NHL and Ex-HBO Sports Prez Ross Greenburg to Produce Hockey Programming

TORONTO – The National Hockey League and ex-HBO Sports topper Ross Greenburg are partnering on a new venture, NHL Original Productions, to create original hockey programming for NBC Sports and the league's media assets.

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The pro hockey league and Ross Greenburg Productions will work with the NHL’s content group on TV content after the NHL and NBC Universal/Comcast signed a new 10-year media rights deal in April 2011.

Among the projects on the drawing board for NHL Original Productions are Day in the Life documentaries on NHL players appearing in NHL on NBC games.

NBC Sports also retained Greenburg to produce sports documentaries for the new NBC Sports Network, Golf Channel and NBC.

Greenburg will also reunite with Bob Costas to produce Costas Tonight.

And the NHL Original Productions will develop documentaries and features timed for the league’s centennial celebration in 2017.

Greenburg will also work with indie producers on hockey films, documentaries and reality-based series about ice hockey.

The NHL and Greenburg earlier collaborated on the HBO show Broad Street Bullies and the Emmy award-winning 24/7 Penguins/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic program.

Greenburg recently left HBO Sports after working at the U.S. network for 33 years.

Besides creating programming for NBC Sports, NHL Original Productions will develop original content for the league’s media platforms, including NHL Network and NHL.com, and for national and regional NHL rights holders.

"Extending our programming and production capabilities through this relationship with Ross Greenburg will allow us to do more story-telling, bring fans further inside the game and promote our players through compelling content that our avid fans crave and new fans will embrace,” NHL COO John Collins explained.