• by Wayne Friedman , October 5, 2005

Comcast Corp. will make an unprecedented free offering to its 7.7 million Internet customers, giving them up to 300 regular season NHL games, which will be streamed live complete with re-broadcast national and/or local TV advertising.

This is the second part of its big deal with the NHL. Six weeks ago Comcast struck the first part of the deal, inking a $207.5 million three-year-deal for the cable TV rights for its OLN network. The first regular season game of the deal will start tonight. OLN will air 58 games this season.

Comcast will stream the games either from OLN or local TV or regional sports networks. Local blackout restrictions will be in effect for all games.

Analysts view the Comcast deal as a promotion of sorts--looking to curry favor from long-time NHL fans who might harbor bitterness stemming from last season's year-long lockout by the NHL team owners. In a similar effort to bring back fans, OLN, the limited 64 million-subscriber cable service, is offering the first regular season Rangers-Flyers game free to all 90-million plus cable and satellite customers.

A Comcast spokeswoman said games streamed on the Internet will be the exact TV games aired or broadcast by OLN or local market TV channels with either national or local TV advertising.

But the spokeswoman says this could change. In the future, Comcast might strip out the national or local advertising. The spokeswoman didn't say whether the games would then be run advertising-free, or whether Comcast would make its own online advertising deals.

"The model isn't worked out per se," she said. "Initially, what we are providing is the same TV experience. All this is added value for our customers."

This exclusive agreement is for Comcast Internet customers--who will have access to up to two live games daily, including Stanley Cup playoffs. The deal starts today and can be seen on the Sports channel on Comcast.net.