NHL done deal - Page 12  

Looks like OLN HD will be lauching in October.
How long it takes D* to get this channel is another discussion. :mad:

Do you want to bet that all NBC games will be in HD?

any ideas how does this all affect Direct tv subscribers?? what about the NHL Network= which i'd love to see.... we gonna get that? i doubt it!

>>OLN's deal mandates that Comcast carry the NHL Network, which is now only available in Canada, on its digital sports tier. <<

this is from the OLN website- that mean us D* are screwed??

I'll wait until I see how it actually plays out to reserve final judgement, but I think it's going to be a pretty good deal for the NHL. I'm a little biased since I have Comcast and therefore I'm pretty much assured I will get to watch these games. Unless of course Comcast are a bunch of complete idiots, which is always a possibility.

People act like just being on ESPN gave the NHL better ratings, but I doubt that's true. In fact, as a pretty die hard hockey fan I pretty much avoided watching any games on ESPN like the plague because of their godawful announcers. I seriously would get so frustrated with the stupidity of their announcers that I would watch something else. If I really had to watch the game (because it featured my team or was a playoff game) I would mute the tv. If people who like hockey can't stand to watch it on ESPN, doesn't it make since that no one else would either?

Now I'm the kind of person that watched about 60-70 regular season games featuring my team (on the local channels) and another 15-30 without my team (usually Hockey Night in Canada on CBC) a year plus at least one playoff game a night in the spring. There is no sport I watch more than hockey. If I can't stand to watch a hockey game on ESPN, why would the casual fan? I know some people get overwhelmed with information when they first start watching hockey, but I can't believe that outright bad information would make it more fun to watch. As someone who knows a great deal about hockey, I often wondered if the ESPN announcers were watching the same game as me. If I didn't know much about hockey I would just get confused by those idiots and turn it off.

As far as audience size goes, the NHL will lose some potential viewers since OLN has a smaller audience. I think Comcast could fix a large part of this by simply moving OLN from thier digital package to one of the low channels and make it part of their basic package. That alone should get them close to ESPN2 as far as potential viewing households go.

I think initially the ratings are going to be much lower than they were on ESPN, but I think that is due more to the lockout than anything else.

Eventually I think the new system will lead to an increased audience for the NHL. The only sure fire way to create new hockey fans is to have a decent team in that area. In the new system, the NHL will look more like the NFL. Every team should have a decent shot at winning the Cup and the Cup will move around a bit more since dynasties are going to be harder to come by. When towns like Atlanta, Nashville, etc get to see a Stanley Cup final firsthand, they'll become hockey towns just like Dallas and Tampa Bay. Their fans might not be as die hard as fans in Detroit, but they're going to watch more hockey on tv and it'll be a lot harder to get tickets.

I think it's going to be at least five years before this turns into any kind of boost in the TV ratings, however. With that in mind, this is probably the best time for the NHL to take a chance with OLN. At worst nobody watches and then NHL gets more money than the would from ESPN. I don't see how this is bad since nobody was really watching on ESPN either. At best OLN does a great job and at least gets people who already like hockey to watch again, which is more than the NHL should ask for. You never know, Comcast might make OLN a sports channel to rival ESPN (they're talking about adding NFL games this fall as well). Being a part of that growth wouldnt' be a bad thing either.

Again, your provided link is to OLN HD Video on Demand -- NOT a full-time OLN HD channel.

Also, Ken H says in the sticky that (at least some) NHL games will be broadcast in HD on INHD1 and/or INHD2.

According to that link OLN HD will only have 5 hours of HD programming each month. Maybe I'm missing something, but that doesn't sound very promising.

Five fours of HD Video on Demand each month.

This was what they were predicting BEFORE the deal with the NHL was struck.

I get OLN on channel 76, non-digital, in my area. The OLN on-demand shows require a digital box (of course).

Can't wait to see if/when I get the "coming this fall" OLN-HD on-demand. I don't see how they'll be able to do it here. I believe my local Comcast system is already bandwidth restricted.

Overall, I'm very happy. I expect that vieiwng the NHL on it's own network will be far, FAR superior to being presented as the red-headed stepchild on ESPN.

My question is when the heck will the NHL Network be available to US subs as well?

