The Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes are one of four teams that will have their game telecasts produced and distributed by the NHL for the upcoming season.The league announced Tuesday that the Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues will also have local broadcasts done by NHL Productions when the season begins in late September.The NHL branching out into centralized production of local telecasts is another part of the evolution and challenges faced by teams with the demise of regional sports networks. Seven franchises had agreements last season with Main Street Sports, including the aforementioned four teams. Main Street operated 15 regional channels under the FanDuel Sports Network brand and went out of business at the conclusion of this past season.“I think we’ve been looking at this day for a long time. If something happened in the middle of last season, we would’ve been quickly able to mobilize and not miss a beat,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s president of events and content. “In some ways, this is a lot of time from the end of one season to the beginning of the next in terms of being able to do what we ultimately want to make it a great production.”
Major League Baseball started producing local broadcasts in 2023 and is handling 15 teams this season. The NBA expects to have a centralized streaming hub ready for the 2027-28 season.“It’s a crazy time in the media space. I mean, there’s just no getting around it. Whether you’re talking about the distributions, partnerships, production, everything is evolving,” NHL chief media officer and senior EVP David Proper said. “When you have this kind of sea change as to what’s going on at one time while the industry itself is changing, it’s a lot to address in a relatively short offseason.”
