• by Wayne Friedman , April 27, 2021

Live sports streaming is coming to HBO Max in the form of the National Hockey League -- just in time for the premium streamer's new ad-supported option, which starts in June.

Turner Sports and NHL struck a seven-year multimedia deal starting with the 2021-22 season, with industry estimates saying the pact is worth $225 million per year.

The deal gives Turner Sports rights up to 72 regular-season games. This includes giving WarnerMedia’s cable network TNT exclusive live coverage of the Stanley Cup Final in three of the seven years of the deal -- as well as half of the Stanley Cup Playoff games.

In addition, WarnerMedia gets live streaming and digital rights, which includes simulcast rights for HBO Max.

Turner Sports also scored TV Everywhere rights for its networks, making its NHL games and related programming available to authenticated subscribers across WarnerMedia platforms.

Last month, the NHL made a seven-year deal with ESPN, estimated to be worth $400 million per year.

That networks gets 100 regular-season games airing per season across ESPN’s networks and streaming platforms and four Stanley Cup Finals, and half of the Stanley Cup playoffs.

In the 2019-2020 TV season, NBCSN pulled in an estimated $603 million in national TV advertising spend for all NHL games, according to iSpot.tv. Almost $480 million came just from the playoffs and finals games.