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NHL Bets On In-House Production As Regional Sports Networks Collapse
SportsMoney NHL Bets On In-House Production As Regional Sports Networks Collapse By Nicole Kraft ,
Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Nicole Kraft is based in Columbus, Ohio, and covers sports media. Follow Author Aug 05, 2026, 03:00pm EDT Aug 05, 2026, 03:34pm EDT --:-- / --:-- This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more . Summary The collapse of regional sports networks, notably FanDuel Sports Network, forced several NHL teams to scramble for local broadcast production. The NHL has now stepped in, with NHL Productions taking over for the Columbus Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild, and St. Louis Blues. This move signifies the league's significant entry into local media, granting teams greater control over game production, promotion, and multi-platform distribution across cable, streaming, and over-the-air. While teams will now incur production costs, the NHL is discounting fees, aiming for comparable expenses to previous RSN deals but with increased revenue potential from advertising. This shift, accelerated by RSN failures, allows for enhanced fan access, improved broadcast quality, and positions the NHL as a media company, not just a league. The league views this as a future business opportunity, potentially serving other sports and entertainment clients.
For decades, National Hockey League teams collected local media-rights revenue while regional sports networks handled nearly everything else, including producing games to distributing them to fans.
But when FanDuel Sports Network collapsed this year, that arrangement unraveled, leaving several clubs scrambling to find a producer for local broadcasts.
Beginning this season, the Columbus Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues will have local broadcasts produced through NHL Productions, marking one of the league’s most significant steps into the local media business.
The move will give teams flexibility to distribute games across cable, streaming and over-the-air television, while also allowing them to exercise more control over broadcast quality, promotion and fan access. It also positions the NHL as a media company, not simply a league that licenses media rights.
“We’ve taken this slogan of ‘controlling the asset,’ which is something we’ve never done,” David Proper, the NHL’s chief media officer, said. “Giving control of that asset to the teams opens up a lot of opportunities—interaction with fans, better promotion, better access.
“By getting control of the asset, they’re able to produce the games the way they want, with the messaging they want and the promotion they want.”
League-controlled media operations are not new.
Major League Baseball created MLB Local Media, which took over producing broadcasts for nearly half the league after many RSN deals collapsed. The NBA operates NBA TV and produces league programming, but local broadcasts remain largely RSN-produced.
But many fans relied on the regional sports network model , agreements signed team-by-team to produce and air games in local markets in exchange for guaranteed rights fees
Those NHL, NBA and MLB franchises sold local TV rights to entities like FoxSports networks, Bally Sports and, most recently, FanDuel Sports Network, which paid for production, advertising sales and distribution. The benefit to teams: predictable revenue with little responsibility for production or distribution.
Its stability, however, depended on a cable television ecosystem that was rapidly shrinking.
The Main Street Sports Group emerged from Diamond Sports Group's 2023 bankruptcy and provided games under the banner of FanDuel Network. In 2026 they also stumbled under financial pressures. That left teams searching for new ways to get their games to fans.
The NHL already has a history of distributing games through NHL Center Ice, a cable and satellite package, and NHL GameCenter Live, which later became NHL.TV.
In 2021, the league signed agreements with the Walt Disney Company and Turner Sports for television, streaming and media rights through the 2027-28 season. Games became available across ABC, ESPN networks, Hulu and ESPN+, which replaced NHL.TV as the league’s U.S. out-of-market streaming service.
Those products, however, focused primarily on distribution as opposed to the production of local broadcasts.
The league has already embraced a production role through NHL Productions, which supports major events and programming including the Stadium Series, Winter Classic, NHL Draft and NHL Awards.
The NHL had planned to expand that operation into local live game production closer to 2028, but the collapse of FanDuel Sports Network accelerated the timetable, Proper said.
Teams will now pay production fees to the NHL, but the league will discount the amount, Mayer said. This will make the teams’ costs comparable to previous RSN agreements, but with greater potential return on the investment from advertising and other sponsorship revenue.
“We are taking all the innovation, all the things that are building the infrastructure are really being handled at the league level,” he said. “We're adding cameras, we're adding new graphics, music. We're bringing in technology [like] NHL Edge, which is our puck and player tracking, that we think is going to be a huge add-on for the fans.”
Proper said a production that costs $65,000 per game might actually cost a club about $50,000, with the league absorbing some infrastructure and development expenses. Amounts will vary by team and market.
Teams, however, must still build distribution networks and advertising partners, with the league assisting in some areas.
“Your broadcast used to be about one thing, and that was your rights fee,” Proper said. “Now, when we look at the production…you need to look at all the ways you can take that production and generate additional value that you may not have otherwis...
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