why does ESPN hate the NHL?

[Tkachuk4MVP]

ESPN has no financial stake in the NHL.

This is the simplest, most accurate answer.

 

[vandymeer13]

Why broadcasts it when you cant air it? Add that with how soft hockey is and how mainstream like physicality in sports. Why waste time on it. Football has gotten softer and criticized for it but its America's sport just like how Canada will follow hockey no matter what they do. Ufc mma ratings have been doing great right now

 

[Rich Nixon]

Barry Melrose baby.

 

[Green]

look at the playoff ratings, no one is watching so why should they care

only the facts do not support it, it seems the NHL is the 2nd most popular sporting event going on behind the NBA, however if you go to ESPN which is or was supposed to be the "sports leader" you would think the NHL is as popular as the Olympics or Womens College Basketball currently is based on how the NHL is buried with those sports

Ratings: NHL, NBA, MLB

 

[HisIceness]

In short, the NHL is not one of ESPNs cash cows.

It's really not that big of a deal nowadays to be honest. ESPN has become TMZ. I guess the rise of social media contributed to this but the network started losing their "origins" when they debuted that stupid SportsNation show in 2009. The network will still be around as long as live games are needed to be aired and I might occasionally glance at PTI (which still does occasionally talk NHL) but I've grown tired of the Jordan vs LeBron debates and Aaron Rodgers/Tom Bradys personal life.

And I'm not kidding when I say this, their NBA coverage (the thing they love so much and talk about 24/7) sucks too and gets worse every year. TNT does a much better job and they are mostly a movie network.

 

[Drake1588]

ESPN promotes the sports that it airs. The hours around the dial when it is not airing games are devoted to promoting those games. There's no bias against hockey, just pure self interest.

ESPN would change its tune overnight if it gained a stake in covering games again as part of the next television contract. Whether fans should therefore hope for ESPN to get a slice of that pie is another question. Yet ESPN's motivations are not obscure.

The only thing I miss is the panel show, NHL2Night. Its production values, caliber of panelist, and I guess money that was clearly getting spent on the product dwarfed what you get on NHL Network today. The NHL Network product might be purer, more distilled, but it's still unbelievably ... lame. It looks like a cable access channel. Melrose and Buccigross brought a certain panache that is totally absent from the NHL Network.

TNT's Inside the NBA just kills anything that you get with the NHL these days as far as a panel show is concerned. If you aren't going back to ESPN, I'd like to see the NHL Network get an overhaul. If they can find some more pennies to spend on the product, do it.

(EDIT: In the USA, that is; I quite like TSN's product. We just can't get it and TSN makes it difficult to even watch clips in the States. I have a VPN, sure, but generally TSN is unavailable in the States.)

 

[Paperbagofglory]

Traditional media is dead. The problem is too many out of touch boomers are still in the job market as executives and company decision makers. This results in weird pandering that fails and young people see through the BS. First thing that needs to happen is signing a deal with twitch and Amazon prime. Create a special subsciption service for members only and it would take off with young people. Younger demographics enjoy social media so having a twitch chat sort of atmosphere would appeal to them more than dealing with old style networks with non interactive downtime filled with commercials. Watching sports with a digital audience is the future. Time to send the boomers packing because they are killing the sports we love by staying in love with the past. I hate commercials and after using streaming services i could never go back to watching a movie in traditional format again. At least with something like twitch the ad plays but it keeps the main window open so you arent completely a slave to watching a mcdonalds ad for the 100th time in a week.

 

[DieSendungmitderMaus]

^^that's a nice idea, problem is that young people have no money so catering to them doesn't make much sense.

 

[The Great Mighty Poo]

Other way around, the NHL hates ESPN because they didnt care like at ALL about the NHL in the last 2-4 years of their TV contract, they barley promoted the game of the week, never aired anything on sports center, never promoted all star weekend the week leading into it, barley acknowledged the existence of the trade deadline, draft, or free agency, while over promoting z grade crap nobody gave a damn about like the World Series of Poker, Pro Texas Hold Em, and other stupid thing like that, then coming out of the 05 lockout ridiculously lowballed them in television negotiations, so they latched on with a much better deal the Outdoor Network, that became Versus, that became NBC Sports Network and have played the victim every since, who promoted the game,and players 1000% then those twits at ESPN ever did.

 

[jimmysheva]

NHL2Night was great with John Buccigross and Barry Melrose. Best nightly recap show

 

[JungleBeat]

Nobody cares about hockey.

 

[Rebels57]

Because they are a bunch of jerkoffs.

 

[Merrrlin]

I hate to say it, because all of us here love the game, but the NHL just is not as interesting as the other big sports.

Football is a religion.
Baseball is so ingrained historically, and enjoys it's own season "slot".
Basketball draws the multicultural fans and the black communities, and also has the most "star" power.

The NHL is much more of a niche for Northern markets. There are very few people who will watch hockey before the other 3, and the same goes for their media consumption.

