NHL Network

[Jeffw-13]

Off topic, but you hockey junkies should look into the Fox College Sports channels. They play a ton of college hockey games during the season.

I added it to my line-up for $5/month (three channels-East-Central and West)

 

[Bear of Bad News]

What he said.

DirecTV's regional sports pack gets you all of those, and it's perfect during college hockey season.

 

[Jeffw-13]

Sent an email to Comcast re:NHL Network.....

Dear Mr. Watson,

Thank you for Thank you for contacting Comcast Cable. Currently we do not have
any information on the NHL Network channel being offered by Comcast, now or in
the near future.

When/if this programming becomes available, Comcast will make an announcement to
our customers through the usual media channels.

Sincerely,
David
Comcast Customer Care Specialist

 

[Trizent]

From initial press release last summer -

"As part of the agreement, Comcast will provide the 24-hour NHL Network, which is available only in Canada, on its U.S. cable systems within two years."

It has been 1 year to date, so they have some time.

 

[OG6ix]

From initial press release last summer -

"As part of the agreement, Comcast will provide the 24-hour NHL Network, which is available only in Canada, on its U.S. cable systems within two years."

It has been 1 year to date, so they have some time.

That is lame, what if comcast puts the channel on their tiers and then say ESPN gets the NHL back, what will they do then? Stop providing the channel?

The NHL needs to maintain their own channel and not some cable company or independant channel.

 

[TheMoose]

The NHL needs to maintain their own channel and not some cable company or independant channel.

They already do maintain their own channel. Key now is negotiating a carriage agreement that allows for them to see some revenue from subscribers.

 

[ALF AmericanLionsFan]

Any news on this one?

 

[RangerBoy]

Comcast and Cablevision are two of the four/five biggest cable operators in the U.S. and they both happen to own NHL teams.Cablevision owns the Rangers and Comcast owns the Flyers.Both companies have big stakes in the NHL.Cablevision owns the cable rights to the Rangers,Islanders,Devils,Sabres and Sharks(Cablevision has controlling interest in Fox Sports Bay Area).Comcast owns the cable rights to the Flyers,Hawks and Capitals.Why is it so difficult to get the NHL Network on the cable systems owned by two partners of the NHL?

 

[jkrdevil]

Comcast and Cablevision are two of the four/five biggest cable operators in the U.S. and they both happen to own NHL teams.Cablevision owns the Rangers and Comcast owns the Flyers.Both companies have big stakes in the NHL.Cablevision owns the cable rights to the Rangers,Islanders,Devils,Sabres and Sharks(Cablevision has controlling interest in Fox Sports Bay Area).Comcast owns the cable rights to the Flyers,Hawks and Capitals.Why is it so difficult to get the NHL Network on the cable systems owned by two partners of the NHL?

Well in cablevisions case i's crappy ownership. Like you said they are an owner of a NHL team and don't put the leagues national cable provider on basic cable. That makes no sense you are basically hurting one end of your buisness while gaining little in the other end. Are a massive amout of people going to cancel their cable just because it puts OLN on basic and rates go up by about a dollar. It may be less than the number of people that cancel their cable and switch to Directv because they do offer OLN.

 

[sammyp]

Any updates?

I'll be pissed if this thing isn't launched by Oct. 4th.

 

[Shootmaster_44]

Man I'd hate to live in the US. If people are drooling over the NHL Network, hockey coverage must be bad. Then again I don't find hockey coverage all that great here. I'm a Kings fan and the only time they are mentioned is when Avery opens his mouth or they play the Leafs.

 

[FLYLine27*]

Man I'd hate to live in the US. If people are drooling over the NHL Network, hockey coverage must be bad. Then again I don't find hockey coverage all that great here. I'm a Kings fan and the only time they are mentioned is when Avery opens his mouth or they play the Leafs.

You have no idea.

 

[Yus]

Any updates?

I'll be pissed if this thing isn't launched by Oct. 4th.

Believe me, you'll know when it's going to launch, because the NHL will be bombarding everyone with press releases.

It's not coming out this year.

 

[cityhockeyfever]

The bottom line is that the National Hockey League must continue to improve their marketing and promotion strategy.
They made this promise when the declaration was made the lockout was over and announced their "relaunch".
Yes, they bombarded us with promos most of last season, but it seemed only during commercial breaks
of actual game telecasts. The NHL needs to promote itself a lot more when the games aren't on television.
Catch fans also when they aren't watching games. You aren't going to target new fans if you cannot find them
outside promoting during games.