ESPN Passes on NHL, Eyes Potential Challenger
By Ben Grossman and John M. Higgins Broadcasting & Cable

ESPN passed on matching Comcast’s offer to put the NHL on OLN, then passed judgment on Comcast’s claims it was not positioning the network to compete with ESPN.

“OLN is certainly setting itself up as a competitor to ESPN,†said George Bodenheimer, president, ESPN, Inc. and ABC Sports, in a statement late Wednesday night. “We welcome it. It will make us better."

And regarding Comcast executives who on a recent earnings conference call denied any intent to reshape OLN to directly challenge ESPN, ESPN Director of Media Relations Josh Krulewitz added, “Actions speak louder than words.â€

This after ESPN Wednesday night made the decision not to bring the NHL back.

“Tonight, we informed the NHL that we did not accept their final contract offer,†said Bodenheimer in a statement late Wednesday night. “We worked very hard to build and sustain our relationship with the league and would have liked to continue. However, given the prolonged work stoppage and the league’s TV ratings history, no financial model even remotely supports the contract terms offered. We wish the NHL all the best.â€

And as it turns out, ESPN’s decision not to match Comcast’s offer for the NHL television package may have been a result of more than just a high rights fee.

According to sources, Comcast’s deal with the NHL to put the games on OLN also includes the genesis of an NHL network in the U.S., for which Comcast can assure distribution to 21 million cable households. The deal also includes a clause that the cable network carrying hockey will have to air the games on its primary sports network.

Those may have been deal breakers for ESPN, who first of all would not want to put the low-rated NHL on its main network, but would rather show the games on ESPN2. And unlike cable operator Comcast, ESPN does not have the ability to guarantee carriage for a startup channel.

As for the OLN deal, sources said Comcast offered to pay $65 million the first year, $70 million the second year, and an option for a third year at $72.5 million. (The previous deal was $60 million annually, a price at which ESPN previously turned down an option). Both sides have the option to pull out after the second year, including an NHL option to back out and shop for a new partner if OLN does not reach a guaranteed number of households by that time.

Further backing the talk that Comcast is shaping OLN to become a more mainstream sports network, sources said the company is sniffing around for smaller rights packages for big sports, including the Sunday-Wednesday baseball package currently held by ESPN, which expires this season.

Sources said OLN is a possible outlet for the package should ESPN not renew. ESPN also has a separate deal to air a limited amount of post-season baseball in a deal that came to Disney when the company purchased the Fox Family Channel, which held the rights. That deal expires at the end of next season.

OLN has also been mentioned as a possible suitor for a proposed Thursday-Saturday package of NFL games, although it remains to be seen whether such a package will be created by the league.

A new cable deal for the NHL would follow its agreement with NBC for broadcasts beginning this season, although the league will be paid no rights fees from the network in a profit-share arrangement.

Bettman's statement that they would do whatever it takes to bring the fans back rings a little hollow at this point.

The promotional value to the NHL of ESPN and its networks, especially SportsCenter, will be almost zero now that ESPN sees OLN as a possible competitor.

ESPN is all about the synergy, the promoting of all things ESPN, ABC and Disney related.

The average NHL game is not going to warrant much coverage henceforth on the World Wide Leader.

And say what you will -- and Comcast may do a wonderful job -- but for the average non hardcore sports fan, the NHL will be pretty hard to find.

As long as the HD games OLN has committed to are carried on satellite, this is great news.

OLN will treat the NHL as their prestige property. And more people get OLN than are aware. Most people haven't had a reason to look for it.

I just hope they get different announcers than we've had to put up with on ESPN for too long.

Now I wish there was a way to unsubscribe from ESPN. NHL games were the only thing I ever watched on it.

The NHL press release specifically mentions HD. I wonder how they are planning to pull that off.

http://www.nhl.com/news/2005/08/233286.html

Way cleared for Comcast's NHL plan
ESPN dropped out of the bidding for the national coverage.
The hockey games would be televised on OLN.

By Don Steinberg Philadelphia Inquirer Staff Writer

ESPN last night dropped out of bidding for NHL games for this season, refusing to match an offer made by Comcast's Outdoor Life Network. OLN now seems likely to televise hockey games nationally when the season starts in October.

"Tonight, we informed the NHL that we did not accept their final contract offer," ESPN president George Bodenheimer said. "... Given the prolonged work stoppage and the league's TV ratings history, no financial model even remotely supports the contract terms offered."

