• by Wayne Friedman , March 28, 2007

NBC Sports liked its flexible scheduling component with the NFL so much this past season, it has decided to extend this programming element to its sports rights contract with the National Hockey League.

The current two-year deal, which would have ended after this season, will expand until the end of the 2007-2008 season. The key difference is that all the nine "Game of the Week" games will have a flexible scheduling component, in which the network and the NHL choose the lineup.

This is similar to the deal NBC has with the NFL--where deep into the season, NBC can pick more competitive games, depending on how teams are performing. All this makes for higher ratings. This twist was part of the original offer for the "Sunday Night Football" package the NFL made to NBC.

For the NHL, NBC can select from a minimum of three games scheduled on Sunday afternoons, where the "Game of the Week" mostly airs. NBC will need to announce the change, along with the NHL, 13 days prior to the day when the game was scheduled.

In the last two years, NBC has aired anywhere from six to nine exclusive games on either Saturday or Sunday for the "Game of the Week." NBC pays no rights fees. Instead, it is a revenue-sharing agreement, after profitability. Currently, the deal is profitable, according to executives.

Cable sports network Versus also has a long-term agreement with the NHL, airing regular season games on Monday and Tuesday, with some exclusive games. Both Versus and NBC have rights to Stanley Cup playoff games. Versus also gets the first two games of the Stanley Cup Finals; NBC gets games three through seven of the finals.