Why Has the NHL Traditionally Done Poorly on US TV - Sitcoms Online Message Boards

TMC · 01-26-2009, 04:12 PM

From (after Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals on "The CBS Sports Spectacular") 1981-1989 (prior to the 1990 All-Star Game on NBC), there wasn't a single National Hockey League game that was nationally televised on broadcast, over-the-air television. Even so, from 1990-1994, only the All-Star Game on NBC and a selected number of Sunday afternoon games on ABC (which were basically, time buys from ESPN) marked the only occasions in which the NHL was on broadcast, national TV.

In the mean time, after losing their network contract with NBC in 1975 (they're last legitimate network deal before the 1994-95 deal with FOX), the NHL had to piece together their "own network" with the help of the Hughes Television Network, in a syndication package known as "The NHL Network". After The NHL Network disbanded in I believe, 1979, the NHL's only national TV deals came via the USA Network, ESPN, and SportsChannel America respectively. The SportsChannel deal beginning in 1988 was pretty much a step down because even though they paid more in rights fees than ESPN, SportsChannel was only available in about 1/3 the amount of homes that ESPN was at the time. Even worse, SportsChannel America didn't have a whole lot of real programming beyond the NHL.

The NHL pretty much shot themselves in the foot in 1994-95. They were coming off the heels of the New York Rangers' historic Stanley Cup victory, they had just received a major TV contract with FOX (who promised to advertise the hell out of the NHL), and they could've really filled in the void left by Major League Baseball when they went on strike. So what happens, the NHL has a lockout!

They pretty much wound up blowing their big shot with FOX (it was rumored that FOX was willing to broadcast every single Stanley Cup Finals game). The next TV contract with ABC/ESPN, wound up getting them lost in the shuffle so to speak. ABC hardly promoted the game (the NHL seemed to expect their sister chanel ESPN to do much of the dirty work). Plus, it seemed quite evident that it would be only a matter of time before ESPN would deem hockey irrelevant once it seemed apparent that they didn't really need them anymore (which turned out to be the case once they got the NBA in 2002-03).

The NHL sank even further into the abyss by going through another lockout, which canceled the entire season! When it was finally time to get back to work, all that they could muster was a revenue sharing deal with NBC (in which the NHL virtually has little power or say over) and a cable deal with an otherwise obscure (albeit still growing) channel known as OLN (now Versus).

01-26-2009, 04:12 PM	#1
TMC Member Forum Idol Join Date: Jan 09, 2001 Posts: 127,493	Why Has the NHL Traditionally Done Poorly on US TV From (after Game 6 of the 1980 Stanley Cup Finals on "The CBS Sports Spectacular") 1981-1989 (prior to the 1990 All-Star Game on NBC), there wasn't a single National Hockey League game that was nationally televised on broadcast, over-the-air television. Even so, from 1990-1994, only the All-Star Game on NBC and a selected number of Sunday afternoon games on ABC (which were basically, time buys from ESPN) marked the only occasions in which the NHL was on broadcast, national TV. In the mean time, after losing their network contract with NBC in 1975 (they're last legitimate network deal before the 1994-95 deal with FOX), the NHL had to piece together their "own network" with the help of the Hughes Television Network, in a syndication package known as "The NHL Network". After The NHL Network disbanded in I believe, 1979, the NHL's only national TV deals came via the USA Network, ESPN, and SportsChannel America respectively. The SportsChannel deal beginning in 1988 was pretty much a step down because even though they paid more in rights fees than ESPN, SportsChannel was only available in about 1/3 the amount of homes that ESPN was at the time. Even worse, SportsChannel America didn't have a whole lot of real programming beyond the NHL. The NHL pretty much shot themselves in the foot in 1994-95. They were coming off the heels of the New York Rangers' historic Stanley Cup victory, they had just received a major TV contract with FOX (who promised to advertise the hell out of the NHL), and they could've really filled in the void left by Major League Baseball when they went on strike. So what happens, the NHL has a lockout! They pretty much wound up blowing their big shot with FOX (it was rumored that FOX was willing to broadcast every single Stanley Cup Finals game). The next TV contract with ABC/ESPN, wound up getting them lost in the shuffle so to speak. ABC hardly promoted the game (the NHL seemed to expect their sister chanel ESPN to do much of the dirty work). Plus, it seemed quite evident that it would be only a matter of time before ESPN would deem hockey irrelevant once it seemed apparent that they didn't really need them anymore (which turned out to be the case once they got the NBA in 2002-03). The NHL sank even further into the abyss by going through another lockout, which canceled the entire season! When it was finally time to get back to work, all that they could muster was a revenue sharing deal with NBC (in which the NHL virtually has little power or say over) and a cable deal with an otherwise obscure (albeit still growing) channel known as OLN (now Versus).