Michigan Radio & TV Buzzboard

The NHL and ESPN have agreed to a seven year deal which involves Four Stanley Cup games. The 10 year NBC deal has expired, (yeah I know I left out a lot of details.)

Wow - NBCSN is screwed! They can kiss what little audience they have good bye.

I know he's not a spring chicken anymore, but I'd love to hear Gary Thorne calling NHL games again. Was never a big Doc fan.

https://www.nhl.com/news/nhl-espn-disne ... -322346092
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/10/spor ... isney.html

What's interesting here is only about one-quarter of the number of games televised by either NBC or NBCSN will be televised by either ABC or ESPN.

The other three quarters will only be available via streaming platforms (such as ESPN+). Will be interesting to see how many new subscribers ESPN+ acquires for the sole purpose of gaining access to NHL telecasts.

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 13, 2021 8:57 am

Wow - NBCSN is screwed! They can kiss what little audience they have good bye.

It’s not really that impactful to NBCSN, since they had already announced a month ago that they were ceasing operations this year. If NBC had held onto NHL rights, the games would have been shifting to the USA Network.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/m ... 678669002/

I'd love to see either Gary Thorne or Steve Levy as PXP announcer. Anyone else wouldn't be nearly as good, although you never know, they might hire former NBC announcers as well.

Thanks for the info, kman. I was completely out of the loop!

I wonder if a new network of a different genre will fill that void? Nat Geo Wild, for example, used to be Fox Reality.

I think FS1 is partially responsible for making NBCSN unviable. They've done a much better job cultivating programming.

MWmetalhead wrote: ↑

Sat Mar 13, 2021 4:47 pm

Thanks for the info, kman. I was completely out of the loop!

I wonder if a new network of a different genre will fill that void? Nat Geo Wild, for example, used to be Fox Reality.

I think FS1 is partially responsible for making NBCSN unviable. They've done a much better job cultivating programming.

NBCUniversal is relaunching G4, although G4 tending to have a younger audience, would probably fit better on Peacock.

FS1 tends to be more popular than NBCSN has ever been. NBCSN started out as an outdoor-themed channel as OLN years ago but changed their focus not long after they started showing NHL games.

I do remember OLN (Outdoor Life Network), then it became the sorta sports themed Versus, and then NBC Sports Network.

Of those three, I actually thought NBCSN was the crappiest offering.

NBCSN was heavy into cycling and curling. They never really managed it very well they could have built an audience if they hadn't been so greedy with the paywall.

TC Talks wrote: ↑

Fri Mar 19, 2021 9:08 pm

NBCSN was heavy into cycling and curling. They never really managed it very well they could have built an audience if they hadn't been so greedy with the paywall.

They had the Tour de France for many years.

Turner Sports will be getting the NHL’s secondary rights. It looks like the NHL will be going from $200M per year in TV rights revenue to $625M.

https://nypost.com/2021/04/26/tnts-powe ... fications/

Turner is turning into quite the sports entity, with rights to NHL, NBA, MLB (via TBS rather than TNT), and the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

NBC looks like it will focus on NFL Sunday Night Football, and Premiere League (which is a driver of subscribers to their Peacock Network).

NBCSN was heavy into cycling and curling. They never really managed it very well they could have built an audience if they hadn't been so greedy with the paywall.

This.

thekman wrote: ↑

Mon Apr 26, 2021 8:52 pm

Turner is turning into quite the sports entity, with rights to NHL, NBA, MLB (via TBS rather than TNT), and the NCAA Basketball Tournament.

I wonder if Turner will eventually launch their own sports network, or just keep their current format.

TNT has been one of the highest rated cable networks for years. They'd be very foolish to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

A more realistic possibility - TruTV gets 86'd to make room for an all-sports network.

Turner Sports already programs NBA TV, for what that's worth.

If I were Turner, I'd continue to steer clear of launching an all-sports network. I'd continue to use the play-by-play offerings to enhance the programming of (and to continue to draw viewers to) TNT and TBS.