Ice hockey broadcasting
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As with most professional sports, ice hockey is broadcast both on radio and television.
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[edit] History
The first complete hockey game carried over the radio was on March 14, 1923 in Canada on CKCK out of Regina, Saskatchewan and reported by Pete Parker. The game was not an NHL contest, but rather a Western Canada Hockey League featuring the Regina Capitals. Eight days later Foster Hewitt broadcast the first Hockey Night in Canada game. The first hockey game televised in Canada was on October 11, 1952.
As in other sports, television has had a major effect on hockey. The infusion of money has made the major leagues far more professional with vastly higher salaries for players. It has also changed the game as NHL rules now mandate four commercial breaks per period, giving players top time to recuperate and allowing the better players to be on the ice longer. However, it also lengthens and slows the games considerably.
Television networks also despise how often games go into overtime, destroying set schedules. TV executives have long pushed for a faster shoot out to resolve games.
Games today are also broadcast over the Internet. The NHL website[1] allows fans to listen to online broadcasts of every NHL game.
[edit] Canada
In Canada, NHL hockey is broadcast every Saturday night on CBC's longest running television show, Hockey Night in Canada. During the week, other games are shown on cable channels TSN and RIS. Various local channels carry other games as well. During the NHL playoffs, CBC carries the series involving any Canadian teams and the Stanley Cup Final. TSN covers playoff games in the first three rounds not involving Canadian teams. RDS covers the entirety of the playoffs in French.
CBC also carries many international tournaments, such as the World Cup of Hockey. The last three Winter Olympics have been on CBC, but the 2010 games will be on CTV and RDS. Major games like those of the 1972 Summit Series or the 2002 Winter Olympics have received some of the highest ratings in Canadian television history. Other well-known tournaments, like the Spengler Cup or the Memorial Cup, are carried on Rogers Sportsnet. TSN and RDS carry all IIHF events, such as the World Junior Championships and World Championships.
Several Canadian Hockey League (CHL) and American Hockey League (AHL) games are broadcast by local channels in Canada, as is the occasional university game.
Hockey Night in Canada, or HNIC, is by far CBC's most profitable show and supports many of the corporation's other ventures.
[edit] United States
Hockey has never fared well on American television in comparison to the NBA, MLB, or the NFL. In fact, hockey broadcasting on a national scale was spotty prior to 1981; NBC and CBS held rights at various times, but neither network carried anything close to a full schedule, even carrying only selected games of the Stanley Cup Finals. From 1971–1995, there was no excusive coverage of games in the United States.
In 1981, the fledgling USA Network (formerly MSG Network) carried a full schedule of games, supplanted by ESPN in 1986 and SportsChannel in 1989. ESPN regained the national hockey contract in 1993, joined by the FOX network in 1995.
FOX had put much effort into trying to stimuate American interests in the game, but had achieved little success. One of their schemes was to make the hockey puck more visible by highlighting it on television with a blue comet, using FoxTrax. When a slapshot over 70 miles per hour was made, the puck would leave a red comet trail on the television. This idea was met with great derision in Canada, especially to diehard hockey fans, and also met with little success in the United States.
FOX got out of the hockey business in 1999 after being massively outbid - surprisingly, given FOX's low ratings - by ESPN's fellow Disney network ABC. This $600 million contract was signed in 1998 was regarded as a failure.
Before the 2004–05 lockout, the NHL had reached two separate deals with NBC and ESPN. The NBC deal stipulated that the network would pay the league no rights fees - an unheard of practice to that point. NBC's deal included six regular season windows, seven postseason broadcasts and games 3–7 of the Stanley Cup Finals in primetime. The contracts were to commence when the lockout ended. The NBC deal expires after the 2006–07 season, and NBC has picked up the option to renew for the 2007–08 season (Just like the AFL/NBC agreement, which the network did not renew in 2006). The NHL and NBC share in revenues from advertising.
ESPN had a two year deal that they opted out of after the lockout, leaving the NHL without a cable partner. In August 2005 Comcast (who owns the Philadelphia Flyers) paid $70 million a year for three years to put games on the OLN network, now known as Versus. Due to the abbreviated off-season, the 2005–06 schedule did not offer OLN exclusivity, which they received in 2006–07. Versus will also cover the playoffs and will exclusively air Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Individual teams have long contracted to air their games on local channels, primarily on Regional sports networks and in a few cases on broadcast channels as well.
Levels below the NHL are rarely shown on national television in the United States, but some college hockey airs on CSTV or ESPNU (and in Midwest states like Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and Michigan where hockey is more popular airs extensively on regional sports networks FSN North, FSN Wisconsin, and FSN Detroit); the latter channel's package includes the NCAA's Frozen Four tournament.
[edit] See also
[edit] Europe
Many NHL games are broadcast on the North American Sports Network in Europe.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- NHL Television Broadcasting
- Hockey no longer can be considered one of the top four sports in the United States, thanks to Gary Bettman's TV policy
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