By all accounts, the 2009-10 NHL regular season and the Stanley Cup playoffs have been a tremendous success. Yet there is one glaring thing missing from a total victory, and that is for the NHL to add another national cable partner to the mix.
There have been on-again, off-again conversations regarding ESPN returning to covering hockey. Both sides are looking to repair some bad feelings over the network dropping hockey at the end of the 2004-05 season. Having the ESPN sports machine behind the league could only help product growth.
Here is the current problem: VERSUS, which handles the Monday through Friday telecasts, has been unable to air every playoff game nationally. So fans of the Flyers, Devils, Sabres and Bruins saw little or no national coverage of their teams in the first round. It didn’t get any better in the second round, as several series continued to overlap and fans were shown parts of games — or in some cases, only the final few minutes.
Where is the NHL Network?
During the regular season, NHL Network aired a full slate of games and served as a complement to VERSUS, but it hasn’t aired any Stanley Cup playoff games. It is not only crazy not to use them, but the NHL is missing a golden opportunity to advance the NHL Network brand beyond the inside-hockey universe.
As of now, the NHL is the only major sports league without a secondary cable partner. The NFL has broadcast partners CBS, FOX and NBC as well as cable deals with both ESPN and the NFL Network. Meanwhile, Major League Baseball has FOX as their broadcast partner and cable deals with ESPN, TBS and the MLB Network. The NBA has ESPN/ABC and TNT as partners.
Even Major League Soccer has national deals with ESPN/ABC and FOX Soccer Channel, while NASCAR has deals with FOX, ESPN/ABC and TNT for their race broadcasts.
The success of the NHL and the fine job done by VERSUS and NBC in their coverage will hopefully help make the case that ESPN should rejoin hockey coverage in 2011 when the NHL works on their new TV deals.
Jim Williams is a seven-time Emmy Award-winning TV producer, director and writer. Check out his blog, Watch this!
