NHL on NBC

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NHL on NBC
NHL on NBC logo, featuring the Stanley Cup
Genre	Sports
Creator(s)	NBC Sports
Starring	see below
Country of origin	United States
Production
Running time	150 minutes or until game ends
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
Original run	January 14, 2006 – present

NHL on NBC is a TV show that televises National Hockey League games on NBC and is produced by NBC Sports.

1 Personalities
2 Terms of the deal
3 2004-05 NHL lockout
4 2005-06 NHL season
- 4.1 NBC's 2005-06 schedule and announcing teams
5 2006-07 NHL season
- 5.1 NBC's 2006-07 schedule
6 NHL on NBC Faceoff
7 2007 and beyond
8 Teams featured
9 Innovations
10 Ratings
11 Past history
12 See also
13 External links

[edit] Personalities

Main article: The NHL on NBC Commentators

[edit] Terms of the deal

In May 2004, NBC reached an agreement with the NHL to broadcast a handful of regular season games and the Stanley Cup Finals. The plan would call for NBC to air at least six weeks of regular season games (three regional games each week) on Saturday afternoons. Also, NBC will show eight weeks worth of playoff games. Games 3 through 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals would get prime time berths (OLN/Versus will cover the first two games). NBC plans to televise its primary game each week, as well as the Stanley Cup Finals in high definition.

Unlike previous network television deals with the NHL (like FOX, who had the rights from 1994-1999 and ABC, who had the rights from 1999-2004), NBC paid no rights fee, and the network and the league will split advertising revenue. In other words, the NHL will not receive any guaranteed money upfront. NBC would also cover its own production and distribution costs, whereas some minor sports leagues pay for broadcast time and production, but keep any advertising revenue.

The last time NBC Sports entered a television deal which didn't require them to pay any rights fees was in 1994-1995, when they were involved in the Major League Baseball joint venture called The Baseball Network. To a lesser extent, NBC also had a similar sort of revenue-sharing agreement with the Arena Football League.

NBC's out-of-market games are available on NHL Center Ice.

[edit] 2004-05 NHL lockout

NBC's contract with the NHL runs for two years, with a network option to renew for two more. NBC's NHL coverage was delayed a year due to the 2004-05 NHL lockout, which wound up cancelling the entire regular season and playoffs. NBC instead, decided to replace five of its scheduled NHL broadcasts with alternate sports programming (such as reruns of NASCAR Year in Review and The Purina Incredible Dog Challenge). NBC also decided to give one of the slots back to local affiliates.

[edit] 2005-06 NHL season

The NHL on NBC's new agreement debuted on January 14, 2006, with three regional games (New York vs. Detroit, Colorado vs. Philadelphia, and Dallas vs. Boston) to wide praise among hockey fans^{[citation needed]}, who tend to be cynical when any national TV network steps in to broadcast a game because of inevitable comparisons to Hockey Night in Canada, which is broadcast in full on the NHL Center Ice package (although some fans have even speculated that NBC's playoff broadcasts were superior to CBC's, largely because of announcers and HD coverage of games prior to the Finals). NBC's out-of-market telecasts are also offered through this platform.

[edit] NBC's 2005-06 schedule and announcing teams

Main article: NBC's 2005-06 NHL Schedule and Announcing Teams

[edit] 2006-07 NHL season

For the 2006-2007 season, NBC will broadcast three regional games for nine weekend dates during the regular season. They will also broadcast on ten dates during the playoffs (not including Stanley Cup Finals). The additional broadcast windows are expected to replace the Arena Football League, which NBC dropped after the 2006 season. NBC will also broadcast two games per week in high definition, up from one in 2005-06.

The newly titled NHL on NBC Game of the Week premiered for a second season January 13, 2007 with three regional games (LA vs. STL, BOS vs. NYR, PIT vs. PHI) at 2:00 p.m. ET. Games will start at various times this season, ranging everywhere from 12:30 to 3:30 during the season (this variation primarily results from NBC's commitments to the PGA Tour and other programming). One or two games aired only on the West Coast (and on NHL Center Ice) will begin at 6:00 p.m. ET, although NBC (and ABC before them) used to have more of these games.

It was also rumored that NBC wanted to broadcast an annual outdoor game (specifically, the New York Rangers vs. the New York Islanders at Yankee Stadium), but this will not happen until at least 2007-08. Having lost rights to the Gator Bowl on New Year's Day to CBS, the possibility of doing a New Year's Day game has increased, assuming NBC renews its broadcast contract.

The NHL on NBC moved to Sundays after its season premiere (listed above) for the final eight dates of the season. NBC's nine games amounts to the most U.S. broadcast television coverage the league has had since 1998, at the end of FOX's run.

