TV Deal Between NHL And TNT Won’t Affect AEW Dynamite

According to the Sports Business Journal, a bidding war for the NHL’s second TV broadcast package has started and TNT is expected to win that bidding war and ultimately make Turner Broadcasting it’s home for 3 of the next seven Stanley Cup Finals as NBC has officially pulled themselves out of the bidding war. The TV broadcast deal, which has yet to be announced, will reportedly cost TNT an amount of $225 million per season over the next seven years.

Dave Meltzer noted on a recent edition of the Wrestling Observer Radio Program that NHL games usually air on a Wednesday night, but that there won’t be any effect whatsoever to AEW Dynamite. Meltzer also noted that AEW Dynamite will not be changing their schedule anytime soon and that they will remain in their current time slot of 8PM ET on Wednesday nights and that the NHL’s games will instead “probably end up” on TBS or on a different night on TNT.

For the past ten years, NBCUniversal has been airing NHL games, but as mentioned earlier, the network has officially pulled NBC out of the bidding war in order to give way to the new television broadcast packages. NBCUniversal was then expected to pick up one of the available second TV broadcast options, but NXT moved to Tuesdays due to the NHL games likely airing on the USA Network on Wednesdays and TNT ultimately picked up the second TV broadcast package.