Sport1 extends NHL rights deal on eve of new season

Sport1, the sports broadcaster in Germany, has signed a new media rights agreement with North American ice hockey's NHL ahead of the 2020-21 season, which gets under way tomorrow.

The pay-TV channel Sport1+ will show selected live games from the regular season and the playoffs, as well as all games from the Stanley Cup Final, in German and English language. It will carry the regular highlight magazine show 'NHL On The Fly'.

During the course of the season, selected live broadcasts are planned on free-TV on Sport1, the broadcaster said, while digital platform Sport1.de and the Sport1 app will offer current news and highlight clips.

The new season, delayed and condensed (56 regular-season games, down from 82) because of Covid-19, starts tomorrow with the Piitsburgh Penguins taking on the Philadelphia Flyers.

Sport1+'s first live game will be Colorado Avalanche, and their German goaltender Philipp Grubauer, against the St. Louis Blues, which starts at 4.30am (CET) on 14 January.

Sport1+ will show six live games this week to mark the season start.

Other top German players in the NHL include Leon Draisaitl [pictured] and Dominik Kahun (both Edmonton Oilers), Thomas Greiss (Detroit Red Wings), Tobias Rieder (Buffalo Sabres) and Tim Stützle ( Ottawa Senators).

Sport1's previous four-year deal with the NHL expired after the 2019-20 season, won by the Tampa Bay Lightning. That deal also covered Switzerland, but pay-TV operator Teleclub is now the exclusive NHL rights-holder in the country for the final two years of its three-year contract.

Last week, the NHL announced a four-year agreement in Austria with Puls 24, the free-to-air commercial broadcaster owned by ProSiebenSat.1 Media.

IMG advises the NHL on its international rights sales in a deal running from 2016-17 to 2020-21 and excluding USA, Canada and the Nordic countries.