The deal with OLN will give the Comcast network two national games per week.

The NHL Board of Governors last week approved Comcast's offer, reportedly for about $65 million, $70 million and $72.5 million for the first three years. One ESPN insider said last week that the network would break even on NHL games at $40 million a year.

This deal is independent from Flyers games televised locally on Comcast SportsNet.

OLN now must build a national TV hockey operation. That will include hiring a production team and announcers and likely building a new studio and hiring studio personalities.

A major-league sports deal such as this will help Comcast recruit national talent. The company also will launch a New York Mets channel in 2006, and Comcast is still in the running for a late-season package of NFL night games in 2006.

Most of ESPN's hockey staff has dispersed or found other work within the company. Play-by-play announcer Gary Thorne does baseball and college football for the network. Bill Clement has various assignments there and covered Olympic events for NBC. Analyst and former player Darren Pang left ESPN to work for the Phoenix Coyotes. Brian Engblom left for local television in Columbus, Ohio. Ray Ferraro is announcing with Edmonton, but Barry Melrose remains at ESPN.

and he can stay there for all I care... :p

From the NHL press release:

"Comcast's leadership and innovation in delivering integrated sports and other entertainment on HDTV, VOD and on the Internet is being met with rave reviews from our customers. We will use this experience to bring the NHL to hockey fans in ways that they have never seen before," said Jeff Shell, President of Comcast Programming for Comcast Corporation.

Right.

When we think of innovative HD coverage, we don’t think of ESPN and its TWO HD networks delivering well over 300 events a year.

We don’t think of Fox with the NFL, MLB and NASCAR HD telecasts.

We don’t think of CBS with its NFL and golf.

We don’t think of Monday Night Football on ABC, along with the BCS and NBA.

We don’t think of NBC with NASCAR, Notre Dame Football and the Olympics.

We don’t even think of multiple Fox RSNs, WGN HD, WPIX HD and many others who routinely broadcast sports events in HD.

No, the NHL wants us to believe that when we think of innovative HD coverage, we think of Comcast?

These hockey dudes have taken too many checks without a helmet.

But then how surprising is it? This contract was negotiated by the same NHL leadership which brought us a whole season without hockey.

No it doesn't. (and I'm no Bettman apologist)

Signing with OLN at least provides HOPE of improved and expanded NHL coverage. Potentially, GREATLY improved coverage. That's something that wasn't gonna happen at ESPN.

Granted, it sucks if you don't get OLN yet... but I suspect a great many more systems will become interested in carrying it now.

fred.. INHD1 and INHD2 are owned by a conglamerate which includes Comcast.

Hmmmm 2 games per week on OLN brought to you by Comcast which paid $65 to $72.5 million per year for NHL rights. Now I have another reason not to subscribe to Comcast because I dont want to pay for this loser contract in my cable fees. Dont get me wrong, I like NHL and glad to see it being shown but what a dumb #@** price and contract. Not worth the price right after a strike year. Good luck Comcast with this one.

I understand goman InHD1 and 2 are owned by a company controlled by Comcast, Cox and TimeWarner.

Of course the channels are not even available on all systems of those three companies.

And they certainly aren't available in the 26+ million DBS homes.

So putting NHL games on InHD is a really smart move by the NHL.

It took a sport with minimal national interest and made sure people can't find it easily on their TV sets.

It also ensured the dominant national sports broadcaster sees the new TV deal as a potential threat. That will help add to SportsCenter's regular season and early round playoff coverage.

It is just another example of the great, great marketing we have come to expect from the folks at the NHL.

It's official: OLN gets hockey rights
Two-year $135M deal with option for four more

By Dan Weil medialifemagazine.com

OLN has taken its first major step toward becoming a general-interest sports network competing directly with ESPN. Yesterday the former Outdoor Life Network reached a deal with the National Hockey League after former carrier ESPN declined to match OLN’s offer.

OLN will pay $135 million to televise hockey games for the next two seasons, $65 million this year and $70 million next. The Comcast-owned network has an option for up to four years after that, the first of which would start at $72.5 million.

ESPN ended a 21-year relationship with the struggling league. It initially dropped its option to continue broadcasting the NHL in May after the league canceled last season because of the lockout.

