NHL AND NBC ON VERGE OF NEW DEAL
Partnership to be extended for two seasons
I dropped this on Twitter first, since it’s not Islanders-specific news. A broadcast industry source told me the NHL and NBC are finalizing a new two-year deal and could have an announcement soon. Perhaps the John Tavares-led Islanders can get a few games on NBC by the end of the deal. Comments.
34 Responses to “NHL AND NBC ON VERGE OF NEW DEAL
Partnership to be extended for two seasons”
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Good news for the NHL.
Wang will hopefully give a bit more info about the lighthouse so that Francessa isn’t confused about a monorail.
Now all we need is for the NHL to sign a TV deal with ESPN once their contract with VS. is up. Bring back Gary Thorne for the playoffs!
An ESPN deal is far more important for the NHL than a NBC deal.
CB, do you know any information about the NHL going back to ESPN?
I wonder if the new deal will actually, you know, make the NHL (and its member teams) some money. Because as it stands, the teams don’t see a penny from NBC, despite an overall nice ratings bump and great numbers for the Winter Classic this year.
It’ll be interesting to see whether the NHL waits out the end of the Finals to sign the contract. I have a feeling that if the Pens push this to 6 games, NBC is going to see (relatively) huge numbers for games 5 and 6. That might give the NHL some added leverage.
I doubt an ESPN deal is done if they re-up with NBC, since a deal with ESPN means ABC would want the high-profile games.
damn… no radio access at 5:30!!!!!
Hope I can find it on WFAN.com when I get home.
I don’t mind NBC, they just need to get rid of Milbury.
Every time he’s on, I want to throw the remote at the television.
One of the worst contracts in history. NBC pays the NHL no money but they dictate scheduling to the point where they force back to back games in the Stanley Cup.
“damn… no radio access at 5:30!!!!!
Hope I can find it on WHAN.com when I get home.”
It will be streaming online via
http://www.wfan.com/
the nhl makes money from the nbc deal… they both share profits from advertising instead of the nhl selling the rights to them. i assume the new deal will be the same. the rating for the first 2 games were very good for nbc/nhl during summer. around 5 million. and the nhl ratings on versus have gone up significantly and part of the deal they signed with them was linked to subscriber growth… not sure if ratings were apart of it as well. but versus is growing and i’d rather be a big fish in a small but growing pond than a little fish in espn’s ocean. got no respect there. the ratings last night of versus was 3 million for the game… the highest ratings ever for versus.
Ann Aquarian (7): See, it might sound strange to some but I actually LIKE Mike being there, I find the man fascinating. As long as Snow is our GM instead of Mike I am fine with it.
I hope Wang sets Francesca straight about the train issue as well, though I can’t help but say, why SHOULDN’T there be one? I know Garden City would never allow it, (as if they should have any real say in that matter to begin with;townships are idiotic)but with the Rags and Devs having a system right to their respective arenas, it makes more sense for the Isles to have one than a “bus system”. (?????)
Story updated: I’m told Wang WFAN interview has been postponed because of the length of the Mets game…CB
Figures.
Alex (#2)..Gary Thorne? His favorite player is Stephane YELLE!
Big Van Vader (#12)
MSG was built on top of the already existing Penn Station. The Rock is built near already existing PATH and Newark Penn stations.
#2…I miss Gary Thorne. He has always been my favorite national play by play guy. I miss lines “….shooting for the stanley cup, SAVE ROY!!!!”
I hope the NHL and NBC, do make a Deal, would be great for Hockey. Hopefully the Islander’s Draft Tavares, and NBC does some NY Islander’s games. Chris, I’m just getting back from a business trip, so I couldn’t comment on the previous article. I’m sorry I responding now, on this article, but you know the passion I have for the uniforms, of the NY Islander’s. I couldn’t be happier that the Islander’s will use their Vintage Third’s, for the draft, John Tavares will look great, in that Jersey. By the way, I also like the Cap. And on the subject of uniforms, again I think the NY Islander’s should make the 1980’s, their main uniform’s, White at Home, and leave the current third’s, the third’s. On the current mains, they are the WORST! Thanks Chris, great article again, Mark/NJ
Mark (#18)-The current main uniforms will NEVER be the worst. The fisherman jerseys will have that distinction until the last picture of one is destroyed.
