NBC and NHL Disconnect
I am really fed up with having stuff like this happen to the NHL. Yesterday’s Ottawa Senators - Buffalo Sabres game was tied at 2-2 and went to overtime. Rather than carry the game to conclusion NBC decided to drop the game to show pre-race coverage of the Preakness horse race. It turned out the game was switched over to Versus but NBC and the NHL didn’t do a good job in handling the transition.
The NHL has to reach some type of agreement with NBC to avoid things like this happening as it only serves to remind both the casual sports fan and the hardcore NHL fan of how irrelevant NHL hockey is to major media companies. That’s not how you go about trying to grow the sport and make it more popular. Remember when ESPN was carrying the games and couldn’t say often enough how re-runs of the Cosby show had more viewers than NHL games? The NHL has to do a better job promoting the game and having the deciding game of the Eastern Conference finals dropped doesn’t help one bit.
If it were the regular season it would be one thing to switch the game over to Versus. But this was a game that ended up sending the Ottawa Senators to the Stanley Cup Finals. It was one of the biggest games in the NHL’s season. The league cannot allow it’s marquee events to be marginalized like they were yesterday afternoon.
So I’d like to see the league work out an agreement where NBC will only air games in time slots where they can basically guarantee they will carry the game to its conclusion. Perhaps they can slot enough time for regulation play and an overtime period. Most games are likely to be decided within one overtime and if the game ends in regulation or before the full overtime period ends you can run a post game wrap-up show with lots of commercial breaks. Once the game goes into the overtime period the network could announce regularly throughout the period that the rest of the game would be shown on Versus if it runs for more than one overtime period.
NBC isn’t a non-profit and they don’t work for the NHL’s P.R. department. So it’s not their job to continue to run an NHL broadcast beyond its time slot while pre-empting a horse race that will likely draw more viewers and bring in more advertising revenue (I’m guessing those ads were probably not geared towards NHL fans given the different demographics between the two sports).
But the NHL has to also make sure that NBC understands that there is a real chance a game could go into overtime. While cutting away from the game during the regular season is understandable, that just isn’t something that the NHL can agree to during the playoffs. If NBC can’t guarantee that they will show a playoff game to its conclusion then it is probably in everyone’s best interest that the game be shown in its entirety on Versus.
Buffalo Sabres Eastern Conference Finals NBC NHL Playoffs Ottawa Senators Red Wings1 Comment(s)
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This decision by NBC was terrible for me - a hardcore hockey fan. I recorded the game and watched it that night. I made sure the recording time went well past the scheduled end of the game to allow for the overtime possibility. I was terribly disappointed that they did not show the overtime. Of course there was no way for me to know that the game would switch to another channel. Hockey gets no respect.