The NHL couldn’t have picked a better time for its free-agent season.

The league’s TV deals in the United States with NBC and Versus expire after this season and the league has begun to quietly looking around for a deal that could better line the pockets of its owners.

According to a report this week in MediaWeek, ESPN is ready to mount a challenge to bring back hockey, and other reports say FOX is interested in the NHL again, with the league in place to benefit from a mini bidding war to land a deal up to 50 per cent better than what it has right now.

Versus has an exclusive negotiating window in December. But as of now the NHL is in a better position than ever. Not only is it coming off buzz-inducing playoffs that saw record ratings for hockey and a renewed interest in the sport, but it may well be the only sport on the dial next autumn.

With both the NBA and NFL warning of lockouts as both leagues head into collective bargaining, the NHL has the added bonus of being able to guarantee content for the network or networks that are willing to pay to carry its games.

“Timing is everything,” said John Shannon, a longtime TV executive on both sides of the border. “Based on the success they had in the playoffs with their ratings numbers, the fact the quality of hockey is better, the success of the Winter Classic, do they have a chance to make (their TV dollars) grow? Absolutely.”

The sport was left for dead five years ago when it came out of the lockout and signed a TV deal with a network that many people had never heard of, much less subscribed to.

Now, the league is no longer a punchline. Once the NHL was little more than a licensing division of its teams. Now it sees itself as a $2.7 billion media and entertainment empire. About $500 million annually comes from TV revenue from both countries in national and regional deals. A better deal with American carriers could see that get close to $600 million. Not NBA territory, but not bad.

“Right now we’re a gate-driven sport,” said Bruins president Cam Neely. “We have other revenues, which is great. We’re in a better position now than we’ve ever been. The growth of our sport and the interest in our sport is as high as its been in a long, long time.

“We’re in a better position, we’ve been able to nurture relationships, the future bodes well for the NHL as far as our future television contracts go.”

The league re-organized its off-ice business to reach out to new sponsors. It used new media to reach out to its 53 million fans through portals such as NHL.com and Twitter. It created its own TV network, NHL Network. It marketed young players as stars like never before. And its busy PR staff pumped out news releases on an almost daily basis coming whenever TV ratings hit records — whether it was a Bruins-Flyers playoff game beating a Celtics-Cavaliers playoff game and Red Sox-Yankees on the same night, or fans suddenly watching in record numbers in non-NHL cities like Kansas City or San Diego.

NBC was said to be quite happy averaging 1.56 million viewers a game with the NHL, a league that skews to a younger demographic than other sports, something networks and advertisers love.

For the first time since Wayne Gretzky moved to Los Angeles, the league firmly believes it’s ready to cash in on a big American TV contract.

“The NHL is in a decent position,” said Robert Tuchman, executive vice president of Premiere Global Sports. “They’re definitely on the upswing. They’re going to have a lot of opportunity in this negotiation and just in terms of their events.

“It’s timing and they kind of weathered the storm.”

It’s not all rosy. The NHL has uncertain ownership and attendance problems, not only in Sunbelt cities like Atlanta and Phoenix, but in formerly strong markets like Long Island and Columbus.

Another hurdle is the FCC. A deal that awaits FCC approval would see NBC and Versus become part of one company. That would be good news for the league which could get cross promotions on multiple channels.

No American TV network will “overpay” for hockey the way they will for football. The NFL draws huge ratings and gives networks a big chance to promote its primetime lineup the rest of the week.

However, MediaWeek says ESPN’s bid is part of a longer term strategy of one day landing the Olympics.

“We’ve been pleased in the United States with our relationships with ESPN and Versus,” said Gary Bettman in a recent conference call. “We’ll be in discussions in the probably not too distant future, certainly in the course of the season. We’ll deal with the next contracts in the ordinary course.

“In terms of who we may or may not talk to, what it is we may or may not be looking for, that’s something we believe is best done privately and not in a public forum.”

The Sports Business Journal canvassed TV and cable executives and determined the NHL expects a big score, as much as a 50 per cent boost from its previous deal. That would increase the numbers to more than $115 million per year, or $3.87 million per team per year.

“I know NBC has been happy with the revenue sharing plan they have in place. The real question is does that continue or not?” Brian Hughes, director of audience analysis for media strategy company MagnaGlobal. “If they got a good offer from ESPN, I don’t think they’d refuse it. It can’t hurt them.

“They’ve got plenty of games. Versus would probably object to that. Therein lies negotiations. ESPN seems interested. I think everybody can have a piece of the pie.”

Versus wants the NHL back.

Versus, with 20 million fewer subscribers than ESPN, draws higher ratings with the NHL than ESPN ever did with hockey.

“Hockey is doing really well on Versus,” said Versus president Jamie Davis. “It’s a great property for us.”

Davis trumped the symbiotic relationship between Versus and hockey: Versus is a network that treats hockey as its No. 1 priority, unlike ESPN, where hockey had a back seat.

“Intermission is all hockey, not like other broadcasts where you get sports update,” said Davis. “In doing that, we’ve made players household names throughout the country and therefore developed national interest not just in their home market.”

The revenue sharing deal with NBC didn’t generate much by way of dollars and sense, but it did give the NHL a national TV platform that is growing and helped give the NHL the reputation among TV execs that they’re not afraid to do business in new ways.

“A willingness to do things, a revenue sharing deal, as opposed to an upfront rights fee, is forward thinking on their part,” says Hughes. “It’s mutually beneficial and it avoids – if you’re putting up that up-front money, the chance that you’re going to lose it is there.

“With a lot of these other sports, you’re putting out a large sum to acquire the rights, often times you lose money, or break even, and not profit on it. The rights bounce between networks so often, that’s why NBC dropped the NBA, they were losing money.”

A huge season – from generating interest and ratings – is critical. The Internet has, in its own way, levelled the playing field for the NHL. It can compete – with NHL.com and a series of smart phone-apps – with the rest of the sports leagues in terms of promoting content and story lines.

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It has a deal this year to for a four-episode documentary series with HBO to go behind the scenes with the Washington Capitals and Pittsburgh Penguins, something they hope will drive up interest in the Winger Classic.

“It’s a big year. Its’ a free agent year. This is it,” said John Collins, chief operating officer of the NHL. “We have a lot of ideas on how to grow the business.

“The good news is I think we have a lot of momentum, and we’re perceived as having a lot of momentum. We have a big appetite and there’s a lot of room for growth.”

YOUNG DEMOGRAPHIC:

Median age of fans (regular season) according to MagnaGlobal (median age is the point at which half the audience is younger and half is older)

NBA - 38

NHL – 42

NFL: 46

U.S. college basketball: 48

U.S. college football: 49

MLB: 50

NASCAR: 51

NHL ON TV

NBC revenue sharing deal runs through 2010-11 season; agreed to revenue sharing agreement on May 19, 2004

Versus deal runs through 2010-11 season, worth $72.5 million.

CBC deal runs through 2014, announced in March 2007; said to be worth $100 million annually.

TSN – signed six-year extension in 2008/09, worth $40 million.

RDS – signed a new deal in July 2007. $15 million to the NHL per season

By comparison

In 1998, ESPN & ABC paid $600 million for a five-year contract – $120 million average – ending after the 2003-04 season; ESPN declined its option to pay $60 million for 2005-06 season

NBA:

TNT/ABC/ESPN: 8-year deal (Network – ABC; Cable – TNT & ESPN) worth $7.44 billion. Deal runs through 2015-16 season and is worth about $930 million per year