In a big break in the NHL US TV rights bidding, John Ourand of Sports Business Journal tells us that two prospective networks have dropped out.
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Turner, Fox pull out of NHL bidding. ESPN, NBC are left. SBD’s Closing Bell has the story.less than a minute ago via web 
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John Ourand
Ourand_SBJ
This leaves ESPN and Comcast which means the bidding is between NBC and ESPN.
John quotes Turner Sports President David Levy saying: “The NHL is an attractive property, but we couldn’t come up with a business model that served our interests.”
No comment from Fox as of yet.
NBC/Comcast has right of first refusal and can match any offer ESPN puts forth. This now becomes the first sports rights battleground between the new NBC Sports Group and Disney.
We’ll see where this goes from here.