[edit] NBC's 2006-07 schedule

Main article: NBC's 2006-07 NHL Schedule and Announcing Teams

[edit] NHL on NBC Faceoff

For the 2006-07 season, NBC added an online, broadband-only pregame show to its NHL coverage. This is similar to what it does with its Notre Dame football coverage. Titled NHL on NBC Countdown to Faceoff, it airs for a half-hour before every NHL on NBC telecast on NBCSports.com. The show headquarters at "The Rink at 30 Rock" in New York City, hosted by Bill Clement, Ray Ferraro and Brett Hull, and features a breakdown of upcoming action, as well as reports from each of the game sites.

The show usually consists of analysis of the upcoming games, followed by in-depth reports from the announcers at each of the arena sites, then further analysis from the studio, plus a feature on an NHL player.

[edit] 2007 and beyond

On March 27, 2007, NBC Sports and the NHL agreed to a 1-year contract extension with an option for one more.

In 2007-08, NBC's nine dates will feature "Flex Scheduling", similar to what NBC does with NFL broadcasts. The league will select nine dates at the start of the season for the nine Sundays on which NBC will air games. Thirteen days prior to the game, NBC will select one to air as the Game of the Week and let the other two move outside of NBC's broadcast window and return to the regional carriers.

All games will be presented in Hi-Def, and the unmatched NBC playoff coverage will continue.

[edit] Teams featured

The NHL on NBC only features teams whose home cities are in the United States, with the possible exception of the Conference Finals and Stanley Cup Finals, when showing a Canadian team might be unavoidable. NBC is always given the first choice of games and times on its scheduled broadcast dates. Canadian broadcasters must adjust accordingly.

Like its predecessors, NBC frequently chooses games with a focus on about seven teams (New York Rangers, Detroit Red Wings, Philadelphia Flyers, Pittsburgh Penguins, Boston Bruins, Dallas Stars, and Colorado Avalanche). The relation has very little correlation with team success; for instance, the Buffalo Sabres in 2005-06 had one of the most successful playoff runs (losing in seven games to the eventual Stanley Cup champion Carolina Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals), but was only given one game on NBC in 2006-07. Meanwhile, the Flyers, Rangers and Penguins each got four NBC games in 2006-07 (four games is probably the maximum number of appearances allowed). All of these teams are among the league's most popular from a ratings standpoint in the U.S. (NBC's 2006 playoff telecasts featuring Detroit outrated some games featuring Carolina or Buffalo, even though Detroit played a Canadian team, which usually means lower ratings), due to either market size, or current and/or prior success. This year, 20 of the 24 American NHL teams will appear at least once on NBC.

[edit] Innovations

Some of NBC's innovations included putting a star clock underneath the scoreboard at the top of the screen. During each game, NBC takes one player from each team (for example, during the 1/14/2006 Rangers-Red Wings game, Jaromir Jagr and Brendan Shanahan were used) and clocks how long that player is out on the ice each time he comes out for a shift. Also, goalies like Pittsburgh's Marc-Andre Fleury wore cameras inside their masks, much like Major League Baseball on FOX uses for catchers. Finally, in what may be one of the more drastic steps taken in broadasting to date, NBC placed analysts (see below for list) in between the two teams benches for what they call Inside the Glass reporting (loosely based on pit reporters used for auto racing telecasts).

[edit] Ratings

Main article: Ratings for The NHL on NBC

[edit] Past history

NBC previously televised the National Hockey League on three different occasions.

[edit] 1960s

NBC was the first United States television network to air a national broadcast of a Stanley Cup Playoff game. They provided coverage of four Sunday afternoon playoff games during the 1966 postseason. On April 10 and April 17, NBC aired semifinal games between the Chicago Blackhawks and Detroit Red Wings. On April 24 and May 1, NBC aired Games 1 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Montreal Canadiens and the Detroit Red Wings respectively. Win Elliot served as the play-by-play man while Bill Mazer served as the color commentator for all four games.

NBC's coverage of the 1966 Stanley Cup Finals marked the first time that hockey games were televised in color. The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation wouldn't follow suit until the following year. NBC's Stanley Cup coverage preempted a sports anthology series called NBC Sports in Action hosted by Jim Simpson and Bill Cullen. Some sources erroneously report that Simpson and Cullen were the hockey announcers.

[edit] 1970s

From 1972-1975, NBC not only televised the Stanley Cup Finals (in actuality, a couple of games in prime time), but also weekly regular season games on Sunday afternoons. NBC also aired several regular season and playoff games in prime time during this period (namely, during the 1972-1973 season). Tim Ryan and Ted Lindsay (with Brian McFarlane as the intermission host) served as the commentators for NBC's Stanley Cup coverage during this period. Since most NHL teams still didn't have players' names on the backs of jerseys, NBC made teams put on players' names to help American viewers identify players.

