Much of the 2020-21 NHL season was a waiting game for fans.
Waiting on key dates, waiting on games to start and, for some markets, waiting for the chance to be let into a limited capacity building to actually watch hockey in person.
And for those that want to stream their local team’s games, in at least 13 American NHL markets, the wait seems like it’s frustratingly going to continue.
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Both Hulu and YouTube TV dropped the 21 Sinclair-owned Fox Sports regional networks from their offerings in October, joining Sling and FuboTV among their streaming cohorts to not carry the regional sports networks.
This impacts NHL fans in Arizona, Carolina, Detroit, Florida, Tampa, St. Louis, Minnesota, Columbus, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Dallas, Nashville and Tampa. It also impacts 17 NBA franchises and will soon impact 14 MLB teams when that season rolls around in a couple of months.
There are also disputes between NESN and streaming services in Boston, and the MSG Networks, which carry the three New York area teams.
NESN released a statement last week that said, “There are no ongoing discussions with YouTube TV for carriage at this time. We offered our most favorable rates and terms last September, and received no offer in return. NESN would certainly like to be back on their platform but their decision to subsequently drop NESN, and over 20 other RSNs across the country, suggests they no longer wish to serve local sports fans.”
If you want to stream the game locally, the only option in most markets is AT&T TV or having a traditional cable subscription and logging into Fox Sports Go or a similar service that MSG and NESN offer. It’s not a complete local blackout, but for many fans who have embraced streaming services, it’s causing considerable frustrations, which has surfaced on social media across the league.
When The Athletic’s St. Louis Blues beat writer Jeremy Rutherford tweeted about Fox Sports Midwest broadcast crew on opening night, he was quickly reminded in his replies that many Blues fans weren’t able to access the broadcast. In Los Angeles, Kings play-by-play broadcaster Alex Faust wished a happy birthday to a fan earlier this week who mentioned on Twitter that she had to switch back to cable to watch the Kings.
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Fights between television providers and regional sports networks aren’t a new thing, but the COVID-19 pandemic has escalated the battle between the Sinclair-owned stations and providers.
Contracts with YouTube TV and Hulu originally ran out in early 2020, but with the NHL and NBA returning, combined with MLB games, the sides worked out an extension until October. When the deal expired at that point, it was a dead time in sports programming, and without much pressure to get games on the air, providers felt less pressure to get something done.
And with less reason to even look for regional sports networks on the channel guide, it makes sense that many fans didn’t even realize they were missing something until they tried to watch a live game for the first time in December or January.
“Providers want these disputes to happen during a dead period,” said Lee Berke, president and CEO of LHB Sports, Entertainment & Media, Inc. “When there isn’t a demand for content, the games, there isn’t the outside pressure from viewers. In most of these disputes, something finally gets figured out when the demand starts to reach a new high.”
According to Patrick Crakes, a former Fox Sports executive, that demand and threshold should reach it’s highest point in April when NBA and NHL teams are in playoff pushes and the MLB season is starting on April 1.
Until then, however, the prognosis isn’t great if you are a streaming subscriber and want to watch your local NHL team in one of the impacted markets.
You can change services, which in most markets means switching to AT&T TV, or simply wait and hope a deal is worked out sooner than later.
NHL teams are caught in an awkward situation, where internal frustration has been bubbling up, but teams can’t or won’t say anything publicly since they are still receiving checks from the rightsholders and don’t want to step into the middle of an argument.
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Even when a team’s representatives can speak out, like Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban floated alternative options on local radio, it’s not a reality.
In an interview on The Ticket 96.7 FM/1310 in Dallas, Cuban said, “Look, I’ve had conversations where we were going to get all the teams impacted by this and try to work out a deal, work together, create our own virtual digital cable system. I’m looking at every option possible. It just is what it is.”
The Athletic followed up with Cuban on that statement in an email this week, particularly the idea he floated about creating an own virtual digital cable system.
“(N)ot going to happen. (I’m) waiting it out like everyone else involved,” Cuban said in an email.
Sinclair, which absorbed a $4.2 billion loss in 2020 on regional sports networks, has been more vocal about trying to pressure providers. Sinclair launched a website, getmyhometeams.com, that splashes the claim that, “Hulu + Live TV & YouTube TV took your favorite teams away … and still raised your monthly bill.”
YouTube TV and Hulu have been more muted on the front since dropping the programming in October. According to Crakes, there is more pressure on Hulu to figure something out in the short term, for a company that has leaned heavily into a “Hulu has live sports,” campaign, it would probably be wise to actually have live local sports.
While streaming numbers are growing, there are still more fans watching on traditional cable. AT&T for example has more than eight times the number of television subscribers, but the demographic that is embracing streaming is one that the NHL doesn’t want to miss out on, according to Berke.
“It’s a younger demographic that’s used to streaming most things, and for NHL teams, or any team, to grow new fans and viewership patterns, you want to be in that space,” Berke said. “That’s why I’m sure you are hearing about some frustrations from NHL teams on not being on those platforms.”
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For the fans looking for a solution, it frustratingly boils down to the reality of changing your provider or having to wait for local broadcasts to return, maybe once the pressure of an upcoming MLB season arrives for the regional sports networks.
“It’s not ideal for us either way,” one NHL team executive said. “We are kind of stuck, and as much as I want to give you an answer or an answer to our fans, I don’t know what to say until those two parties figure something out.”
(Photo: Patrick Gorski / Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
