With an emphasis on local, the league is looking beyond the initial four teams to the rest of the league, even other sports

When the RSN business model started collapsing, the assumption was that local hockey broadcasts would get smaller. The NHL is betting the opposite. This week, the league and its in-house media/content arm, NHL Productions, announced the launch of a centralized-production model for club local broadcasts. The new outfit will supply comprehensive production services: studio and show programming, game production, graphics and replay capabilities, and technical and engineering support.

Starting with the 2026-27 NHL regular season, NHL Productions will provide centralized production services for the Carolina Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild, and St. Louis Blues. Additional clubs are expected to come aboard in the coming weeks. The move follows closure of the Main Street Sports Group–operated FanDuel Sports Network RSNs that previously carried their games.

Overseeing the buildout is NHL President, Content and Events, Steve Mayer, who has spent years contingency-planning for this type of scenario. SVG sat down with the 10-year league veteran to talk staffing buildout, headlined by former MLB Network President Rob McGlarry; the plans for an East Coast production hub and from-scratch graphics and music package; the added cameras and resources meant to push these productions past their pre-cutback peak; deeper integration of NHL Edge data, and the longer-term plan to build NHL Productions into a live-production powerhouse.

NHL’s Steve Mayer: “We believe we’re also building something that could be useful when other organizations are looking for someone to produce their live events. We think it could be a real revenue-generator.”

Let’s start with the basics. The league knew it needed a solution for teams coming off the shutdown of Main Street Sports. What were the key steps that led to launching this centralized production system?
As everyone is well aware by now, we’ve been contemplating and preparing a plan for years in terms of what to do and how to serve our teams. We first prepared for a stopgap situation, and we did that successfully in Arizona, where we had to come in and produce the games for [the Coyotes and Scripps Sports in 2023].

It became obvious toward the end of last season that it was just going to be a matter of time [before Main Street Sports shut down], so we started talking to the individual teams that were going to be affected. We also knew it could be anywhere from two teams to six teams to start out. Thankfully, because of all that preparation, we already had a rough blueprint and a basic idea of what we would need to do. We knew we could be the solution, so we made our pitch, and one by one, these four teams have come on board. We expect a couple more to join as well.

What have you had to do — and what will you be doing in the coming months — to provide the capabilities for this? Are you building new studio facilities, leveraging the space NHL Network uses at MLB Network’s broadcast center, or approaching it region by region?
We’re taking a walk-before-we-run approach. Right now, we’re putting people and facilities in position to take over production for the upcoming season. For the four teams we’ve announced, we’re working directly with them to make sure they have everything they need.

What about staffing?
At the league level, we’ve added to what was already a very healthy NHL Productions team of more than 75 people. Most notably, we’re bringing in Rob McGlarry, who at one point oversaw NHL Network [in his role] as president of MLB Network. He’s going to run the business side of this effort. We are also in the process of hiring an executive producer to handle the day-to-day production side and work with the teams on storylines and the overall look and feel of their broadcasts. That will be announced very soon. And we’re going to bring on additional people: coordinating producers, production assistants, and a team of producer-editors that will be building out daily teases, bumpers, and sponsored items — with everything originating from a production hub in New York.

In each market, we’re hiring local, on-the-ground producers and directors as well as local crews wherever possible, with help from PPI [Program Productions Inc.]. Mobile TV Group is going to work with us on trucks and equipment, and they obviously know this side of the business better than anyone.

In terms of the [on-air] faces, I would say 90% of the personnel who worked on each team’s broadcasts last year are coming back.

Will these teams’ broadcasts all have a similar design, or will each be different?
We are already in the process of developing a graphics package and theme music from scratch that will [serve] all the teams that are joining. We want these teams to have a consistent look and feel — from graphics to music to the way we’re cutting pieces — while also maintaining their own identities and brands. The integration of technology is also going to be key, especially our NHL Edge puck- and player-tracking system.

What can viewers expect in terms of studio shows?
Pregame, postgame, and intermission [shows] will primarily originate from site [at the teams’ arenas], with direction from us. Eventually, we’re going to build a studio operation that will serve as the league’s hub, and, from there, we’ll go out to the various sites.

We’ll have a pregame show that covers the full NHL while keeping the focus on that market’s team. We’re trying to grow the game and expand it beyond an exclusively local experience. We understand a Minnesota Wild fan wants to watch Minnesota Wild hockey, but we feel we can give them a lot more information and highlights from other teams so that they get a feel for not just one team but all 32. We’re also going to add more ancillary programming as part of our overall coverage.

