Subscribe to NewscastStudio for the latest news, project case studies and product announcements in broadcast technology, creative design And engineering delivered to your inbox.
The National Hockey League will return to ESPN starting with the 2021-22 season after an absence of more than 15 years under a new rights deal that includes 75 national games and more than 1,000 streamed games per season.
One of the most memorable songs of ESPN the 90s cover was the theme song set to return this fall.
“As excited as we are about our new deal with the NHL, we are also very excited to bring back the ESPN hockey theme song that is very familiar and iconic to hockey fans,” said Mark Gross of ESPN.
“We’re in the very early stages of preparing to launch our cover, but it was never a question of what the music would be.”
From composer Bob Christianson, also known for his NCAA March Madness theme on CBS, the theme debuted in 1992 for the then-titled ESPN show “National Hockey Night” (a riff on the famous “Hockey Night in Canada” branding). “).
“When ESPN started, a lot of the music on ESPN was mine, maybe even the majority,” Christianson said in an ESPN Front Row article in 2014. “I had baseball, basketball -NCAA basketball, NBA basketball, hockey.”
“I’ve written so many sports themes, and some of them I really like, and some of them I don’t, but this is one of the ones I’m really happy with – it turned out really well “Christianson said. “He did what he was supposed to do.”
The theme is also currently used on ESPN+ for “In the Crease”, a nightly hockey program hosted by Linda Cohn, and for the NCAA Hockey Championship.