Brace yourself – Hockey is coming back to ESPN. The network we all love to bash for its horrible treatment of the frozen game has won the broadcast rights for the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The report indicates they beat out both Fox and NBC for the rights.
Breaking – TSN has learned ESPN has won the U.S. broadcast rights for the World Cup of Hockey, beating out NBC and Fox.
— Rick Westhead (@rwesthead) February 4, 2015
Pretty shocking news. ESPN has a pretty incredible monopoly of live sporting event coverage, but all things NHL have been firmly under the control of NBC for quite some time. That will soon change as a potential marquee event of the NHL season will be shown on a network notorious for ignoring the NHL.
Does this mean ESPN will have to focus more on hockey in the coming year? Granted, the tournament is an apples and oranges comparison to the NHL regular season, ESPN is still going to have to bolster its current pathetic hockey coverage.
This is going to be interesting.