Do you know where this future central studio will be located? Will it be at the league office in New York?
That is still to be determined. For this year, we have an amazing facility that we share with Major League Baseball [at MLB Network studios in Secaucus, NJ], and that’s where we run NHL Network out of. We will lean on that facility for this year until we build out our own.

Just to confirm: each of these teams will have its own producer and director. This isn’t a world-feed model; it’s a truly local broadcast, right?
Yes, absolutely. One of the reasons these teams are into working with us and this model is that they’re taking back their production. This is an incredible opportunity for the teams to put their stamp on every single game, more than when their local productions were in the hands of Main Street Sports.

It’s a chance for them, with our guidance and collaboration, to put their messaging and branding out there exactly how they want. They have the opportunity to bring their sponsors into these telecasts and give them what they desire. Their community work gets featured on these broadcasts. And they’re going to work with their players to make sure they are a huge part of the storytelling. I think the teams are excited to have 2½ to three hours to promote themselves and their franchise.

They also now have a say in their game producer and director; their pregame, postgame, and intermission producers; and the personnel they want to work with. That is so important, because the storylines need to come from the local production team: Minnesota if it’s the Wild, St. Louis if it’s the Blues. They’re with the teams every single day. We’ll help them craft the overall broadcast, but, when it comes down to it, it has to be their show.

Will you be providing additional production resources and cameras to these game broadcasts?
Where we can make upgrades and improve, we’re working with the teams to do that. Obviously, [Main Street Sports] was forced to make some cuts because it was trying to survive, but we’re getting back to the level that we believe these productions need to be.

We’re working with every single team as we speak. We have sent a proposal, and each team will likely end up with something slightly different. But I think it is very safe to say that, in every single case, we are upgrading the show from where it was — hopefully, to where it was at its peak or even beyond that.

Without giving you specific numbers, we’re making a huge investment at the NHL level because we believe in this model. And we believe this is the direction teams should be going. We need this to be great, and we’re working with the teams to ensure that happens. There’s a level of production that the team is going to pay for, and there’s a level of production that the league is going to pay for. That’s what we’re trying to finalize right now. But it is our goal and the teams’ goal to make these productions visibly better than they’ve ever been.

Can you provide more detail on how you’ll be integrating NHL Edge data into local broadcasts?
We’ve made [the NHL Edge system] available to all [broadcasters], but — and I’m not sure why — it hasn’t been picked up locally to the same degree that the national broadcasts have engaged with it. (Honestly, I think there could be even more [usage] in the national broadcast.) I think one obvious way to improve the local broadcast is to bring in this NHL Edge technology.

It is already available to the producers and directors, and I think we need to better educate those folks so they understand how it works and how it can tell the story of a game. We’re going to bring in producers whose sole job is to get NHL Edge into these broadcasts on a nightly basis and allow the telecast to tell stories through this technology. You will see that immediately, and it will continue to be a focus as we look at ways to improve what has been done in the past.

Will you be prepared to take on more teams should the need arise?
Yes, absolutely. We are ready to grow, and we are building something that can scale for the future here. One other thing I think is important to mention, though, is that we’re expanding our production capabilities to also build a production company that will do work not only for the NHL but for others as well. This is another step in that direction.

We see what’s going on with streamers: while they all want live broadcasts, they don’t all necessarily have the live-production capabilities. They’re looking to outside producers to help them produce live broadcasts. We believe that, by building this out, we’re not only helping the NHL and our clubs; we’re also building something that could be useful when other organizations or partners of ours are looking for someone to produce their live events. We think it could be a real revenue-generator down the line.

How proud are you of your team for getting here? Not that long ago, NHL Productions was a small outfit, but the fact that the league can now say, “Hey, we can do this,” says a lot about how far you’ve come, right?
I can’t even express how proud I am of the team we’ve put together, because they’ve all worked so hard to get to this point. We knew where we wanted to get to, and we got the support of the commissioner and the deputy commissioner. I’m not going to lie to you: if you want to hire great people, invest in equipment, and dedicate resources to make all this happen, it’s not cheap. But it does come down to people in the end.

There has been zero offseason for us this year as we have been preparing for this, but we love what we do, and we like challenges along the way. We certainly could go from season to season and rinse and repeat, but we are always asking, “How can we make it better? How can we grow?” I think having a team composed entirely of people with that kind of mentality is amazing.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.