J
Joseph_Gallant
Guest
There are numerous published reports (Article From The New York Times; Registration May Be Required) (Article From The Sporting News) announcing that ESPN has turned down their opportunity to match OLN's offer to the National Hockey League for U.S. national cable television rights.
This means that OLN will carry the NHL beginning this Fall.
Various published reports have suggested that OLN's regular-season coverage would be mostly on Monday and Tuesday nights (nights when traditionally, there aren't that many NHL games--especially the former) as well as extensive midweek coverage of early playoff rounds, midweek games of the conference finals (weekend afternoon games would be shown on NBC) and games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals (games 3 through 7 would air on NBC).
Although it's been claimed in other news articles that there will be a formal announcement of the NHL/OLN deal as early as today (August 18th), given the late date of the announcement, I wonder how many games might be shown during the early part of the upcoming season. It will take some time to get production teams put together and announcers hired. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the OLN NHL games over the first two months of the season are Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago games simulcast from sister company Comcast Sportsnets in those cities.
My guess is that the opening game of The NHL On OLN will be Wednesday, October 5th and will feature New Jersey hosting Pittsburgh in what will be the first NHL game for heavily-hyped Pittsburgh Penguins' rookie Sidney Crosby, the most publicized NHL rookie since Bobby Orr in 1966 (and the most publicized rookie in any of the "big four" professional team sports since Kareem Abdul Jabbar joiend the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969).
Now that OLN has the NHL, don't be surprised if OLN also wins the Thursday/Saturday late-season NFL cable package that will begin in 2006. And if there is an OLN/NFL partnership, look for an announcement on that to come in the very near future---weeks instead of months.
I think OLN parent Comcast will end up making a bid for the Thursday/Saturday NFL package that no one will be able to match.
In retrospect, turning down the chance to match OLN's offer for the NHL may come back to haunt ESPN, because it opened the way for the arrival of a full-fledged competing national cable sports network. Had ESPN paid-up, it probably would have stopped OLN's dreams of being a true rival to ESPN for the Thursday/Saturday NFL cable package would undoubtdely have also gone to ESPN.
The question really was: Overpay for the NHL and prevent the emergence of a full and equal (in time) competitor on the national cable spirts scene?? Or let the NHL walk, knowing that it would set the stage for the network the NHL signed with to then make an "eye-popping" offer for the Thursday/Saturday NFL package??
This means that OLN will carry the NHL beginning this Fall.
Various published reports have suggested that OLN's regular-season coverage would be mostly on Monday and Tuesday nights (nights when traditionally, there aren't that many NHL games--especially the former) as well as extensive midweek coverage of early playoff rounds, midweek games of the conference finals (weekend afternoon games would be shown on NBC) and games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals (games 3 through 7 would air on NBC).
Although it's been claimed in other news articles that there will be a formal announcement of the NHL/OLN deal as early as today (August 18th), given the late date of the announcement, I wonder how many games might be shown during the early part of the upcoming season. It will take some time to get production teams put together and announcers hired. I wouldn't be surprised if many of the OLN NHL games over the first two months of the season are Philadelphia, Washington and Chicago games simulcast from sister company Comcast Sportsnets in those cities.
My guess is that the opening game of The NHL On OLN will be Wednesday, October 5th and will feature New Jersey hosting Pittsburgh in what will be the first NHL game for heavily-hyped Pittsburgh Penguins' rookie Sidney Crosby, the most publicized NHL rookie since Bobby Orr in 1966 (and the most publicized rookie in any of the "big four" professional team sports since Kareem Abdul Jabbar joiend the Milwaukee Bucks in 1969).
Now that OLN has the NHL, don't be surprised if OLN also wins the Thursday/Saturday late-season NFL cable package that will begin in 2006. And if there is an OLN/NFL partnership, look for an announcement on that to come in the very near future---weeks instead of months.
I think OLN parent Comcast will end up making a bid for the Thursday/Saturday NFL package that no one will be able to match.
In retrospect, turning down the chance to match OLN's offer for the NHL may come back to haunt ESPN, because it opened the way for the arrival of a full-fledged competing national cable sports network. Had ESPN paid-up, it probably would have stopped OLN's dreams of being a true rival to ESPN for the Thursday/Saturday NFL cable package would undoubtdely have also gone to ESPN.
The question really was: Overpay for the NHL and prevent the emergence of a full and equal (in time) competitor on the national cable spirts scene?? Or let the NHL walk, knowing that it would set the stage for the network the NHL signed with to then make an "eye-popping" offer for the Thursday/Saturday NFL package??