In my exceedingly small brain, re-upping with NBC doesn’t make one bit of sense if it continues the same deal. The NHL sees so little money from the original deal it is ridiculous.
yea i was looking forward to listening to the inerview.
Dick Ebersol was very positive about “the rebirth of hockey” on NBC during his interview with Gary Bettman on the NHL Hour just a few minutes ago.
NBC should have a game every week starting in October. I wish Thursday Night hockey on ESPN would come back also. Get the game back where it belongs.
(16) And we have an nearby existing railroad spur that Garden City shut down a few years ago that we should be able to utilize. (If not for the damn NIMBY’S giving us BS)
D-man (#10),
I couldn’t disagree more. I’d much rather be included in the ESPN ocean than the Versus puddle. Ask yourself, when the average person is channel surfing and wants to check to see what sports are on, are they gonna look for Versus? No way. All the standard tier stations on my cable are in a row from 2 until about 87. Then you have stuff like the Knitting channel and Math Xtra-help station from 90 until the movie premiums kick in around 200. Versus is tucked in at 162.
That contract Bettman signed was a complete mistake. If you want hockey to be a top-tier sport, it needs to be covered by a top-tier network.
I agree, the NHL needs to get off of Versus. The station is a joke and like Cincy said, buried in the dregs of the channel lineup.
Congrats to former Isle Joe Sacco for landing the Colorado job. Wish him the best of luck with Matt Duchesne.
Cincy: I disagree… do you remember the last few years on ESPN… or really ESPN2? it was embarrassing. remember NHL tonight? it was every day then it dropped and dropped… was down to 1 day a week i think. and that was hidden somewhere on ESPN 2… they had very few games… they didn’t want us and we took the back seat. As versus has grown so has the NHL from their low point. I understand being on a more accessible channel is better but let the sport continue to grow on versus and maybe a few years from now if ESPN comes a calling then you consider it… but the NHL should no longer be begging to be on that channel.
I love watching Milbury, he is hilarious.
Game 3 had the highest rating of any cable hockey game since 2002. So maybe it’s okay to be on a network that is growing. I always wonder why no one has ever been able to challenge ESPN..CBS or NBC setting up a sports network. Like in my youth Playboy was the dominant “men’s magazine” with 3 million sold, the number two had 100,000. Then “Penthouse” came along and challenged them closely for about 15 years before video tapes/internet took much of their business.
NBC doesn’t pay any money but Hockey has always been a hard sell to American audiences. There was a time in the 1970s of three networks when none of them would broadcast it, save the occasional Flyers vs Soviet Red Army game on Wide World of Sports.
I would like to see more coverage of other teams from Versus, including the Islanders. If the NHL is growing then more needs to be seen on that station. NBC has the weekend games and playoffs on the weekends, so for now the NHL is getting the exposure, but Versus needs to step up more on the weekdays.
Honestly, this deal sounds optimistic for some Islanders coverage but if you go back previous schedules, the majority of games on NBC are Pitts, Detroit and Boston.
CB, “I dropped this on twitter”? C’mon now no need to start talking like a teenager, you’re not from that stupid “dropped” this or that generation. Hearing someone our age use that phrase is almost as bad as seeing a 40 something year old white guy try to rap. Ever see Bullworth? Yikes! Also those hats are the dumbest hats I’ve ever seen. What’s with the netting in the back?! It looks like a 70’s style truckers hat. All it needs now is the John Deere logo on it.
jason, please truckers rule, ice road truckers are the baddest.
(jt) breaker 9-1
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Aww Chris now you jinxed us “John Tavares led Islanders”? They’ll draft Hedman for sure now…