NHL on ABC

NHL on ABC is a former TV show that televised National Hockey League games on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) and was produced by ABC's corporate sibling (under the Walt Disney Company umbrella) ESPN.

Before the 1992-1993 NHL Season
After being dropped by NBC after the 1974–75 season, the NHL had no national television contract in the United States.

In response to this, the league put together a network of independent stations covering approximately 55% of the country.

The games typically aired on Monday nights (beginning at 8:00 p.m. ET) or Saturday afternoons. The package was offered to local stations with no rights fee.

Profits would be derived from the advertising, which was about evenly split between the network and the local station. The Monday night games were often billed as The NHL Game of the Week.

Viewers in New York City, Buffalo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Los Angeles got the Game of the Week on a different channel than their local team's games.

Therefore, whenever a team had a “home” game, the NHL Network aired the home team's broadcast rather than their own. Initially, the Monday night package was marketed to ABC affiliates.

The idea being that ABC carried Monday-night NFL football in the fall and (starting in May of 1976) Monday-night Major League Baseball (MLB) in the spring and summer, stations would want hockey to create a year-round Monday night sports block. But very few ABC stations picked up the package.

In 1979, ABC was contracted to televise Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals. Since the Finals ended in five games, the contract was void.

Had there been a seventh game, then Al Michaels (play-by-play), Bobby Clarke (color commentator), Jim McKay (studio host), Jim Simpson (studio analyst), and Frank Gifford (reporter, who would have been in the winning team's dressing room to interview players and coaches as well as hand the phone to the winning team's coach that that would have allowed him to talk to both President Jimmy Carter and Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau).

The game would have started at 8 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time on a Saturday, replacing Wide World of Sports and local news shows that typically followed it on ABC stations in the Eastern and Central time zones.

ABC Radio Coverage
In 1989, the NHL signed a two-year contract (lasting through the 1990–91 season) with ABC Radio for the broadcast rights to the All-Star Game and Stanley Cup Finals.

ABC Radio named Don Chevrier and Phil Esposito as their main commentating crew.

1992-1994 Version
In the 1992–93 and 1993–94 seasons, ABC televised six weekly regional telecasts on Sunday afternoons beginning in March (or the last three Sundays of the regular season).

This marked the first time that regular season broadcasts of NHL games were aired on American network television since 1974–75 (when NBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner).

ABC would then televise three weeks worth of playoff games (or the first three Sundays of the playoffs.

They didn't televise the Stanley Cup Finals which instead, were televised nationally by ESPN and by Prime Ticket in Los Angeles (1993) and MSG Network in New York (1994).

Games televised on ABC were not subject to blackout. These broadcasts (just as was the case with the 1999–2004 package) were essentially, time buys by ESPN.

In other words, ABC would sell three hour blocks of airtime to ESPN, who in return, would produce, supply broadcasters and sell advertising.

The main difference is that the graphics were ABC Sports' instead of the ones seen on ESPN National Hockey Night.

In later years, the roles would be reversed as ESPN's graphical style would be used with the exception of intermission reports.

ABC even used ESPN's theme music for the 1992–1994 coverage. During ABC's next stint with the NHL, they had their own theme music (composed by Bob Christianson).

Overall, ABC averaged a 1.7 rating for those two seasons.

1993-94
Main article: 1993–94 NHL season

April 17, 24, May 1: Playoffs

Studio Hosts

 * John Saunders

Broadcast teams

 * Gary Thorne-Bill Clement
 * Mike Emrick-Barry Melrose
 * Al Michaels-John Davidson
 * Tom Mees-Darren Pang
 * Sam Rosen-Mickey Redmond
 * Bob Miller-Jim Schoenfeld

Reporters

 * Tom Mees
 * Al Morganti
 * Brian Engblom
 * Darren Pang

1999–2004 Version
In August of 1998, ABC, ESPN, and ESPN2 signed a five-year deal worth a total of approximately $600 million (or $120 million per year).

The $120 million per year that ABC and ESPN paid for rights dwarfed the $5.5 million that the NHL received from American national broadcasts in 1991–92.

As previously mentioned, as was the case with the 1992-1994 deal, ABC's subsequent NHL coverage was in reality, made up of time buys from ESPN.

This was noted in copyright beds at the conclusion of the telecasts, i.e. "The preceding program has been paid for by ESPN, Inc."

ESPN then signed a similar television rights contract in 2002 so it could produce and broadcast National Basketball Association games on ABC.

This time around, ABC televised four to five weeks worth of regional games on Saturday afternoons beginning in January.

ABC also televised the NHL All-Star Game and Games 3–7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in prime time.

In the previous American network television deal with Fox, they split coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals with ESPN.

Games 1, 5 and 7 were usually scheduled to be televised by Fox; Games 2, 3, 4, and 6 by ESPN.

However from 1995 to 1998, the Finals were all 4 game sweeps; 1999 ended in 6 games. The consequence was that (except for 1995, when Fox did televise Game 4), the decisive game was never on network television.

Had there been a seventh game, then Mike Emrick (play-by-play), John Davidson (color commentator), Suzy Kolber (studio host), Terry Crisp (studio analyst) who would have been in the winning team's dressing room to interview players and coaches, and Pierre McGuire (reporter) would have call the game on Fox.

2003 was the only year that ABC broadcast both the NBA and the Stanley Cup Finals that involved teams from one city in the same year as both the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils were in their respective league's finals.

During ABC's broadcast of Game 3 between the San Antonio Spurs and the Nets in New Jersey on June 8th, Brad Nessler, Tom Tolbert and Bill Walton said that ABC was in a unique situation getting ready for both that game and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Devils and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim the following night, also at Continental Airlines Arena.

Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and John Davidson mentioned this the following night and thanked Nessler, Tolbert and Walton for promoting ABC's broadcast of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.

Following the 2003–04 season, ESPN was only willing to renew for two years at $60 million per year.

ABC refused to televise the Stanley Cup Finals in prime time, suggesting that their games of the Finals be played on weekend afternoons (including a potential Game 7).

The Disney executives later conceded that they overpaid for the 1999–2004 deal, so their offer to renew the TV rights was lower in 2004.

Schedules
1999–2000

Main article: 1999–2000 NHL season

2000-01

Main article: 2000–01 NHL season

2001-02
Main article: 2001–02 NHL season

2002-03
Main article: 2002–03 NHL season

2003-04
Main article: 2003–04 NHL season

Studio Personalities

 * Al Michaels
 * John Saunders
 * John Davidson
 * Al Morganti

Broadcast teams
Reporters
 * Gary Thorne-Bill Clement-John Davidson
 * Mike Emrick-Eddie Olczyk-Joe Micheletti
 * Steve Levy-Darren Pang-Daryl Reaugh
 * Dave Strader-Brian Engblom
 * Brian Engblom
 * Darren Pang
 * Daryl Reaugh
 * Erin Andrews
 * Sam Ryan
 * Joe Micheletti