NHL on ABC

Before the 1992–93 NHL season

After being dropped by NBC after the 1974–75 season,^[1][2][3] the NHL did not maintain a national television contract in the United States.^[4][5][6] In response to this, the league put together a network of independent stations covering approximately 55% of the country.^[7][8][9]

Games typically aired on Monday nights^[10] (beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time) or Saturday afternoons. The package was offered to local stations without a rights fee.^[11] Profits would instead 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".^[12]

Initially, the Monday night package was marketed to ABC affiliates; the idea being that ABC carried NFL football games on Monday nights in the fall and (starting in May 1976) Major League Baseball games on Monday nights in the spring and summer, stations would want the hockey telecasts to create a year-round Monday night sports block; however, very few ABC stations chose to pick up the package.

In 1979, ABC was contracted to televise Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.^[13][14] Since the Finals ended in five games, the contract was void.^[15]

ABC Radio coverage (1989–1991)

In 1989,^[16] 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.^[17][18] ABC Radio named Don Chevrier and Phil Esposito as their main commentating crew.^{[19][20][21][22]}

Time-buy deal with ESPN (1992–1994)

In the 1992–93^[23] and 1993–94 seasons, ABC televised six weekly regional telecasts^[24][25] on Sunday afternoons beginning in March^[26] (or the last three Sundays^[27] of the regular season). This marked the first time that regular season National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television^[28] since 1974–75 (when NBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner). ABC would then televise three weeks worth of playoff games^[29][30] (or the first three Sundays^[31][32] of the playoffs^{[33][34][35][36]}). The network did not 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^[37] by ESPN.^[38][39] In other words, ABC would sell three-hour blocks of airtime to ESPN, which in return, would produce, supply broadcasters and sell advertising. Also as evidence by ABC's Raycom^[40] produced college basketball package around the same time period, this arrangement could also be interpreted as a way to avoid union contracts which require that 100% of network shows had to use crew staff who were network union members.^[41] The main difference is that the graphics used for the telecasts were those used by 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 on the broadcasts with the exception of intermission reports. ABC even used ESPN's theme music^[42] for the 1992–1994 coverage. During ABC's next stint with the NHL, the network used its own theme music.^[43]

Overall, ABC averaged a 1.7 rating^[44] for those two seasons.

When the NHL television contract went up for negotiation in early 1994, Fox (which was in the process of launching its sports division after acquiring the rights to the National Football Conference of the NFL) and CBS (which was hoping to land a major sports contract to replace the NFL rights that they lost to Fox and Major League Baseball rights that they lost to ABC and NBC) competed heavily for the package. On September 9, 1994, the National Hockey League reached a five-year, US$155 million contract with Fox for the broadcast television rights to the league's games, beginning with the 1994–95 season,^[45] effectively ending ABC's time-buy deal with ESPN after just two seasons.

The NHL returns to ABC (1999–2004)

In August 1998, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 signed a five-year television deal with the NHL, worth a total of approximately US$600 million^[69][70] (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 the 1991–92 season.^[71] 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.

Studio hosts

• John Saunders (1993–1994 and 1999–2004)
• John Davidson – analyst (1999–2002)
• Barry Melrose – analyst (2002–2004)

Broadcast teams

• Gary Thorne-Bill Clement-John Davidson
• Mike Emrick-Barry Melrose
• Steve Levy-Darren Pang
• Al Michaels-Jim Schoenfeld
• Dave Strader-Brian Engblom

Reporters

• Brenda Brenon (1993–1994)^[79]
• Mark Jones (1993–1994)
• Tom Mees (1993–1994)
• Al Morganti (1993–1994)
• Bob Neumeier (1993–1994)