ESPN and TNT are hitting the ice with opening-week coverage of the 2023-24 National Hockey League season with high expectations for year three of the networks’ seven-year TV deals with the league.
TNT tonight (October 11) drops the puck on its 2023-24 season with a doubleheader which includes the game between the Chicago Blackhawks and rookie phenom Connor Bedard and the Boston Bruins, part of a 62-game regular season schedule that also features New Year’s Day coverage of the NHL Winter Classic featuring the Seattle Kraken and defending champion Vegas Golden Knights.
Warner Bros. Discovery Sports chief content officer Craig Barry said TNT will look to continue to mesh the action on the ice with technology to offer both hard-core and casual hockey fans a unique viewing experience.
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“We really want to lead into the data opportunity with puck speed and player tags to see what more we can do to drive the narrative,” he said. “We also want to try some new things as well as we move forward and think about how to apply technology for a better fan experience.”
Barry also pointed to the opportunities streamer Max’s new sports tier can provide to supplement TNT’s coverage, including potential alternative game feeds. “We like the simulcast approach where you can watch on TNT or you can watch on Max — the ability to stream games creates a lot more flexibility,” he said. “There are some options for alternative feeds that we can explore.”
Line Changes at Disney Nets
ESPN Tuesday night (October 10) launched its 2023-24 NHL coverage with a tripleheader. Overall, 34 games will be televised on ESPN and 16 contests will air on Disney broadcast sibling ABC. Another 50 games will stream on ESPN Plus.
ESPN senior manager of programming and acquisitions Eric Loh said this year’s regular-season TV schedule is equally balanced between cable/broadcast and streaming, providing exposure for the league on both platforms. That’s a major change from the 75 streaming and 25 linear telecasts the network offered in 2021, the first year of the contract.
“We have worked to continuously remind people that ESPN is the home of hockey over the past three years, so we’ve done that by changing up the balance of linear and [streaming] to try to reflect our commitment to the game throughout the regular season,” he said.
Among the highlights of the season is ESPN’s February 17 and 18 coverage of the NHL Stadium Series from MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, featuring the Philadelphia Flyers-New Jersey Devils and New York Rangers-New York Islanders games.
Also, ESPN and the NHL on October 24 will offer 16 games featuring all 32 teams, with games starting at staggered start times to give hockey fans an opportunity to sample every game across ESPN and ESPN Plus. In addition, ESPN2 will feature a “Frozen Frenzy” whip- around show, similar to the NFL’s RedZone channel, providing live look-ins as games are played.
“We will do our best to create an NHL Red Zone-style show that takes you around from game to game, highlighting all of the goals, hits and saves of the night and creating a frenzy that everyone enjoys on Sunday afternoons with the NFL,” he said.