But the Disney-owned network still had the right to match any other network’s contract offer, and it looked like it might do so simply to keep the league away from OLN. ESPN officials said the new deal simply wasn’t worth the high price. NBC has a rights deal with the NHL through which it will pay nothing, splitting revenue from the ads, and ESPN reportedly wanted a similar deal.

“Given the prolonged work stoppage and the league’s ratings history, no financial model even remotely supports the contract terms offered,†George Bodenheimer, president of ESPN and ABC Sports, said in a statement last night.

The NHL limped to a 0.2 household average in its last season on ESPN2, 2003-‘04. That’s double OLN’s primetime average during the second quarter.

OLN will carry regular-season NHL games as well as the first two games of the Stanley Cup finals before they move to NBC.

But as big as the deal is for OLN, the cable network needs a lot more than hockey to truly threaten ESPN. Additional deals with the NFL, Major League Baseball and/or NASCAR could launch OLN to the big time. The network already is reportedly chasing football and NASCAR.

“The NHL is one piece of the puzzle,†says Lee Berke, president of LHB Sports, a TV consulting firm in Scarsdale, N.Y. “As long as it is not a final move, it is a great step forward. It will lead to the establishment of OLN as a direct competitor to ESPN.â€

Comcast has made clear its desire for a major sports network for some time. It tried to acquire Disney last year largely to get ESPN. But so far at least it has denied an intent to challenge ESPN directly. As for ESPN, it sees the OLN hockey deal as the first move to challenge its dominance in sports, and is saying so publicly.

The question remains whether NHL broadcasts will make money for OLN. If Comcast can gain additional OLN distribution through televising hockey, the increase in fee revenue and ad sales could make the deal profitable, says Berke. OLN currently reaches 64 million households, compared with 90 million for ESPN.

But even if the NHL doesn’t make money for Comcast, it still could serve as an important loss leader. “It’s a good platform for them to sell themselves to other properties,†Berke says.

NHL has been getting good treatment on there over the past few years?

I'm just happy the NHL has a home where it's actually wanted. It's gotta be good for the game.

(The HD games had better be available to satellite - no pricing games here, Comcast :mad: )

Maybe OLN will televise the pissing match between DirecTV & Comcast.

fredfa,

I greatly appreciate the info you bring to the forum.

For the life of me, I can not understand why you think this is such a terrible move. The NHL on ESPN was NOT WATCHED by casual fans. It was NOT LIKED by the few hard-core fans that did watch it. Nobody freakin' watches it. Whatya got to lose by switching?

Ratings sucked despite ESPNs vast exposure and cross-promotion opportunities.

NHL is a niche sport, watched primarily (only?) by it's hardcore fans, in or near cities where there is a local team interest.

OLN at least provides some HOPE that coverage will be improved.

Agreed Dave, I don't understand Fred's very passionate displeasure on this subject?

Anyone else think it is crazy that they picked Monday as one of its two nights, considering they'll be against MNF for almost half the season.

So is anyone worried about Center Ice (CI) on DTV w/ Comcast getting the deal? Yeah, yeah, -- they're signing people up but it's not like DTV has been forthcoming in when programming is going to be available. I know before CI was available on both but that was before one of the providers actually owned the rights. The way the contract is written, all it says is that anything broadcast on OLN must be made available to the satellites. But what happens to the other games not broadcast on OLN?

What about the regional Fox Sports Net -- do they still have rights or do they have to renogitiate with Comcast? And who did DTV get the rights from for CI originally?

I'm a pessimist at heart but even if I try to look at this from the positive side, if you have DTV you're probably going to get less games in HD. *Maybe* you could get some games on HDNET but for me locally in the SJ area, Comcast would move the Fox Sports Bay Area HD broadcasts for baseball and basketball onto an HD channel so that's a wash in my eyes. All sports fans hope that the sports packages would be upgraded with some HD with the new bandwidth coming but lets face it, MLB and NBA are first in line.

I agree with a previous poster -- I had DTV for two reasons...Center Ice and Tivo. Comcast suddenly doesn't look so evil...

Lay off the Comcast hate please... you sound like someone who works at ESPN in this thread :) :confused:

DOWN WITH ESPN :D

PS - espn2 is not in HD here while OTL is on analog comcast. At the same time we must suffer with espn2/classic on analog while requiring "digital" for espnNEWS (the only useful espn channel).

Almost all hockey fans are football fans(except in Canada)....the opposite is not true which makes this choice of nights almost asinine.