Blue Jackets will collaborate with NHL, three other clubs, for local TV coverage

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Columbus Blue Jackets will join three other clubs in a partnership with the NHL to broadcast games this season, a source confirmed to The Athletic, replacing FanDuel Sports Network, which went out of business after last season. The Blue Jackets, Carolina Hurricanes, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues will all be part of the collaboration, the source indicated, which will be made available to fans via some combination of cable, satellite, streaming video and over-the-air television. It’s possible other clubs could join the collective before this season or in future seasons. The NHL announced the collaboration earlier this morning. The Blue Jackets, reached Monday evening, declined to comment on their plans in particular, saying there are too many details that need to be finalized before they can be made public, such as where the games will air and how much consumers will pay to watch. Since late last season, when the demise of FanDuel became imminent, the Blue Jackets have assured fans that their games will still be available on TV. They hope to have an announcement with specifics in the coming weeks, a spokesman said. One source told The Athletic that Blue Jackets’ team-employed broadcasters — TV play-by-play voice Steve Mears, TV analyst Jody Shelley and radio play-by-play voice Bob McElligott — will all be back for next season. But the future is less certain for other familiar broadcast figures who were paid by FanDuel, such as studio host Brian Giesenschlag, studio analyst Jean-Luc Grand-Pierre and on-the-glass reporter Dave Maetzold, as well as the many behind-the-scenes producers, engineers and others. The Blue Jackets are expected to continue to have pre- and post-game shows, but it’s unclear if the format of those shows will remain the same. In each of the past two seasons, the Blue Jackets have aired select games on over-the-air television, allowing fans without cable or internet streaming service to watch games free of charge. Those games have aired on CW Columbus (WWHO-TV) and other Gray Media stations across Ohio, Kentucky and West Virginia. It has not been determined which local television channel, or channels, would be used for over-the-air broadcasts in this new arrangement. It’s a new frontier for the Blue Jackets and the other clubs that are partnering with the NHL. The rights fees that franchises once counted on from their regional sports networks have disappeared. Under this new approach, the Blue Jackets will be responsible for operating the broadcasts as part of their own business, including selling ads, sharing production costs with the NHL and creating their own content, tasks which were handled in the past by FanDuel’s directors and producers.