NHL acquires the Molson hockey library

NEW YORK -- The National Hockey League (NHL) today announced that it has completed a deal to purchase Molson's extensive hockey footage collection, which spans over the last 80 years in the NHL. Some of the footage includes Wayne Gretzky’s 1000th career point, Maurice “Rocket” Richard’s final goal and Bobby Baun's overtime winner scored on a broken foot. The NHL Hockey Archive is now the largest individual collection of hockey footage in the world.

“This new acquisition will allow us to recreate for our fans some of the most amazing moments in the NHL's history," says Patti Fallick, Group Vice President Media, Operations and Planning. "This will be a digital boom of historical content for fans accessing NHL content across our many platforms."

Comprising thousands of hours of the most thorough hockey footage ever assembled, the NHL Hockey Archive houses exclusive snapshots in time, including NHL milestones, press conferences, major announcements, exclusive interviews, locker room footage and complete games.

"Molson has been a major part of hockey history and has supported its development as a team owner, television producer and major sponsor over the years," said Judy Davey, Vice President Marketing Assets, Molson Canada. "We couldn't think of a better way to contribute to the preservation of hockey history than to offer the NHL this extensive collection of the most thorough hockey footage ever assembled in
broadcast history."

In addition to mainstream footage of some of hockey’s greatest moments, the NHL Hockey Archive also provides the industry with more unique and rare exclusive footage that has never before been made available. And in turn, hockey fans will have the opportunity to discover more about the history and rich tradition of the game as producers are able to bring more of this product to air.

To date, some of the great pieces that the NHL Hockey Archive has acquired include:

• The “Chisholm Collection:”
Over 800 cans of 30-minute 16mm film of hockey games, interviews, Stanley Cup presentations and celebrations, including footage that has never been aired publicly. Restoration work has just recently been completed on the collection, yielding more than 100 complete matches available for viewing.

• CBC:
Most recently, the CBC collection of hockey material (estimated at 2,000 games) has been acquired.

Beyond hockey’s earliest moments, the NHL Hockey Archive also offers the most recent hockey footage of nearly all games broadcast from 1994 to present, including low-angle melt footage of the best plays from these broadcasts.

The NHL Hockey Archive was developed in response to demand from the broadcasting and production industries for accurate, easily accessible and flawless hockey imagery. The “NHL Hockey Archive” is operated by NHL Productions. Prior to the deal, the NHL and Molson had a licensing agreement to share their assets and combine them into a hockey footage library.