Hockey, Canada's national sport, should be on national TV

[MeHateHe]

As I type this, there are 4 NHL games underway, one featuring a Canadian team (Montreal), one featuring very popular long-time NHL star (Pittsburgh) and one featuring a very popular next big thing (Chicago).

None of these games are being broadcast live in Canada, at least on the main networks of the league's contracted national broadcaster. I have access to two Sportsnet feeds in my office, one of which is showing a highlight show and another is showing a basketball game (Brooklyn and Miami). (TSN is showing an NFL game on its main network, FTR).

At some point, I might spend some time and actually calculate this, but there are a lot of evenings where I can watch two NBA games on national TV in Canada and not a single hockey game.

Lest this turn into just a rant, I'm wondering how this makes any sense from a business standpoint for the NHL, that a different sport has better national exposure - with the exception of Saturdays - in Canada than does hockey. With the Sportsnet contract coming up in the next couple of years, how can the league restructure the contract so that the broadcaster can make a profit but more games are being put in front of more eyeballs?

In another thread, someone was whinging that hockey in Canada was dying. I don't think that's true, in part because people hav been saying the same thing for decades and yet here we are. But I think the people who run hockey in Canada take for granted that all they have to do is throw open the doors to the arena and fans will flock, you know, because Canada. This is true in the NHL, it's true in major junior cities and it's true in Junior A cities. If you want fans to care, they need to see the product, either live or on a screen somewhere. That the contracted broadcaster isn't doing more to make sure there are more nationally televised hockey games is a huge part of the problem. Tell me I'm wrong.

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[rojac]

NJD-PIT aired at 7pm ET on SNO & SNE. SNW & SNP brought regional coverage of CGY-VAN starting at 9 pm ET.

TBL-CHI was on SN360 starting at 8 pm ET.

The VGK-MON game was a regional game available on TSN2 n the Montreal region. So, SN can't bring that one.

That leaves SN1 for the NBA game.

So, based on that info, you are located somewhere west of Ontario and that the 2 SN channels available to you in your five are SNW (or SNP) and SN1.

Had you been somewhere with the full range of Sportsnet channels, you would have had access to both the NJD-PIT and TBL-CHI games as well as the CGY-VAN since you appear to be in one of the two regions that got that game.

 

[Golden_Jet]

As I type this, there are 4 NHL games underway, one featuring a Canadian team (Montreal), one featuring very popular long-time NHL star (Pittsburgh) and one featuring a very popular next big thing (Chicago).

None of these games are being broadcast live in Canada, at least on the main networks of the league's contracted national broadcaster. I have access to two Sportsnet feeds in my office, one of which is showing a highlight show and another is showing a basketball game (Brooklyn and Miami). (TSN is showing an NFL game on its main network, FTR).

At some point, I might spend some time and actually calculate this, but there are a lot of evenings where I can watch two NBA games on national TV in Canada and not a single hockey game.

Lest this turn into just a rant, I'm wondering how this makes any sense from a business standpoint for the NHL, that a different sport has better national exposure - with the exception of Saturdays - in Canada than does hockey. With the Sportsnet contract coming up in the next couple of years, how can the league restructure the contract so that the broadcaster can make a profit but more games are being put in front of more eyeballs?

In another thread, someone was whinging that hockey in Canada was dying. I don't think that's true, in part because people hav been saying the same thing for decades and yet here we are. But I think the people who run hockey in Canada take for granted that all they have to do is throw open the doors to the arena and fans will flock, you know, because Canada. This is true in the NHL, it's true in major junior cities and it's true in Junior A cities. If you want fans to care, they need to see the product, either live or on a screen somewhere. That the contracted broadcaster isn't doing more to make sure there are more nationally televised hockey games is a huge part of the problem. Tell me I'm wrong.

Some nights of the week are National nights and some are regional nights,

 

[Yukon Joe]

As I type this, there are 4 NHL games underway, one featuring a Canadian team (Montreal), one featuring very popular long-time NHL star (Pittsburgh) and one featuring a very popular next big thing (Chicago).

So I mean you're a long-time poster. I think you know that national games are on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and regional games are the rest of the week.

Oddly enough my middle kid wanted to watch a hockey game last night. Living in Edmonton, I said "well the only game we can watch is Vancouver-Calgary" which was a regional game. He seemed happy enough with that.

As you know you can certainly get a national package. Last time I had it it cost $200 for the season, and gave you access to all regional games. Now what I would complain about is if you pay for a national package you should get a truly national package - instead I still needed to pay for cable to get all the regional games.

 

[BraveCanadian]

The NHL needs to get out of the dark ages with the blackouts and regional games. The Internet is not exactly a new thing in 2023. I'm not signing up for 3 different services to watch 1 team's games.

 

[Yukon Joe]

The NHL needs to get out of the dark ages with the blackouts and regional games. The Internet is not exactly a new thing in 2023. I'm not signing up for 3 different services to watch 1 team's games.

I mean I get it from the NHL's perspective. They want to try and extract as much $$$ from it's fans as possible.

