What NHL and NFL Deals Mean for ESPN’s Streaming Future

ESPN may not want to admit it just yet, but the sports giant’s future increasingly looks like it will be dominated by what is streaming on ESPN+ rather than what the dwindling subscribers to the cable-TV bundle can watch on ESPN. This month alone, ESPN has secured more NHL and, for the first time, NFL games for its three-year-old streaming service. ESPN’s deal with the NHL, which puts the hockey league back on ESPN airwaves for the first time since 2004, greatly increases ESPN+’s foothold in the sport, which has previously been reduced to providing daily out-of-market local TV games.