Kukla's Korner Hockey
Ratings Don’t Matter To Fans Of The Game
by Paul on 06/08/10 at 07:35 AM ET
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from Jamie Fitzpatrick at Jamie’s Hockey Blog,
Suddenly, it’s fashionable to report that hockey is “exploding” (in a good way), and to spot celebrities like Michael Jordan and Michelle Pfeiffer among the crowds.
Trendsetting outfits like the Huffington Post are praising the NHL for its marketing prowess and embrace of online media….
No wonder that commissioner Gary Bettman looked as smug as ever last week, during his annual playoff audience with Hockey Night in Canada.
The current PR bump, likely due to the ratings-friendly Philadelphia-Chicago showdown, won’t last. Neither will the feel-good story.
The NHL is never more than one ugly brawl or a couple of ratings points away from punchline status in the minds of lazy sportswriters seeking an easy day’s work.
And hockey fans shouldn’t care, one way or the other…
It’s a business agenda. It’s not the fans’ agenda.
Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting | KK Hockey | Permalink
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The media has long since bought into the business agenda, insisting that the NHL needs better ratings, a broader “footprint,” more revenue streams, blah, blah, blah.
This is my problem with the broadcasting of NHL games. The annoucers are always talking as if everybody is watching hockey for the first time. I hate it when Mike Emrick ask Eddie Olczyk a question you know that he (Emrick) knows the answer to. It’s almost insulting . Go back and watch the SCF from ‘87 or ‘88 when they were on ESPN (before the NHL made the huge mistake of going to SportsChannel America as it’s cable provider) and listen to Emrick and Bill Clement. That’s Emrick at his best. Both men talking hockey assuming the audience knows what’s going on. It’s like after the lock-out every announcer now has to promote the NHL- as opposed to just calling the game. Just sayin’.
Posted by Lindas1st from New England on 06/08/10 at 11:22 AM ET