So from the NHL's perspective they have three tiers of fans (this is from a Canadian perspective):

1. Fans who want to watch the occasion game, but don't care that much: you can watch HNIC on Saturdays for free on over-the-air CBC

2. Fans who really care about their local team: you can get your regional package

3. Really passionate fans who want to watch as much as possible: get the regional package + Rogers Centre Ice

Now the problem for a fan like me is that I'm a #2 fan, but for an out-of market team, so I have to to pay like a #3 fan.

Although for me what it means the last two years is I just am not paying at all. That's more a function of having two kids in hockey and watching a ton of minor hockey games already - I rarely then want to sit down and just watch an NHL game also.

 

[MeHateHe]

I mean I get it from the NHL's perspective. They want to try and extract as much $$$ from it's fans as possible.

So from the NHL's perspective they have three tiers of fans (this is from a Canadian perspective):

1. Fans who want to watch the occasion game, but don't care that much: you can watch HNIC on Saturdays for free on over-the-air CBC

2. Fans who really care about their local team: you can get your regional package

3. Really passionate fans who want to watch as much as possible: get the regional package + Rogers Centre Ice

Now the problem for a fan like me is that I'm a #2 fan, but for an out-of market team, so I have to to pay like a #3 fan.

Although for me what it means the last two years is I just am not paying at all. That's more a function of having two kids in hockey and watching a ton of minor hockey games already - I rarely then want to sit down and just watch an NHL game also.

I get all this, which is why I posed this as a question from the standpoint of the business of the game. If you frequent the international section, you would have seen me relentlessly whinging that I couldn't watch the Hlinka tournament this summer because TSN was showing - I kid you not - whiffle ball on one of its networks and had the hockey game somewhere down on TSN 14 or whatever it was. I exaggerate for effect.

There is a killing-the-golden-goose analogy to be made here, but at its core is the league and its broadast partners treating sports fans in Canada with a kind of disrespect, and certainly taking them for granted, as if we'll go out of our way to find games if they're buried further down on the channel list. There's a tricky balance to be sure, that you have to make your product profitable, but it still has to be accessible enough to enough of the customer base for long enough that they see it as a must-do in their lives. Between the restrictions on out-of-market games leaving most Canadian teams off of my TV outside of the national broadcasts and shoving other games off their primary channels, the league and its broadcast partners are limiting the reach of the game and making it less likely that those who might be interested in the game will attach themselves to it and more likely that those who are attached will find other things to do with their time.

Marketing, especially marketing of sports, is a multifaceted beast. This is a big miss by those who keep the game. That's my point.

 

[Golden_Jet]

I get all this, which is why I posed this as a question from the standpoint of the business of the game. If you frequent the international section, you would have seen me relentlessly whinging that I couldn't watch the Hlinka tournament this summer because TSN was showing - I kid you not - whiffle ball on one of its networks and had the hockey game somewhere down on TSN 14 or whatever it was. I exaggerate for effect.

There is a killing-the-golden-goose analogy to be made here, but at its core is the league and its broadast partners treating sports fans in Canada with a kind of disrespect, and certainly taking them for granted, as if we'll go out of our way to find games if they're buried further down on the channel list. There's a tricky balance to be sure, that you have to make your product profitable, but it still has to be accessible enough to enough of the customer base for long enough that they see it as a must-do in their lives. Between the restrictions on out-of-market games leaving most Canadian teams off of my TV outside of the national broadcasts and shoving other games off their primary channels, the league and its broadcast partners are limiting the reach of the game and making it less likely that those who might be interested in the game will attach themselves to it and more likely that those who are attached will find other things to do with their time.

Marketing, especially marketing of sports, is a multifaceted beast. This is a big miss by those who keep the game. That's my point.

Why couldn’t you watch the Hlinka on one of the 5 TSN channels, why does the channel matter, or do you only pay for the one channel.

Until sports in general move away from out of market, and regional and national days. Nothing will change sadly, if you remove the regional games and make them all National, then the National broadcasts would have to pony up double or money to offset the costs, or if offered up for cheaper, then would need to convince the players to take a paycut, as HRR would be less.

 

[AmabileCassarole]

Ice hockey is only Canada's official winter sport. Lacrosse is Canada's official summer sport. Where is all this selective outrage for the sake of lacrosse?

"In another thread, someone was whinging that hockey in Canada was dying"

It's not. It's just a bunch of people who can't admit they grew out of it years ago and feel like they can't just man up and admit it. Pretty sad stuff coming from supposed "adults" who throw tantrums everytime the league just doesn't hand the Cup to a Canadian team every year. I swear, even if the NHL was somehow stuck with just six teams, they'd be whining even then.

Hockey in Canada has quite a few problems, sure, but "the NHL hating Canada" isn't even one of them. If anything, it's just people who watch American movies, read American books, play American video games, listen to American music, etc, etc, suddenly pretending they're "proud" Canadians when it comes to "Canada's game," even though nobody bats an eyelash when the Blue Jays play "America's pastime."