The NHL and MLBAM have struck a multiyear deal with Yahoo in which the online portal will show weekly live out-of-market NHL games for free on its various digital platforms. Starting with tomorrow’s Flyers-Lightning game, Yahoo will live stream up to four NHL games per week on its various online and mobile extensions without any cable subscription or user authentication, and will continue to offer Wednesday and Sunday national NHL games in collaboration with digital partner NBC Sports. While Yahoo continues to go through an extended corporate restructuring, sports remains as a key priority, and the new NHL content partnership adds to live and on-demand video streaming deals the company holds with MLBAM, the PGA Tour and last fall’s live stream of the Bills-Jaguars game from London. The Yahoo-NHL deal has been in development for many months, and then was partially reworked with MLBAM after baseball’s digital arm last summer acquired the NHL’s digital rights. Financial terms were not disclosed, but Yahoo paid a licensing fee to MLBAM for the NHL content and will control advertising sales around the initiative. The deal runs through the rest of this season and the ’16-17 season with renewal triggers beyond that. NHL games on Yahoo will primarily be shown on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays with the fourth day each week currently less defined. “We are continuing to put a lot of emphasis on premium live content, particularly in sports, and this is another key pillar for us,” Yahoo VP/Media Partnerships Phil Lynch said. Lynch and MLBAM Exec VP/Business Kenny Gersh played key roles in brokering the deal. The NHL games on Yahoo will be available through core company assets such as Yahoo Sports, the Yahoo Sports’ mobile app and Tumblr. Lynch said long-term plans have not been finalized on whether the content will also be directly accessible through Yahoo’s main home page, as was the case for the NFL game in October.