NBC's NHL coverage during the 1970s was probably most notable for the introduction of the animated character Peter Puck. Peter Puck, whose cartoon adventures (produced by Hanna-Barbera) appeared on both NBC's Hockey Game of the Week and CBC's Hockey Night in Canada, explained hockey rules to the home viewing audience.

Besides Peter Puck, the 1970s version of The NHL on NBC had a between periods feature titled Showdown. The concept of Showdown involved with 20 (16 shooters and four goaltenders) of the NHL's greatest players going head-to-head in a penalty shot competition.

Prior to January 14, 2006, NBC's last regular season NHL game occurred on April 6, 1975. The game in question featured the Minnesota North Stars at the Chicago Blackhawks.

[edit] 1990s

From 1990-1994, NBC only televised the National Hockey League All-Star Game. Marv Albert and John Davidson called the action while Bill Clement served as an ice-level reporter in 1992 and 1994. CBC's Hockey Night in Canada personality Ron MacLean also served as an ice level reporter, and was the lone correspondent for NBC for the 44th National Hockey League All-Star Game in 1993.

The Montreal Canadiens were slated to host the 1990 All-Star Game, but however withdrew their bid to considerations due to the superb hosting by Quebec City of Rendez-Vous '87. This had allowed the Penguins, who wanted to host an All-Star Game in 1993, to move up three years early. For its part, Pittsburgh's organizers added much more to previous games, creating the first "true" All-Star weekend. Firstly was the addition of the Heroes of Hockey game, a two-period oldtimers' game between past NHL greats. The second was the addition of the National Hockey League All-Star Skills Competition, a competition between the players invited to the All-Star Game. The Skills competition was created by Paul Palmer, who adapted the "Showdown" feature seen on Hockey Night in Canada from 1973 to 1980. All-Star players would be rewarded with $2,500 for any win in the skills competition. To accommodate the altered activities, the game itself was played on a Sunday afternoon instead of a Tuesday night, as was the case in previous years. This allowed American broadcaster NBC to air the game live across the United States - marking (surprisingly) the first time that a national audience would see Wayne Gretzky and Mario Lemieux play. Referees and other officials were also wired with microphones in this game, as was the two head coaches. Finally, NBC also was allowed to conduct interviews with players during stoppages in play, to the chagrin of the Hockey Night in Canada crew, whose attempts to do likewise were repeatedly denied by the league in past years.

In 1991, NBC broke away from the telecast in the third period to televise a briefing from the Pentagon involving the Gulf War. SportsChannnel America included the missing coverage in a replay of NBC's telecast.

There were reports about NBC making an arrangement to air four to eight regular season games for the 1992-1993 season but nothing materialized. NHL officials had arranged a 4-8 game, time-buy package on NBC, but that fell through when the NHL wanted assurance that all NBC affiliates would carry the games. (Since 2006, NBC has generally gotten all but a couple of affiliates in the Top-50 markets to carry the games.) ABC was the league's network broadcaster instead, and then FOX won a bidding war with CBS for TV rights lasting from the 1994-1995 through 1998-1999 seasons.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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Preceded by None	NHL network broadcast partner in the United States 1965 - 1966	Succeeded by CBS
Preceded by CBS	NHL network broadcast partner in the United States 1972 - 1975	Succeeded by NHL Network
Preceded by ESPN	NHL network broadcast partner (with SportsChannel America from 1990-1992, ABC from 1992-1994, and ESPN from 1993-1994) in the United States 1990 - 1994	Succeeded by FOX and ESPN
Preceded by ABC and ESPN	NHL network broadcast partner (with Versus) in the United States 2005 -	Succeeded by Incumbent

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Trophies and awards	Stanley Cup • Prince of Wales • Clarence S. Campbell • Presidents' Trophy • Adams • Art Ross • Calder • Conn Smythe • Crozier • Hart • Jennings • King Clancy • Lady Byng • Masterton • Messier • Norris • Patrick • Pearson • Plus/Minus • Rocket Richard • Selke • Vezina
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NBC Sports television programs

v • d • e

Anthology programs: Gillette Cavalcade of Sports | Sportsworld

Auto Racing: NASCAR on NBC

Basketball: NBA on NBC | NBA Showtime | Roundball Rock

Hockey: NHL on NBC | Peter Puck

Horse Racing: Thoroughbred Racing on NBC

Composers: David Arkenstone | Randy Edelman | John Tesh

See Also: United States sports broadcasting lists

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