Premier Sports acquire rights to air NHL in the UK
October 13, 2011 · 5 Comments
Premier Sports has signed a deal to air up to ten NHL games per week in the UK starting from Saturday 15 October. Coverage will debut on the channel this weekend with three games including a live broadcast of the Anaheim Ducks /San Jose Sharks matchup.
ESPN America had previously held the rights to broadcast the NHL in the UK, and ESPN today released a statement about the move, which reads :
“The NHL will unfortunately not be part of the programming schedule on ESPN and ESPN America in the UK this season. ESPN spoke to the NHL and their rights holders about continuing a partnership in the UK but we couldn’t reach an agreement that worked for everyone. We wish the league and its new partners all the best in the UK, and remain in active discussions with them about coverage in Europe. Our UK channels will continue to provide a wide range of top British, European and American sport, award-winning documentaries, classic sports events, original programmes and more.”
Premier Sports is available on Sky Channel 433, however is not currently available on Virgin Media, BT Vision or Top Up TV. More details on the broadcast schedule at : http://www.premiersports.tv/
What do you think of this new deal ? Tell us in the comments box below.
Tags: ESPN, ESPN America, NHL, Premier Sports
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Subscription cancelled. A big pity because I think overall ESPNA provided UK viewers with a pretty good service.
I blame the NHL for this more than anyone else, and I can’t see from the deals done so far how Medge/AMI have managed to live up to the deal they struck with the NHL. While it’ll be good for people to be able to view hockey again, it won’t be HD, and for the moment it doesn’t look like HNIC will be shown.
Yes, gutted. Won’t be able to subscribe to yet another service. This is NOT good for the viewer.
NHL and ESPN have a very happy past in the UK so why the hell that wasn’t reconised by the idiots that then did a deal for the commercial rights in Europe is beyond me.
Selling on a country by country basis is all fine and dandy, but when a channel/broadcaster like ESPN America wants the rights, you are almost guaranteed a bloody good deal for rights all across Europe, that everyone is used to, but now, with the change and the UK fans screwed over unless you have A) a Sky box, or B) a good net speed to watch it online, you are well and truly screwed and thats fair to the legions of loyal NHL fans in Europe and the UK how?
Good luck to Premier Sports, they will need it, and badly, being only on Sky, not VM, TopUp TV or BT Vision, without a HD channel aswell, you have a rather large uphill battle, NHL rights in your bag or not!!
Without access to virgin media BT Vision etc I fail to see how they are going to grow the sport in the UK. No HNIC or HD coverage will be a problem too. I wonder if anyone back in New York is having second thoughts about selling their NHL rights to medge consulting or what ever they are called?
Once again it proves that Gary Bettman doesn’t care one bit about the fans of the NHL. I don’t believe that signing with a channel which is so limited will actually harm the popularity of the league in the UK as opposed to helping it grow. This is not just bad for the NHL in the UK but could also be harmful to hockey here as well. There is no wonder that he gets booed whenever he shows up at games. I’d love to say well done to Bettman and the NHL, but I really can’t.