Well, that took almost exactly 3 years too long.

[bzarcher]

NHL dropping NBC, going back to ESPN.

Versus will still have the majority of cable coverage from how this sounds, but ESPN would get the game of the week + playoff coverage and the Stanley Cup Finals.

Edit: And, yes, snow! Wow, snow. The drive into work got interesting in the traffic roundabouts. Made it through the Hayden Run roundabout right before some guy in a Mazda plowed (literally) into the curb and signpost when he missed the "east" turn.

Comments

[caitlin.livejournal.com]

Which means no non-cable coverage. (haven't read the article)

Before that, they were on Fox and then ABC. NBC's coverage... sucked, frankly. And I refused to watch them. The other two did a decent job at least.

C.

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

We'll see - I think it's quite possible that since ESPN owns ABC, they'd flip a game or two onto ABC if the demand was high enough.

It does mean no non-cable, but OTOH I think we'll see much larger promotion of the game in general by putting it on ESPN.

The hour is later than they think

[dklegman.livejournal.com]

The NHL desparately needs to do something. F'rinstance, I was out at dinner with some buddies and mentioned the Jackets.

"...so when do they start playing?", a couple of 'em asked.

This was two days ago.

Re: The hour is later than they think

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

To be fair, I have seen a lot of local advertising for the Jackets around town and on local channels - 10, 6, 28, and FSN Ohio.

Re: The hour is later than they think

[flaggerx.livejournal.com]

Clearly they aren't hockey fans. Personally, I think the Jackets make for a good story. Maybe we should try to invite at least one non-fan to a game this season. Just to get their feet wet.

My co-worker Brad certainly enjoyed his first game (and Matt's explanations of the rules). Maybe if we took people to a game, they'd go 'this is pretty cool'.

[flaggerx.livejournal.com]

I'm with her. Network TV is still a sign of prominance. While most people have cable, the only reason I have cable is because it's cheap when bundled with a cable modem. The real question is why was NBC's coverage so bad? Didn't they know enough to hire some people who knew and liked the game?

[bzarcher.livejournal.com]

They had some decent commentators and shared most of the booth staff w/ VS., but they did a very poor job of promoting it and tended to do things like cut away if it went to overtime in favor of, say, horse racing or TV series.