NHL’s US TV Rights Have Been Awarded To…..

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Sports Business Journal’s John Ourand is reporting that NBC/Versus has retained the NHL’s US TV rights and possibly more. That is a big win for the NBC Sports Group as it keeps the National Hockey League in the fold and could have hockey to promote if it gets the rights to the 2014 Olympics.

Yesterday we learned that Fox and Turner had dropped out of the bidding leaving NBC/Comcast and ESPN to bid for the NHL. NBC/Comcast had right of last refusal for the rights. Hoping to get some details. More to follow.

UPDATE, 9:00 a.m.: The NHL and NBC have announced a conference call for 1 p.m. ET today in which they’ll announce details of the new agreement. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and NBC Sports Emperor Dick Ebersol will be on hand for the official announcement. Once a press release is issued, I’ll post it here. First big win for NBC Universal under the Comcast leadership.

UPDATE, 9:35 a.m.: Here’s the announcement from the NHL on who will be in attendance at the conference call:

NEW YORK (April 19, 2011) – The National Hockey League and the NBC Sports Group will make a major announcement on a media conference call TODAY at 1 p.m. ET. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Sports Group will participate along with additional NHL and NBC Sports Group executives.

WHO: Gary Bettman, NHL Commissioner, Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Sports Group,  Additional NHL and NBC Sports Group executives

“Additional NBC Sports Group executives” probably means people from Versus and the NHL on NBC crew.

UPDATE, 9:55 a.m.: Greg Wyshynski of Yahoo’s Puck Daddy shares the following information:
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Very interesting. It means the NHL won’t be on ESPN, Turner, Fox or any other entity other than the NBC Sports Group for at least a decade.

UPDATE, 10:05 a.m.: More details of the NHL bidding are coming out. Ben Grossman, Editor-in-Chief of Broadcasting & Cable notes that ESPN only wanted one game a week and did not wish to bid on the entire package. This now makes entire sense as to why this moved very quickly towards NBC/Versus.
.bbpBox60330328291684353 {background:url(http://a3.twimg.com/a/1302724321/images/themes/theme1/bg.png) #C0DEED;padding:20px;} p.bbpTweet{background:#fff;padding:10px 12px 10px 12px;margin:0;min-height:48px;color:#000;font-size:18px !important;line-height:22px;-moz-border-radius:5px;-webkit-border-radius:5px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata{display:block;width:100%;clear:both;margin-top:8px;padding-top:12px;height:40px;border-top:1px solid #fff;border-top:1px solid #e6e6e6} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author{line-height:19px} p.bbpTweet span.metadata span.author img{float:left;margin:0 7px 0 0px;width:38px;height:38px} p.bbpTweet a:hover{text-decoration:underline}p.bbpTweet span.timestamp{font-size:12px;display:block}

More information to follow as I receive it.

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