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| NHL on ABC | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Also known as | ABC Hockey Saturday |
| Genre | Hockey telecasts |
| Presented by | Sean McDonough Ray Ferraro Emily Kaplan Bob Wischusen Ryan Callahan Leah Hextall Mike Monaco A. J. Mleczko Blake Bolden Dave Jackson Steve Levy John Buccigross Mark Messier P. K. Subban Arda Ocal Kevin Weekes |
| Theme music composer | Bob Christianson |
| Country of origin | United States |
| Original language | English |
| No. of seasons | 2 (1993–1994 version) 5 (2000–2004 version) 7 (2021 version) 14 (total) |
| Production | |
| Production locations | Various NHL arenas (game telecasts and some pregame, intermission segments, and occasional postgame) ESPN's Bristol, CT studios (pregame, intermission segments, and occasional postgame) |
| Camera setup | Multi-camera |
| Running time | 180 minutes or until the end of the game |
| Production companies | ABC Sports (1993–1994; 2000–2004) ESPN (2000–2004; 2021–present) |
| Original release | |
| Network | ABC ESPN+ (simulcasts, 2021–present) ESPNEWS (overflow during doubleheader weeks) |
| Release | April 18, 1993 – May 1, 1994 |
| Release | February 6, 2000 – June 7, 2004 |
| Release | November 26, 2021 – present |
| Related | |
| |
The NHL on ABC is an American presentation of National Hockey League (NHL) games produced by ESPN, and televised on ABC in the United States.
The network first broadcast NHL games during the 1993 Stanley Cup playoffs on April 18, 1993, under a two-year time-buy agreement with ESPN. After two years, the NHL left ABC for newcomer Fox, while remaining with ESPN.
As part of a joint contract with ESPN, which was reached right before the 1998–99 season, the NHL returned to ABC on February 6, 2000, with their coverage of the 2000 NHL All-Star Game in Toronto. Regular season game telecasts returned to ABC on March 18, 2000. ABC also gained the rights to select weekend games from each round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the last five games of the Stanley Cup Finals.[1] After the 2004 Stanley Cup Finals, the NHL left ABC again, this time for NBC because Disney executives admitted that they overpaid for the 1999–2004 deal. ESPN, who was set to continue with the NHL, later dropped it from their schedules after the 2004–05 lockout.
On March 10, 2021, ESPN announced a new contract to hold half of the NHL's media rights beginning in the 2021–22 season. In this deal, ABC will broadcast up to 10 regular season games per season, primarily late-season games of the week (branded as ABC Hockey Saturday presented by Expedia for sponsorship purposes), and the All-Star Game. ABC exclusively televises the Stanley Cup Finals in even-numbered years. All games carried by ABC are streamed on ESPN+.
History
Before the 1992–93 NHL season
After being dropped by NBC after the 1974–75 season,[2][3][4] the NHL had no national television contract in the United States.[5][6][7] In response to this, the league put together a network of independent stations covering approximately 55% of the country.[8][9][10]
Games typically aired on Monday nights[11] (beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time) or Saturday afternoons. The package was offered to local stations without a rights fee.[12] Profits would instead be derived from the advertising, which was about evenly split between the network and the local station. The Monday night games were often billed as "The NHL Game of the Week."[13]
Initially, the Monday night package was marketed to ABC affiliates; the idea being that ABC carried NFL football games on Monday nights in the fall and (starting in May 1976) Major League Baseball games on Monday nights in the spring and summer, stations would want the hockey telecasts to create a year-round Monday night sports block; however, very few ABC stations chose to pick up the package.
In 1979, ABC was contracted to televise Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.[14][15] Since the Finals ended in five games, the contract was void.[16] Had there been a seventh game, then Al Michaels would have called play-by-play alongside Bobby Clarke (color commentator). Jim McKay would host the seventh game in the studio and Frank Gifford (reporter) would have been in the winning team's dressing room to interview players and coaches as well as hand the phone to the winning team's coach that would have allowed him to talk to both President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau). This would give Michaels the honor of being the first to provide the play-by-play in four of the five major professional sports, having called the Super Bowl, the World Series, and NBA Finals. The game would have started at 4 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on a Saturday, replacing Wide World of Sports and local news shows that typically followed it on ABC stations in the Eastern and Central time zones.
It was also around this time that ABC offered the NHL a limited deal (splitting the network and showing the NHL in the Northeast and Midwest and NASCAR in the South on Sunday afternoons) that NHL president John Ziegler Jr.[17] quickly rejected.
ABC's coverage of the Winter Olympics
Even though ABC didn't yet televise National Hockey League games, they were the American network broadcast home of the Winter Olympic Games beginning in 1964 and continuing through the 1988 Winter Games in Calgary. For the ice hockey events, they employed Curt Gowdy for play-by-play duties during their 1968 and 1976 Winter Games broadcasts (NBC had the broadcasting rights for the 1972 Games in the interim). Gowdy worked with Brian Conacher for the 1976 ice hockey events.
