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By Brian Murphy, WRAL News
The Carolina Hurricanes plan to produce their own television broadcasts for the 2026-27 season and partner with providers for distribution across cable, satellite and streaming services for local access
But how and where exactly fans can watch the Stanley Cup champions has yet to be determined. The Hurricanes plan to announce a name for the network, its distribution partners, channel locations, direct-to-consumer streaming options and pricing before the start of the regular season.
One thing that’s not changing: Longtime play-by-play announcer Mike Maniscalco and analyst Tripp Tracy will return, the organization announced Tuesday
Carolina opens its season Sept. 29 at home against the Florida Panthers.
“We’re thrilled to launch our own sports network and provide consistent access to Hurricanes hockey for our great fans,” said Brian Fork, the chief executive of Hurricanes Holdings, which will own and operate the network. “More than ever before, the organization will have the freedom to deliver innovative programming that strengthens the connection between the team, the fans and its community partners.”
The Hurricanes — and other teams across the National Hockey League, National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball — were in limbo after the demise of their previous television home, FanDuel Sports Network (formerly Bally)
FanDuel Sports Network and its predecessors — including Fox Sports South — have broadcast Hurricanes games since the team moved to North Carolina in 1997. The Hurricanes had an agreement through the 2028-29 season with the regional sports network
When Fox sold assets to Disney in 2019, Disney — which already owns ESPN — wasn’t allowed to keep the regional sports networks that broadcast so many local teams. Disney sold the RSNs, which have struggled since in an era of cord-cutting. Diamond Sports Group, which bought the networks, declared bankruptcy in 2023 and emerged from that process in 2024 as Main Street Sports Group
Along the way, it cut payments to local teams — or stopped paying them at all. Before spring training, the final nine Major League Baseball organizations with the network left. In April, Main Street Sports told its remaining NHL (seven teams) and NBA (13 teams) properties that it would end operations after the 2025-26 season
The NHL will provide centralized production services for local broadcasts for the Hurricanes, Columbus Blue Jackets, Minnesota Wild and St. Louis Blues for the 2026-27 season. More teams could be added before the season, the league said
The league plans to provide pregame, intermission and postgame programming with on-site hosts for home and road games as well as graphics and replay capabilities for local broadcasts
“As the regional media landscape continues to evolve, clubs need flexibility to maximize distribution and revenue from their local broadcast model,” said David Proper, the NHL’s chief media officer. “This new model strengthens the value of regional media rights by expanding the pool of potential distribution partners, reducing dependence on outside production providers and allowing clubs to manage production investments more effectively.”
One of the biggest questions for the franchises — and their players — in a sport where the salary cap is determined by hockey-related income is whether the new model can replace the rights’ fees that the regional networks provided for decades. Montreal earns a league-high $70 million to $75 million from its local media rights, while Edmonton ($50 million), Toronto ($45 million) and the New York Rangers ($35 million) are also among the highest earners, CNBC reported in late 2025
The Hurricanes hope to offset production costs and turn a profit on the network with license fees paid by large cable or satellite distributors, ad sales and their own direct-to-consumer streaming product, which will either be distributed through their own service or through a partner
During the last two seasons, Capitol Broadcasting Company has simulcast a handful of Hurricanes games on WRAL and Fox 50 around holidays, allowing the team to reach fans without cable or satellite service. The Hurricanes would like to continue with a limited number of over-the-air simulcast games
The team could be hitting the market at the right time, given the team’s on-ice success and popularity at the moment
The Hurricanes, having reached the playoffs for eight consecutive seasons under coach and franchise icon Rod Brind’Amour, captured the franchise’s second Stanley Cup in franchise history in June, winning 16 of 19 playoff games in a dominant run.
Their 4-2 series win in the Stanley Cup Final against Las Vegas drew the largest television audience for an NHL final since 2019, and the Hurricanes’ Eastern Conference Final series win over Montreal was TNT’s most-watched conference final ever.
The team sold out Lenovo Center, its home arena, for watch parties during Stanley Cup Final road games. Nearly 200,000 fans turned out for theteam’s celebration parade in Downtown Raleigh. And Carolina returns almost all of their players from last year’s team with much of the core signed well into the future.
Lenovo Center is undergoing a $300-million renovation, and this summer’s work will add additional seats in the lower and upper levels. The organization is set to break ground on a development project around the arena after the NC State home football season ends at next-door Carter-Finley Stadium
