"They put a fun and innovative factor into all of what they do and we're excited to have that same treatment for our sport and for our fans," NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said. "We love the reach of their linear networks, both TNT and TBS, and as we look to the future, we're excited about the digital properties, in particular HBO Max and Bleacher Report. For us, this is a perfect fit."
Turner Sports, a division of WarnerMedia, joins The Walt Disney Co. and ESPN as the NHL's national media rights partners in the United States for the next seven seasons. The NHL, The Walt Disney Co. and ESPN announced a multiplatform media rights deal March 10.
Financial terms of each agreement were not disclosed.
"It's good," Commissioner Bettman said. "We think the arrangements we have now are much more reflective of the value that we bring as compelling content."
Commissioner Bettman said the NHL salary cap, which is tied to revenues and expected to stay at $81.5 million for the foreseeable future, should be able to increase sooner than expected because of the financial ramifications of the two media rights agreements.
"We have a fairly large escrow to be made up, and until we do the cap is basically flat," Commissioner Bettman said. "The increase in value obviously is going to shorten the time frame that perhaps many had projected when we did the Return to Play for last season and extended the [NHL/NHLPA] Collective Bargaining Agreement.
"We have six years of labor peace that we're in the midst of, and the point to which the cap will then kick into the old formula I think as a result of our partnerships moving forward will be sooner than it otherwise would have been."
The NHL joins the NBA, MLB and the NCAA men's basketball tournament as partners with Turner Sports.
As part of the agreement, Turner Sports networks will televise the NHL Winter Classic, the annual New Year's Day outdoor game, in all seven seasons of the deal.
It will televise all games in the Stanley Cup Final in 2023, 2025 and 2027, one conference final series each season, and half of the first two rounds of the playoffs, plus 72 regular-season games per season.
Scheduling and programming will be determined in the coming weeks, WarnerMedia News & Sports chairman Jeff Zucker said.
The Stanley Cup Final will be televised on ABC in 2022, 2024, 2026 and 2028 as part of the deal with The Walt Disney Co. and ESPN.
It has the rights to one conference final round per season, half of the first two rounds of the playoffs, 25 regular-season games on ABC or ESPN, and 75 national games that will stream on ESPN+ and Hulu.
In addition, they will stream more than 1,000 out-of-market games each regular season on ESPN+, which will replace NHL.TV.
"Creating a wider distribution base is only going to continue to grow the sport and help it skew younger," Commissioner Bettman said. "On all of the basic platforms and all of the basic principles that I was focused on moving forward for our long-term media strategy, I think we've hit all the bases and we've got great partnerships. That's why we're so excited."