Is ESPN in the NHL’s future?

Thanks to a link from Paul @ Kukla’s Korner, the SportsBusiness Journal is reporting that the NHL approached ESPN about showing NHL games on ESPN2 as early as the 2008-2009 season.

Multiple sources described the conversations as preliminary. The two started talking the week of July 16 when the NHL approached ESPN about NBC’s nine-game regular-season schedule, plus the playoffs. NBC holds the rights to air the coming season as part of a revenue-sharing agreement, and the network holds a one-year option for the 2008-09 season.

It’s not certain that NBC would exercise that option, given the sport’s tepid ratings on the network. Regular-season ratings on NBC averaged a 0.9 during the 2006-07 season and a 1.0 during the 2007-08 season over nine telecasts.

Now I could totally be reading the excerpt above wrong, but would the NHL and ESPN only happen if NBC drops their option with the league? Is there any way that Versus can drop the NHL and have TV deals with ESPN and NBC?

A return to ESPN could boost the league’s profile on the network’s news shows. According to an ESPN study of its 1 a.m. “SportsCenter” program, the show featured 29 fewer minutes of NHL coverage in March 2007 than in March 2004, the last year ESPN aired NHL games. That amounts to a 28 percent decline in hockey’s allotment of airtime, ESPN ombudsman Le Anne
Schreiber wrote in May.

The move would mark a change at Versus, as well, which is open to giving up its cable exclusivity if it can tap into ESPN’s marketing prowess. Over the past two years, Versus executives have complained privately that ESPN ignored their network. They are hoping for a situation that mirrors the NBA, where ESPN and TNT push viewers to each network’s games.

I am all for the ESPN showing some games as soon as possible. Unfortunately, ESPN is perceived as the “Worldwide Leader in Sports” by most people. I know that a lot of sports fans realize that the ESPN is not the sports leader it once was (I mean the spelling bee? Seriously.), but I think the lack of hockey on SportsCenter is hurting the NHL’s perception in the US and getting some games including playoff games on ESPN2 is a step in the right direction.

One KK member left this comment: “Anybody can say what they want, but Vs didn’t have Melrose. Advantage: Versus.” That was funny. I can’t stand Barry Melrose.

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Posted in: NHL News | | July 2007

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