- ON VACATION �"
Looks like hockey is the only sport having problems with Comcast. Check this out via Sports Business Daily:
http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/index.cfm?storyid=SBD2007080612&requesttimeout=500&fuseaction=sbd.main
Thoughts on the telly …
A little over two weeks ago, Eklund reported from Nashville during the “Save of the Preds” rally that the NHL had initiated dialogue with ESPN about getting back into the game on the Deuce.
Long overdue if you ask me.
And yes, I was among the several writers who actually supported Commish Gary Bettman’s decision to go with Comcast. I broke the Comcast/NHL story for the Inquirer during the lockout.
I felt that ESPN had embarrassed the league and that a change in broadcast partners was necessary.
Upon reflection, I was wrong. We all were. OLN/Versus has been a major disappointment for hockey under the Comcast umbrella.
It’s mind-boggling to me how well Comcast does the Flyers broadcasts and yet that doesn’t translate nationally into the same product on Versus.
Last week, Sports Business Daily followed up on the ESPN/NHL story. There’s some good nuggets in this piece. Here’s the link:
http://www.sportsbusinessjournal.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=article.main&articleId=55770&requestTimeout=900
In speaking with my sources both within the league and at Comcast, I can tell you that the talks with ESPN are very preliminary. Nothing concrete in terms of a proposal has even crossed anyone’s desk on either side.
And as much as this is going to anger hockey fans … Versus is NOT going to lose it’s contract. Nor will NBC. Unless NBC opts out which is always a possibility.
This appears to be a supplemental TV package aimed at enhancing the NHL’s overall audience in its U.S. markets. If NBC opts out, then the league moves from network back to cable which may or may not be a good thing, depending upon how you view American networks.
Understand something. And this is strictly my opinion based on my discussions on this topic. I think there is an underlying message that Bettman is sending both Versus (Comcast) and NBC.
And that message is, “we like some of the progress that has been made in the U.S. markets, but we think we can do better and we should be doing better.”
I think ESPN realizes it was a mistake dropping hockey. There are numerous “lost souls” at ESPN who live and breathe hockey and feel very out of place on the football field or hard wood.
One image I will carry with me from the Stanley Cup final in Anaheim was that of Barry Melrose and Steve Levy sitting by themselves at a bar in Morton’s, talking hockey. No crowds around them.
All the crowds, all the bodies, all the pizzazz was 60 feet away at the crowded NBC table.
ESPN’s hockey people miss hockey the way Skull Island’s inhabitants miss Kong.
If ESPN gets back into the game …
When the TV rights deal opens up for general bidding some years ahead, perhaps, we will see someone come up with an overall plan to enhance the product in HD instead of ruining it with poor broadcasts and technical snafus.
Anyone who reads this website knows I’m unhappy with the technical gremlins at Versus and the continual problem of locating the games on HD during the week, coupled with Comcast’s inability to get more cable providers to include Versus to its subscribers.
Finding Versus on HD is sometimes as difficult as finding Waldo in Walmart.
Again, if I had been involved in the Comcast negotiations of this TV package during the final months of the lockout, I would have had very specific clauses that contained financial incentives and penalties.
Those clauses would have mandated that OLN/Versus’ market penetration increase by annual percentages in U.S. territories. Failure to do so would have incurred money going back into the league’s pocket from Comcast.
Of course, no one foresaw that Versus would have so many technical snafus and problems putting together the right broadcast team and HD components. It’s unimaginable that a cable giant such as Comcast was dogged by things of this very nature.
As for NBC … many of you thought I was “nuts” last year for my tirade about how the network cut away from a Sabres-Senators overtime playoff thriller to go to the Preakness pre-race horse nonsense.
Yes, that was strictly dollars/cents and linked to a previous contractual commitment to the Preakness that pre-dated NBC’s commitment to the NHL.
That didn’t make it right did it?
My feelings then and now remain the same: If you are NBC and you are the “official” carrier of hockey in the U.S., you are expected to deliver that product as your first priority. Just like we have with NFL and its three primary U.S. network carriers: CBS, Fox, NBC.
Had the NFL experienced the “cutaway” fiasco that the NHL did, I think Commish Roger Goodell would have reacted quite differently than Bettman.
The bottom line here is, the NHL has not scored a hat trick with the OLN, Versus, and NBC. We expected more and got less.
Maybe these discussions won’t lead to ESPN having the largest share of the broadcast pie in U.S. markets in future years, but if it spurs Versus and/or NBC or maybe some other future network to do a better job , then Bettman gets a thumbs up from me.
Philadelphia Flyers Blogger • 
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