I think it's less entertaining these days with fewer rivalries and fewer marketable stars. Not to mention it's far too easy to be very good while playing very defensive hockey, something a casual fan will not appreciate as much.

 

[robertmac43]

Why would they care? At this point they have no connection and there are bigger sports to cover for them. I would rather they not just cover the NHL for the sake of it, not like it would be any good.

 

[Rabid Ranger]

ESPN at least their website, has a fair amount of hockey coverage-especially when you consider their lack of a financial stake.

 

[Djp]

My thoughts....

I though ESPN+ has some rights on streaming games. ESPN international has some rights.

Years ago ESPN sports enter changed how it worked from broad sports coverage to be an infomercial on their programming.

I rarely watch sports center.

What do I watch on ESPN
..nfl
...occasional baseball game
..tennis
..some college football and basketball
..I don’t watch much nba. I’ll watch a rare game ( like on Xmas) and watch the finals.

There are more hockey fans out there that are counted. Outside of hockey markets and winter areas in the US . It’s not common in Deep South areas.


I think people haven’t realized UFC is fake..I don’t think they can follow hockey.

 

[Just Linda]

As many have already said, ESPN is a business first and foremost.

Their website is designed to sell you on their brand and the things their brand sells.

TV shows have always been the wrappers on commercials, sportscenter exists essentially to get you invested in sports that otherwise you would not have had the time to watch or previous interest in.

ESPN doesnt make money off of hockey, at least not right now. If that changed, hockey would get a lot more coverage.

 

[Tetsuo]

ESPN promotes the sports that it airs. The hours around the dial when it is not airing games are devoted to promoting those games. There's no bias against hockey, just pure self interest.

ESPN would change its tune overnight if it gained a stake in covering games again as part of the next television contract. Whether fans should therefore hope for ESPN to get a slice of that pie is another question. Yet ESPN's motivations are not obscure.

The only thing I miss is the panel show, NHL2Night. Its production values, caliber of panelist, and I guess money that was clearly getting spent on the product dwarfed what you get on NHL Network today. The NHL Network product might be purer, more distilled, but it's still unbelievably ... lame. It looks like a cable access channel. Melrose and Buccigross brought a certain panache that is totally absent from the NHL Network.

TNT's Inside the NBA just kills anything that you get with the NHL these days as far as a panel show is concerned. If you aren't going back to ESPN, I'd like to see the NHL Network get an overhaul. If they can find some more pennies to spend on the product, do it.

(EDIT: In the USA, that is; I quite like TSN's product. We just can't get it and TSN makes it difficult to even watch clips in the States. I have a VPN, sure, but generally TSN is unavailable in the States.)

As a life long Detroit native, I've been spoiled getting CBC TV and radio. I always fail to remember that it simply isn't available to most US citizens.

 

[Mr Misunderstood]

ESPN is only good for College Gameday and College Football games.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

Why do people care anymore?

ESPN has been trash for a long, long time now.

 

[WingsMJN2965]

If Disney doesn't renew the NBA TV deal after the 2024-25 season, the NHL should be trying for ESPN even if its at a slight loss compared to NBC. No matter how much you might hate their loudmouth analysts, or their political takes, or whatever, they simply know how to market sports better than any other network.

Yeah, they knew how to market sports so well that the last time the had the NHL they were preempting it for World Series of Poker events.

No. f***ing. Thanks.

 

[Lt Dan]

Why do people care anymore?

ESPN has been trash for a long, long time now.

Exactly

I have Sling Blue so I don't have to give that expensive waste of a channel any of my money. ESPN has been the major villain in driving up cable costs for years. Asking for double digit percentage increases each time the contract comes up .
They haven't even been relevant in years.

 

[Goptor]

Long story:

Early 2000s ESPN was a big supporter of NHL. They had regular evening broadcasts of NHL games followed by a high production highlight show that was also rebroadcasted the following day for people unable to stay up.

They were not too happy with the league for its lockout and their (and NBC) TV deal ended at the same time. NBC and ESPN put in extreme lowball offers for NHL following that with the expectations that the NHL had no other options. The NHL management got in touch with Outdoor Life Network (OLN) and were able to get a much more competitive offer from them. The OLN had an ambitions strategy to challenge ESPN and take market share from them in sports.

ESPN was pissed at that since they never had a cable tv competitor so they went out of their way to trash the NHL as a proxy for the OLN.

Meanwhile, at the same time, ESPN was rebranding themselves and heavily pushed sports talk shows instead of highlight shows. They picked up a bunch of media guys that did not like the NHL to promote their new stance towards the league. A lot of the media guys they hired at the start became big name personalities and are still the face of the network today.

 

[Iapyi]

I'm glad.

I don't see the benefit of having them promote the sport of hockey as it will just lead the monetary focused NHL to put more stock into the casual, or even worse bandwagon, fan which will promote a further degeneration of the sport at the sake of the hardcore fans who grew up playing, loving and watching it.

 

[CherryToke]

90's hockey with Gary Thorne on ESPN was a good time. If nothing else, they are good at bringing the drama