second media bet this season targets a different audience. Starting Nov. 30, "NHL Monday Night" will put nine afternoon games in North America on non-holiday Mondays, plus several games on Martin Luther King Jr. Day and Presidents Day. Those afternoon start times put the games live in European prime time.
Weekend afternoon games already land at reasonable hours in Europe. Julie Yufe, the NHL's new managing director of international, said they have to compete with domestic soccer and ordinary weekend plans, and that has held down viewing. A weeknight evening slot is meant to turn NHL viewing into a habit for European fans.
The evidence that North American crowds will show up comes from one game. Late last season, the Predators hosted the Detroit Red Wings on a Monday afternoon at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. The game drew 17,300 fans, slightly more than the team's average for the season. Hosting a weekday matinee did not cost that club its crowd.
There's a limit to that evidence, though. The pilot measured people in seats in one market. The point of the property is the European TV audience, and one Nashville attendance figure says nothing about that. The real test is whether European viewing grows over a nine-game run.
For a club scheduled for a Monday matinee, the fair comparison is the club's own season-average attendance. That's the yardstick the Nashville pilot was measured against, and it separates a weekday-afternoon effect from an ordinary soft night.
Who is running the business side
The board making these decisions has a new chairman. Boston Bruins owner Jeremy Jacobs stepped down after 19 years, and vice chairman Ted Leonsis of the Washington Capitals succeeds him. Leonsis already led the league's media and content committee. His organization was early into digital media and esports, and he was the first U.S. team owner to take investment from a sovereign wealth fund. As chairman, he will play a lead role in the league's position on expansion, on media and on succession planning for Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Leonsis, who already led the league's media and content committee, is now chairman of the board of governors. Three high-profile clubs also start the 2026-27 season with new top business executives:
- Pittsburgh Penguins: the Hoffmann Family of Companies bought a controlling interest from Fenway Sports Group at a $1.7 billion valuation, approved by the league in June. Team governor Geoff Hoffmann's group hired longtime Houston Astros executive Marcel Braithwaite as president of business operations.
- Edmonton Oilers: parent company OEG Sports & Entertainment hired Hugh Weber from MLS's Seattle Sounders as CEO. Weber was previously president of the New Jersey Devils and later of their parent, Harris Blitzer Sports & Entertainment.
- Florida Panthers: owner Vinnie Viola and his son, Michael, hired Michael White from Zoox, Amazon's robotaxi company, as president of business operations in March, then added Eric Clouse from Legends Global as chief commercial officer.
In Pittsburgh, Braithwaite has said his focus is upgrading PPG Paints Arena and laying the groundwork for development around it. That makes the new Penguins ownership one to watch for building and real estate work, alongside the league's media moves. In Florida, the new hires follow an executive exodus that began in the summer of 2025, after consecutive Stanley Cup titles.
Jan. 1 and the NBA's 2027-28 launch
The next date that matters is Jan. 1, when the exclusive windows with ESPN and TNT Sports open. The thing to watch is whether the league brings its local production into the national talks or keeps the two separate. If the six-team operation runs through the fall without trouble, the league has a stronger case for putting local rights in the same conversation.
The NBA intends to launch a centralized streaming hub in 2027-28. The NHL's U.S. national rights deals with ESPN and TNT Sports expire after the 2027-28 season. That timing suggests media buyers and club executives could soon compare two models: a league that gives teams flexibility on local distribution, and a league that steers them into one centralized hub.
Sources
- Ice Chips: A few things to keep an eye on in the NHL this season ↗ · Sports Business Journal
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