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TNT to join ESPN in airing NHL games

For the record, I'm not an anti-wrestling snob. I was a huge fan from 1968 right up through the WWE buyout of WCW, but my interest faded quickly after that. I went to house shows often in the '70s and '80s, enjoyed everything about them. But not once did I buy into what I was seeing as a sport. It was athletic, but not competitive, which made it a performance, not a sport.
 
nomadcowatbk said:
and many seniors are cheap even if they have $
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Many seniors are "cheap" because they are living on fixed assets/incomes and don't know how long they will live. Then there those of us who invested wisely and have incomes far exceeding our modest means. I worried my whole life about finances.....until I retired.
 
nomadcowatbk said:
many anti-Wrestling snobs like Jamie Kellner on here
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I'm not either. I still remember my dad taking me to a wrestling match when I was about 8 or 9. Saw Gorgeous George throwing his gold hairpins into the crowd and wondering what that had to do with wrestling.

As for being a snob.....when I was in college I had no afternoon classes one year and got hooked on Roller Derby which was shown for a time on weekday afternoons. I used to eat lunch and shamelessly watch that "sport" where the "good guys and girls" would punish the "bad guys and girls" by knocking them into the cheap seats. I never thought it was a genuine sport though. I still remember the S.F. "hero" Charlie O'Conner getting clobbered by the bad guys then getting his revenge on the big match Saturday afternoons. Quite the copy of wrestling.
 
seatownmedia said:
RELATED: The Seattle Kraken officially became an NHL team today.

I believe this will be a huge shot in the arm to the NHL, as there will be tremendous initial interest in the PNW.
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And the Kraken can begin their quest to bring the Stanley Cup back to Seattle 105 years after the last time that trophy was raised in the city.
 
The NHL is back, with games now on TNT and ESPN, instead of NBC SN.

TNT is pretty worried. They bought ads all over the Comcast channel guide to remind viewers to sample their coverage.

The problem they have is TNT is not grouped with other sports channels. So you have to reach out to find it.

Plus they seem to be using talent from other sports to attract new viewers to this foreign sport:

 
TheBigA said:
The NHL is back, with games now on TNT and ESPN, instead of NBC SN.

TNT is pretty worried. They bought ads all over the Comcast channel guide to remind viewers to sample their coverage.

The problem they have is TNT is not grouped with other sports channels. So you have to reach out to find it.

Plus they seem to be using talent from other sports to attract new viewers to this foreign sport:

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People have no problem finding TNT for the NBA. Hockey fans will know where to go.
 
TheBigA said:
They have Charles Barkley in goal. Maybe they hope NBA fans will watch hockey.
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As a longtime hockey fan, I'm getting a big kick out of seeing ESPN's hype machine put to work on the NHL. During last night's Seattle-Vegas game, one of the announcers was talking about the early game (Pittsburgh-Tampa Bay) and exclaimed that the Penguins had "shocked the world" by beating the Stanley Cup champions. So very typical ESPN ... it was the first game of a very long season and the Penguins are a very good team. If Bishop Sycamore had beaten the IMG Academy, THAT would have shocked the world -- not a victory over the defending champions in a regular season game by a team with Sidney Crosby and Evgeny Malkin playing for it.

Another strike against TNT: ESPN+ is showing nearly every game on the schedule every night for only $7 a month. This will be drawing neutrals away from TNT's exclusive games to watch matchups they're more interested in. For instance, while Washington and the NY Rangers are on TNT, Montreal and Toronto are on ESPN+. As a Boston Bruins fan, I'm watching the Canadiens and Leafs. Before this season, I would have needed an NHL TV subscription to do that, at a greater cost than I now pay for ESPN+.
 
TheBigA said:
I agree...big difference from NBC-SN. ESPN has a more unified approach. It's that Disney synergy working again.
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I wonder if that synergy will extend to ESPN Radio. While the main topics of discussion there are NFL, NBA and NCAA football, all the hosts will occasionally talk about MLB when major baseball news breaks or during the postseason, and they do so with a measure of authority, which tells me that although management doesn't want them talking about baseball too much for demographic reasons, they still at least follow the sport on a personal level. Do ESPN Radio's hosts also follow hockey, and will they discuss it on air this season? The NHL's big demographic problem isn't age -- hockey has a lot going for it among younger fans -- but geography. Huge swaths of the country just aren't interested at all.
 
CTListener said:
I wonder if that synergy will extend to ESPN Radio. While the main topics of discussion there are NFL, NBA and NCAA football, all the hosts will occasionally talk about MLB when major baseball news breaks or during the postseason, and they do so with a measure of authority, which tells me that although management doesn't want them talking about baseball too much for demographic reasons, they still at least follow the sport on a personal level. Do ESPN Radio's hosts also follow hockey, and will they discuss it on air this season? The NHL's big demographic problem isn't age -- hockey has a lot going for it among younger fans -- but geography. Huge swaths of the country just aren't interested at all.
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Nationally probably not. Local shows with teams will talk hockey.
 
TheBigA said:
I think only for certain sports. Radio rights for NHL went to SportsUSA:

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Not really relevant. ESPN Radio hosts talk about the NFL even though national radio rights belong to Westwood One. The key to getting your sport heavily promoted via ESPN Radio is to have ESPN television as a rights holder.
 
CTListener said:
Not really relevant. ESPN Radio hosts talk about the NFL even though national radio rights belong to Westwood One. The key to getting your sport heavily promoted via ESPN Radio is to have ESPN television as a rights holder.
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How many affiliates only carry the national feed and don’t have local programming.
 
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