NEW YORK (AP) – NBC is back on the ice after 29 years.

The network will broadcast NHL games the next two seasons under a revenue-sharing deal, replacing ABC as the league’s broadcast partner.

The deal, announced Wednesday, will call for NBC to broadcast seven regular-season games beginning in January and six playoff games in regular Saturday afternoon time slots. The network also will televise Games 3-7 of the Stanley Cup finals in prime time. NBC last regularly broadcast NHL games 29 years ago. The network televised the league’s All-Star game from 1991-94. Later Wednesday, ESPN and the NHL agreed to a deal to keep the league on ESPN2 next season, with options for the cable network to extend the deal for two more seasons.

An industry source familiar with the negotiations told The Associated Press the first year of the deal would be worth $60 million, with the next two years being worth $70 million each.

The two-year agreement with NBC, in which the league and the network share advertising revenue and NBC pays no rights fee, may be renewed for an additional two years at NBC’s option. The deal is subject to approval by the league’s board.

“We think that this structure makes enormous sense for both sides of the deal,” said Ken Schanzer, president of NBC Sports.

The NHL is bracing for an offseason that will feature labor talks to head off a potential lockout that could disrupt next season after the collective bargaining agreement expires Sept. 15.

Bettman hopes that NBC’s strong prime-time lineup Thursday and Friday and its presence with viewers in the 18-49 demographic will draw a larger audience to the Saturday afternoon games. The network plans to do most of the advertising for the games during prime-time shows Thursday and Friday.

“It was very important to us, obviously, that we had good, important stable relationships going forward on television,” Bettman said.

For NBC, the deal represents a move back into televising major professional team sports. In recent years, the network has focused on events such as the Olympics, NASCAR, Triple Crown horse racing and Notre Dame football while competitors had the NFL, NHL, NBA and major league baseball.

The network has long said that it would not pay expensive rights fees for the cachet of carrying major sports that could eventually lose money.

“It’s just good sound business to be going down the course of business we’re going down,” NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said.

Still, the network is not a neophyte when it comes to hockey. The NHL’s first broadcast deal, to air Stanley Cup playoff games, was with NBC in 1966.

ESPN2 will televise a total of 40 regular-season games on Wednesdays and Sundays, and the league’s draft. ESPN will show Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup finals and the NHL All-Star Game.

The current deal with ESPN, which includes ABC and ends after the season, is in the fifth year of a $600 million TV rights package.

“For many years, the NHL has been an important programming element for ESPN and we are thrilled to continue the relationship,” said George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports.

NBC also has a revenue-sharing deal with the Arena Football League, renewed Tuesday for two more years, in which the network paid no rights fee.

AP-ES-05-19-04 1857EDT