NHL whoring out to NBC, no surprise here

It'd be kind of like the NFL taking billions from the major networks in the U.S., then adjusting its schedule to accommodate the Home Shopping Network.

Does that sound too ludicrous to be true? Yeah, well, welcome to the NHL. :

 

NBC should just show the games in Detroit and Pittsburgh.

 

This would be a completely plausible comparison if, say, New Zealand were supplying more than half of the competitors taking part in the Olympics. Or if New Zealand were the birthplace of the Olympics.

Neither of those two things are true. Canada, on the other hand, is the birthplace of hockey and of the NHL and still supplies more than half of the NHL's players. Ergo, your comparison is so full of shit that I can smell it from here.

 

And, at least in this market, their affiliates don't want the game.

NBC here is having it's annual telethon instead, so the game will be on a Fox Sports affiliate.

Whoopee!

 

What's the deal with the Sunday time now being TBA?

 

I believe it may be moved up to 7 or 7:30 p.m.

 

Thanks.

Any chance they could move it up to about 10 a.m.?

/pens fanboy

 

Finally found out the why:

http://sportsmediawatch.blogspot.com/2009/05/penswings-game-2-start-time-depends-on.html

 

Nice find. Makes sense.

 

JR,

I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass, I'm really not. But I do have a question and I don't think it's stupid.

Are we truly sure that CBC doesn't want the back-to-back? I ask this for one simple reason: If the series goes at least five games (which I think it will), they will get Game 1 and Game 5 on Saturday nights.

Isn't there some benefit there financially for CBC for this schedule? I would think that a Saturday Game 5 would be worth more than a Sunday Game 5.

 

Double J, you're a good bloke and I have no issue with you.

But I do get a little tired with this Canadian "It's OUR game" nonsense. The game doesn't belong to anyone. The league is primarily a US league. Sweden has players in the NHL. So does Russia. So does Finland. So does the Czech Republic. Big deal. If people there want to watch, good on them.

The franchises are located where they are for a reason. Move 'em all back to Canada and you'll have a hockey equivalent of the CFL. You think the sport struggles for attention NOW?

I've harped for years how stupid it was to make west coast teams play 5 p.m. starts to accomodate east coast TV. Same here. If CBC wants to pay $100 million or whatever, the NHL will take the cash. If they don't that's fine, too. (Sure seems like a waste of government money, but that's another thread.)

Why would you schedule a series between two US teams in a manner so some smuck in Saskatoon finds it more convenient? If there were more households in Canada, then maybe it would carry more clout. Last I looked, the population of the entire country was less than that of California alone, for Pete's sake.

I still haven't heard what possible objection CBC has to the current schedule, other than they get 2 Saturday nights instead of three. There are no day games and everything is an 8 p.m. start. Is there something CBC is having to bump on Sunday (or some other day) as a result?

I'm not defending NBC here. They can put the whole series on Versus and the only difference would be substituting the charming Christine Simpson for Pierre Maguire. I could care less what station it airs on, but I am glad they moved up the starting dates (midweek would have been fine with me, too). All much adoo over nothing.

 

Sorry IJAG, I had to

Mark, hockey may be the only profitable thing the CBC does.

Who is saying move all the teams back to Canada? Your CFL comparison is ridiculous, as usual, you know the original 6 had 4 teams in the states right.

So what would the NHL do without the Canadian broadcast money? You simply dismiss the 100 million as no big deal.

And to disregard and call your best customers smucks is as ignorant as it gets. Without those smucks, there are teams that would not be able to get their welfare cheques from revenue sharing. Which actually would be fine by me.