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http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/28/sports/hockey/28sandomir.html
http://www.investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=29926853&brk=1
ESPN acknowledged its continuing interest Tuesday, when Mark Shapiro, an executive vice president, said that he was looking for common ground with the league, and that a rights fee would be possible "as long as we got value in return." But he also reiterated that even with rules changes, the N.H.L. product was still damaged.
A more fascinating play for the league is whether Commissioner Gary Bettman makes a deal with OLN - which used to be known as a hunting and fishing channel - after its recent success with the Tour de France. If OLN is willing to pay the N.H.L. any substantial cash, it is because its owner, the mammoth Comcast, would like to use hockey as a building block for a larger national sports network that would be anchored by eight late-season Thursday and Saturday N.F.L. games. In time, Comcast would presumably be well-financed competition for ESPN, to which Comcast's cable systems pay the industry's highest subscriber fee to carry.
"They've had that plan on the back burner for a long time," said Pat Bowlen, who owns the Denver Broncos and is chairman of the N.F.L.'s broadcast committee. He added that there was no rush to sell the package to Comcast - or to keep it for the NFL Network - before the league's new collective bargaining agreement was complete.
Comcast will have to decide whether to buy the hockey rights before the N.F.L. is ready to deal, meaning that it may simply be tweaking OLN, because challenging ESPN with low-rated hockey as the anchor sport makes no sense.
http://www.investors.com/breakingnews.asp?journalid=29926853&brk=1
The cable television giant (CMCSK) is studying repositioning its Outdoor Life Network to compete with ESPN, the Walt Disney Co. (DIS) unit that is the leader in television sports programming, The Wall Street Journal reported in its online edition. See Wall Street Journal story.
A spokesman for the group said it doesn't comment on "programming rumors and speculation."
Attributing its information to unnamed people familiar with Comcast's plans, The Journal said the company is in negotiations with the linchpins of sports programming - the professional leagues. Comcast is talking with the National Football League, the National Hockey League and is looking at NASCAR auto racing, The Journal said.
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