NHL & NBC Sports Group create groundbreaking media sales venture

NEW YORK – Following April's landmark, 10-year media rights agreement with NBC, the National Hockey League (NHL®) and the NBC Sports Group announced today that the two companies are strengthening their relationship even further by creating a unique, groundbreaking sales venture that will streamline national U.S. NHL media sales for the next five years.

NHL media sales for all national platforms -- NBC, VERSUS, NBCSports.com, NHL Network™, NHL mobile and all official NHL digital sites, including NHL.com -- will be sold by the NBC Sports Group Sales Department, which will be bolstered by absorbing NHL media sales employees. All traffic generated by official NHL digital sites, including NHL.com, will now be attributed to NBC Sports Digital.

The agreement excludes current and future NHL official marketing partners, who will continue to purchase media through the NHL Integrated Sales Department. Financial terms of this new agreement, which continues through the 2015-16 season, were not disclosed.

"Joining forces with NBC enables us to go to the marketplace with unprecedented strength," said NHL Chief Operating Officer John Collins.  "We'll be able to accelerate the growth of our business by providing our sales talent to the strong sales team at NBC, which is already selling the NHL across NBC and VERSUS as well as the Olympics, the Super Bowl and other gold standard events.  This venture creates an efficient, powerful way for us to bring the young, tech savvy NHL demographic to advertisers across multiple platforms."

"This agreement is the archetype for a sports property and its national media partner, and it speaks to the strength and long-term commitment of our partnership," said Seth Winter, Senior Vice President, NBC Sports Group Sales & Marketing. "Sports marketers will benefit because of the unprecedented single voice that allows them to purchase national network television, cable television and digital media for one major sports property in only one place."