Four years later, at the 1980 Winter Olympics in Lake Placid, ABC was on hand for a medal-round men's ice hockey game that would soon become known the "Miracle on Ice." On February 22, 1980, the United States team, made up of amateur and collegiate players and led by coach Herb Brooks, defeated the heavily-favored Soviet team, which consisted of veteran professional players with significant experience in international play. The rest of the United States (except those who watched the game live on Canadian television) had to wait to see the game, as ABC decided to broadcast the late-afternoon game on tape delay in prime time.[18] Sportscaster Al Michaels, who was calling the game on ABC along with former Montreal Canadiens goalie Ken Dryden, picked up on the countdown in his broadcast and delivered his famous call:[19][20]
Eleven seconds, you've got ten seconds, the countdown going on right now! Morrow, up to Silk. Five seconds left in the game. Do you believe in miracles? YES!
Al Michaels continued serving as ABC's lead play-by-play announcer for their ice hockey coverage for their next two Winter Olympics, both with lead color commentator Ken Dryden. For their coverage of the ice hockey events at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo, Mike Eruzione (the captain of the gold medal-winning United States ice hockey team from 1980) worked with Don Chevrier. Four years later, for ABC's final Winter Olympics, Eruzione was this time paired with Jiggs McDonald.
ABC Radio coverage (1989–1991)
In 1989,[21] the NHL signed a two-year contract (lasting through the 1990–91 season) with ABC Radio for the broadcast rights to the All-Star Game and Stanley Cup Finals.[22][23] ABC Radio named Don Chevrier and Phil Esposito as their main commentating crew.[24][25][26]
Time-buy deal with ESPN (1993–1994)
In the 1992–93 season, ABC televised five weekly playoff telecasts[27] (the first three weeks were regional coverage of various games and two national games)[28][29] on Sunday afternoons starting on April 18 and ending on May 16.[30][31][32] This marked the first time that playoff National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television[33][34] since 1975 (when NBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner).[35]
In the 1993–94 season, ABC televised six[36] weekly regional telecasts[28][29] on the last three Sunday afternoons beginning on March 27, 1994, marking the first time that regular season National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television[34] since NBC did it in 1974–75.[37] ABC then televised three weeks worth of playoff games on first three Sundays[38][39] – the final game was Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Semifinals between the Boston Bruins and the New Jersey Devils, a game that was aired nationally. The network did not televise the Stanley Cup Finals, which instead, were televised nationally by ESPN and by Prime Ticket in Los Angeles (1993) and MSG Network in New York (1994). Games televised on ABC were not subject to blackout.
These broadcasts (just as was the case with the 2000–2004 package) were essentially, time-buys[40] by ESPN.[41][42] In other words, ABC would sell three-hour blocks of airtime to ESPN,[43] who in return, would produce and distribute the telecasts.[34] Overall, ABC averaged a 1.7 rating for those two seasons.[44][45][46]
When the NHL television contract went up for negotiation in early 1994, Fox (which was in the process of launching its sports division after acquiring the rights to the National Football Conference of the NFL) and CBS (which was hoping to land a major sports contract to replace the NFL rights that they lost to Fox and Major League Baseball rights that they lost to ABC and NBC) competed heavily for the package. On September 9, 1994, the National Hockey League reached a five-year, US$155 million contract with Fox[47] for the broadcast television rights to the league's games, beginning with the 1994–95 season.[48]
Announcers
Studio host
Play-by-play
Color commentators
Reporters
Schedules
1993–94
| Date | Teams | Start times (All times Eastern) | Commentator crews |
|---|---|---|---|
| March 27[50][51][52][53] | Boston at Washington Detroit at Chicago[54] New York Rangers at Winnipeg Los Angeles at Vancouver |
1 p.m. 2 p.m. 2 p.m. 3 p.m. |
Sam Rosen, Joe Micheletti, and Brenda Brenon Tom Mees, Darren Pang, and Bob Neumeier Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and Al Morganti Bob Miller and John Davidson |
| April 3[55] | Boston at Pittsburgh Dallas at Washington[56][57][58] St. Louis at Detroit[59] Edmonton at Los Angeles |
1 p.m. 1 p.m. 1 p.m. 4 p.m. |
Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and Al Morganti Sam Rosen, John Davidson, and Brenda Brenon Tom Mees, Darren Pang, and Bob Neumeier Bob Miller and Joe Micheletti |
| April 10 | New York Rangers at New York Islanders[60][61] Boston at Philadelphia[62][63][64] Los Angeles at Chicago[54] Dallas at St. Louis |
1 p.m. 1 p.m. 1 p.m. 1 p.m. |
Gary Thorne, Bill Clement, and Al Morganti Sam Rosen, Joe Micheletti, and Brenda Brenon Al Michaels[65] and John Davidson Tom Mees, Darren Pang, and Bob Neumeier' |
April 17,[39][66][67][68] May 1, 24: Playoffs