Is Bettman avoiding NBC or is NBC avoiding Bettman?

[eddygee]

Theres almost nothing "compelling" about an 82 Game Regular Season Schedule & as you state the scheduling itself inconvenient for a considerable swath of their potential audiencve... and not just to watch it on TV but to attend. Too much inventory. Flooded the market. Viewing habits markedly changed. Millennial's & even the older generations, certainly those who embrace new technologies & forms of entertainment & informational delivery ignoring the League in droves. Only tuning in when something is compelling, of interest, then tuning out. Gone. No retention beyond an ever dwindling hard-core thats aging. Dying off.

You've hit the the hammer on the nail right here. NHL TV deals where always about the bulk buy you take the bulk of meh regular Tv ratings for the playoffs. However, with the regular TV rating in steadily diminishing to the point they have over the past decade since the deal was signed you its a conundrum.
People crack at the NBA and say no one watches and its pretty much boring until the playoffs but its much worse for NHL for regular season and playoff tv ratings.

 

[eddygee]

Biggest problem I have with NBC is their staunch refusal to put any games on NBC besides the 5 final games, the Winter Classic and the rare conference final game. The lack of the sport on one of the big channels is just too much to overcome when every game is on NBCSN and just insulting when NBC chooses to play reruns on channel 4 and shunt playoff games to CNBC/Golf Channel/USA. NBC has always treated the NHL like ****.

I agree with that especially since EPL gets put on the main channel almost 3 times as much as NHL. I know its different times but a perception comes across which league they are promoting the best. That said lets not act like it was different on ESPN we left them for a reason. The reasons haven't changed in fact the sports landscape is even more crowded than back then.

 

[Its a Trap]

I agree with that especially since EPL gets put on the main channel almost 3 times as much as NHL. I know its different times but a perception comes across which league they are promoting the best. That said lets not act like it was different on ESPN we left them for a reason. The reasons haven't changed in fact the sports landscape is even more crowded than back then.

Totally forgot about this. This is what I find hysterical. NBC will show a league based in another country, a quarter way around the world, on channel 4 and they'll get 4/5 games a weekend on their sometimes. And the NHL get's bumped to the SN for...god, what do they even show on NBC these days? Is it NCIS still? Or reruns of 30 year old shows.

 

[KevFu]

The IOC charter for the WINTER games specifies any discipline played on snow or ice is part of the winter games..... PERIOD.

The IOC is very dumb and also very corrupt. But we've known that for decades.

 

[LeafsNation75]

Biggest problem I have with NBC is their staunch refusal to put any games on NBC besides the 5 final games, the Winter Classic and the rare conference final game. The lack of the sport on one of the big channels is just too much to overcome when every game is on NBCSN and just insulting when NBC chooses to play reruns on channel 4 and shunt playoff games to CNBC/Golf Channel/USA. NBC has always treated the NHL like ****.

Remember back in 2007 during Game 5 of the Eastern Conference Final NBC broke away for the pre-race coverage of the Preakness Stakes and the game was shifted to Versus for those in the United States, although they didn't do that in the Buffalo market.

 

[KevFu]

Totally forgot about this. This is what I find hysterical. NBC will show a league based in another country, a quarter way around the world, on channel 4 and they'll get 4/5 games a weekend on their sometimes. And the NHL get's bumped to the SN for...god, what do they even show on NBC these days? Is it NCIS still? Or reruns of 30 year old shows.

There's two factors for that...

#1 - Most people think ESPN has been terrible for years now, because they have talking heads yelling at each other on a show instead of more live sports. Every fan says "I want to see more games and less talking." But the numbers don't back that up.

You put on a live game, and you have 2 of 30 fan bases watching. Two total fanbases is less than the number of people from each fan base who will watch their stupid show of people yelling at each other.

So the numbers back up what ESPN is doing, even though if you ask every individual, they'd say the exact opposite.


#2 - EPL's time slot. Because there's NO North American sports being played between 6 am and noon ET, EPL is getting all the fan bases at that time slot.

Basically, if you're awake and you don't hate watching soccer, and love sports and more than whatever the hell is on TV on Saturday/Sunday mornings, you'll watch EPL just because it's the only live sport on TV at that time.

Whereas NHL on NBC at 7 p.m.... if it's not your team playing... you'll watch your team on your RSN.

 

[Fenway]

Finally

 

[LadyStanley]

FWIW, Bettman on NBC during first intermission

 

[Fenway]

 

[varsaku]

Finally

They stuck with the same generic questions about Vegas that we have heard him already answer about a 1000 times. I wish they used it to get him to talk about some other topics related to the league.

 

[SkalbaniasGhost]

There's two factors for that...

#1 - Most people think ESPN has been terrible for years now, because they have talking heads yelling at each other on a show instead of more live sports. Every fan says "I want to see more games and less talking." But the numbers don't back that up.

You put on a live game, and you have 2 of 30 fan bases watching. Two total fanbases is less than the number of people from each fan base who will watch their stupid show of people yelling at each other.

So the numbers back up what ESPN is doing, even though if you ask every individual, they'd say the exact opposite.


#2 - EPL's time slot. Because there's NO North American sports being played between 6 am and noon ET, EPL is getting all the fan bases at that time slot.

Basically, if you're awake and you don't hate watching soccer, and love sports and more than whatever the hell is on TV on Saturday/Sunday mornings, you'll watch EPL just because it's the only live sport on TV at that time.

Whereas NHL on NBC at 7 p.m.... if it's not your team playing... you'll watch your team on your RSN.

#1 Ratings are irrelevant to ESPN's combat talk shows.The key is that they own them outright.SportsCenter in the 90's was an absolute license to print money.They have squeezed all the expenditures out of them.They rarely do satellite bookings(lots of title card screens with so-and-so on a cell phones).Time Warner(CNN) basically implemented the same business strategy in 2002-3 time frame.CNN used to be a legitimate news gathering organization.Now just combat talks.Solid money maker.live sports for the big 4 are just money losers.Only NBC makes money off the NFL. The NHL is a business partner with ESPN(Disney). They will be part of the distribution future.The Question is who else.Comcast is a known commodity.Fox is deadman walking once Rupert Murdoch passes(too many scorned family members/children/ex-girlfriends/mistresses) what's left of New Fox will be involved in contentious lawsuits in a declining ad-based environment(possible serious economic malaise on a global scale on top of that).
AT&T ? Gotta get involved with Amazon.Take that Bezos money.

 

[jkrdevil]

Biggest problem I have with NBC is their staunch refusal to put any games on NBC besides the 5 final games, the Winter Classic and the rare conference final game. The lack of the sport on one of the big channels is just too much to overcome when every game is on NBCSN and just insulting when NBC chooses to play reruns on channel 4 and shunt playoff games to CNBC/Golf Channel/USA. NBC has always treated the NHL like ****.

NBC aired games every Saturday and Sunday (save the sunday of the Players Championship that is ending this year) during the playoffs on their main channel. For the early rounds they aired double headers on saturdays.

That is more coverage on broadcast than MLB (which now just airs the World Series on broadcast) and NBA get. This is also more coverage on broadcast tv than the league has ever gotten in its history even going back to the days before there was cable.

What the hell don you realistically want? They aren’t going to air early season afternoon games during football season because the NHL teams don’t want to play afternoon games during football season. Those are a gate killer