Sky Deutschland scores NHL rights
September 30, 2021
Sky Deutschland has secured the broadcasting rights to the National Hockey League (NHL) and will broadcast the North American ice hockey league live in Germany, Austria, Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and South Tyrol in the 2021/22 through 2024/25 seasons. The new contract covers broadcasting rights across all distribution channels.
With live broadcasts of around 300 games per season, Sky will offer its customers more NHL matches in the next four seasons than have ever been shown on German TV before. This includes games from the regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with highlights such as the NHL Winter Classic, the NHL All-Star Game and all games from the Stanley Cup Final. Sky will also regularly show the NHL Saturday and NHL Sunday (formerly NHL European Game of the Week) which features games on the weekends that are scheduled in the European evening time.
With a few exceptions, the games selected by Sky will be shown exclusively in Germany on Sky. All further NHL matches that Sky does not broadcast live will continue to be available to fans via NHL.TV. All games will be broadcast with original English commentary. In addition, select games, including NHL Saturday and NHL Sunday programming and Stanley Cup Playoffs matches, will feature German commentary.
Charly Classen, Executive Vice President Sport of Sky Deutschland, commented: “With Leon Draisaitl, who was named MVP of the league in 2020, Tim Stützle, who was selected at position three of the draft in the same year, and many more, a golden generation of young German players is currently playing in the NHL. Our customers can look forward to their performances and those of the world’s best international ice hockey stars over the next four years. The NHL is one of the world’s most attractive sports competitions and brings a great new sport to our programming line-up alongside football, motorsports, handball, tennis, golf and track and field.”
David Proper, NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Media & International Strategy, added: “This partnership with Sky is an important part of our ongoing efforts to grow the game globally and deliver the game’s international stars to passionate fans in their home countries. Sky has a proven track record of providing top level sports programming and building brands in Germany. We could not be more excited to be working together.”