NBC pulls ECF game
As many hockey fans already know, NBC pulled its coverage of the Senators-Sabres ECF game five as it was heading into OT in favor of the pre-show for the Preakness Stakes. I have nothing against horse racing. But an hour pre-show for a two minute horse race? Come on. That’s ridiculous.
What’s even worse is that yesterday’s game could’ve been at night for CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, but the NHL went wanted to make NBC happy. Well, NBC screwed over plenty of hockey fans yesterday. I wonder how many Sabres and Senators fans didn’t have Versus where they were watching the game and missed the most exciting and nerve wracking part of playoff hockey - overtime.
Kevin @ Barry Melrose Rocks:
Depending on your cable/satellite package, fixing this dilemma could have been as easy as changing the channel, or as hard as, well, not watching the game at all. If you don’t get Versus for some reason, congratulations! You just wasted part of your Saturday afternoon! Hopefully, you enjoyed the Preakness.
This is really just another reminder about the sad state of hockey in America and how ridiculously lame the NHL’s television contract is. If ESPN, CBS (which consistently preempts ‘60 Minutes’ on Sundays), FOX, ABC, the NBA, MLB or the NFL had a hand in any of this, I’m sure you would have been able to watch a completely uninterrupted overtime period, which saw the Senators advance to the Stanley Cup Finals.
What amazes me the most is that no one had the foresight to move the time of the game, as is done so often. Instead, we all got to watch a bunch of horses run around for two minutes and the countless inane hours of pre-show that go along with it.
Congratulations, hockey is now lower on the food chain than a sport whose glory days are far behind it, and has tried in vain to find a ‘champion for the ages’ that will captivate mainstream America and spark a new era of growth. Wait… or is that the NHL?
An utter embarrassment, more so for NBC than the league. The only reason yesterday’s game was broadcast in the afternoon was for American television interests, and when those interests are as obviously subsidiary to all others on the network, it really makes you question just why the game had been pushed into the afternoon (or morning, for those in the Pacific time zone) at all.
The good thing is that high-profile viewers like Daryl Reaugh were among those shafted by the move, and here’s hoping NBC decides to drop its playoff coverage next season due to the resultant bad press.
This kind of coverage isn’t serving anyone. It shafts the players, the teams, viewers in both the U.S. and Canada, the league itself and even the owners, who gain little in revenue and a lot in negative media coverage from such a shoddy partnership.
Flush it down.
It’s nice that the NHL has a deal with NBC. It would be even nicer if NBC didn’t remind hockey fans just how insignificant their little Canadian game is at every single opportunity.
The Peacock abandoned the Senators/Sabres game yesterday at the end of regulation, shoving the overtime period over to Versus, a cable channel received in at least 14 or 15 American homes. The reason NBC was so anxious to dump the hockey game? The horse-racing pregame show. Late-breaking updates on the quality of Street Sense’s pre-race bowel movements take precedence over the NHL’s conference finals.
‘Tis a shame. It was a very exciting game. It was tied at 2 at the end of regulation, and then 15 minutes into the overtime period … Curlin was the winner of the Preakness Stakes, edging out Street Sense by a nose.
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3 Responses to “NBC pulls ECF game”
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May 21st, 2007 at 11:37 am
“an hour pre-show for a two minute horse race?”
The pre-show is the point. It’s all about the celebrities, the blather, the build-up. If they focused on the race, nobody would watch.
May 21st, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I understand why they have an hour pre-show. I just am still in shock that NBC cut away from a game about to go into OT for a pre-show. Even if it was for a horse race.
May 24th, 2007 at 6:42 am
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