As far as the NHL Network is concerned, it is badly needed here in the United States. This is regardless of how much
it may not be great to some Canadian fans that have it now. ESPN turned its collective back on the league.
I've resented ESPN for it regardless of what their business reasons are. They started doing this well before the lockout.
NHL 2Night was the only true hockey show we could get our fix down here. But, it lost its viewership over time
as ESPN screwed with its timeslot and pushed it into the overnight hours on game nights before it finally
went off the air two years ago. Truly sad it's gone.

It's been a risky venture for Comcast adding the NHL to OLN (about to be Versus), but it's been worth it.
At least we have a network that genuinely wants to cover the NHL here. But it's only the first step.

Adding the NHL Network to American cable and satellite systems would be a greater help.
But it must be launched where everyone gets it at the beginning, not a phase-in to cable systems.
The NFL Network is not even on Cablevision in the New York City metropolitan area.
NBA TV was only added earlier this year. The NHL Network cannot afford to do anything less.

I'd rather wait a year if it means launching the channel in the best possibly way.
I'm talking about programming and anything great we've yet to see that can be offered.
While money to operate the NHL Network could be steep, the NHL must do it.
They hastily put NHL Network on the air here and the programming sucks or is just carbon copy
of the Canadian version, it will never be successful.

 

[OG6ix]

I would rather have the "watch paint dry channel!"

More people would watch the NBA channel than the NHL channel. There is a reason why that league has a channel and the NHL doesn't (atleast not in the US where they have 24 teams).

 

[cityhockeyfever]

I know, the NBA has more money to run NBA TV as it is right now.

The NHL has to find a way to launch the NHL Network in the United States that will not only have the diehards
tuning in to watch its programming, but to draw in new viewers as well. That's the challenge.

 

[Stevedude530]

I'm hearing December at this point.

 

[ColoradoHockeyFan]

I'm hearing December at this point.

Any news on carriage agreements, or will this be strictly Comcast, at least at first? (Praying for a DirecTV agreement.)

 

[Stevedude530]

No idea, but Comcast will be there, and the satellite companies will put anything on their systems.

 

[ladybugblue]

Off topic, but you hockey junkies should look into the Fox College Sports channels. They play a ton of college hockey games during the season.

I added it to my line-up for $5/month (three channels-East-Central and West)

You know what I tried that, and guess what if you don't live in the area 90% of what is on those channels is blacked out. I talked with the guys at Directv and they said they have no control over what is blacked out. Not really an option.

I would love to have NHL network as the coverage in minimal at best. Anything is better than basically nothing.

 

[OG6ix]

This isn't going to happen. If it does it will be only on Comcast, I don't think other cable companies will have any interest in putting up for a channel for a sport that gets lower ratings than poker at times. I mean Arena Football and MLS would have a channel then too and a whole lot of other sports. Unless the NHL pays for it or cut a deal with indemand like they did for NHL Center ice, I don't think this will happen.

 

[geezette]

I would be just super happy if they did it as an internet feed. I have directv because it carried the most coverage, but it's still not enough. On the college channels, you can usually get the hockey games because our sport doesn't have broadcast agreements like football or basketball. I don't have the Fox college sports, but CSTV and ESPNU added a lot of games to my winter.

 

[CHRDANHUTCH]

It all depends on your cable provider though

Here Time Warner replaced the old Adelphia network---in other markets Comcast did--- CSTV AND Fox College Sports are package deals (FCS was not blacked out originally here, When Time Warner bought into our market it deleted ESPNU, which was not blacked out when it was removed... the NFL which owns the NFL Network has had a rough go arguing that it should be carried for those who want it even going to the point that Time Warner got in heat from the FCC for originally deleting that channel until last Friday.

but the local team has no TV; the closest NHL team has a separate deal similar to Cablevision.

 

[Yus]

This isn't going to happen. If it does it will be only on Comcast, I don't think other cable companies will have any interest in putting up for a channel for a sport that gets lower ratings than poker at times. I mean Arena Football and MLS would have a channel then too and a whole lot of other sports. Unless the NHL pays for it or cut a deal with indemand like they did for NHL Center ice, I don't think this will happen.

Comcast is contractually obligated to carry the NHL Network on their systems by next year. So yes, it's going to happen.

 

[OG6ix]

Yeah, and like I said it will probably be only on comcast for a long time. If it even happens, I mean where is the new goalie gear the NHL said they were implementing last year, but had dealer problems. I haven't seen em.