NHL set to lose another major partner, but league reportedly has a solution

Last month news broke that the NHL was at risk of losing one of their major broadcast partners. News began to leak that the parent company of Bally Sports, Diamond Sports Group, was set to default on a payment that would mark the finals steps before declaring bankruptcy. On February 15th, the company did just that.

As the February 15th deadline passed, the company defaulted on a $140,000,000 interest payment. It was clear the company would never come back from this missed payment. The February 15th default was accompanied by a 30 day deadline to make the creditors whole, something they'll be unable to do.

This means that on March 17th that any Bally Sports Network would be turned off forever. This impacts 12 different NHL teams. Without intervention from the NHL, the following teams would find themselves without television agreements:

Los Angeles, Anaheim, Arizona, Dallas, St. Louis, Minnesota, Detroit, Columbus, Nashville, Carolina, Tampa Bay, and Florida.

Now it appears that the NHL and Gary Bettman have worked their magic. According to Michael Gallagher, who covers the Nashville Predators, the NHL has agreed to move all broadcasts to their other broadcast partner ESPN.

This deal should help mitigate any losses the NHL was going to endure due to the bankruptcy. There are no additional details about whether the teams will face blackout restrictions, but this is a positive sign that should help the league continue with their growth.

This just shows the need for the NHL to continue to work towards a National streaming contract to help grow the game.

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