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Trouble With Cable Providers
by Alanah McGinley on 03/18/09 at 03:21 PM ET
Comments (7)
From Craig Custance at the Sporting News:
By moving the game to the NHL Network, in an attempt to give it more exposure, the league shut out a large number of Center Ice subscribers. Up until last week, I had DirecTV, which includes the NHL Network as part of its digital package. I learned, apparently along with a lot of fans, that Comcast doesn’t include the NHL Network in its basic digital package - even if you ponied up the bucks for Center Ice. Now, I need to get the NHL Network anyways, so I didn’t mind calling Comcast and bumping up a package for another $8 a month. But by the time we got it ironed out, it was 2-0 New Jersey.
Like a lot of hockey fans, I was part angry, part confused. So this morning, I called the league for an explanation.
It was explained to me that putting the game on NHL Network made the game like any other nationally televised hockey game, which means it wasn’t available on Center Ice. Usually that’s not an issue, because you can just turn on NBC or Versus and watch it. But for those of us who didn’t get NHL Network, it became an issue. But the league assured me that it wasn’t some underhanded tactic to get people to pay more money for extra cable coverage. In fact, it’s the opposite.
Filed in: NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting, Center Ice, NHL Network | KK Hockey | Permalink
Comments
Custance goes on to say the same thing… the NHL ultimately benefited more fans with their decision to move the game. It’s the cable provider (Comcast, in this case) that the problem came down to.
Glad you got to see the game. Definitely would’ve been a shame for a fan to miss such a big one. 
Posted by Alanah McGinley from British Columbia on 03/18/09 at 02:39 PM ET
It seems stupid to me that they do not blackout NHL Network on Gamecentre Live, even though I may have access to it. But it blacks out TSN2 when I live on campus and have no hope in hell to get TSN2. They shouldn’t blackout anything.
Posted by Colton from Calgary on 03/18/09 at 03:06 PM ET
Comcast strung me along for TWO YEARS about the NHL Network- and then didnt even bother, despite repeated assurances, to let me know when they finally picked it up in Colorado. And blacking out the games on Center Ice was a nice touch, too.
Of course, Cox Cable still blacks out nearly every single Anaheim game, even the road games, so I’m glad to be back in Denver, where at least I can watch the Wings throttle the Poultry a couple-four times per year…
To be longing for the days of ESPN- now there’s irony for ya.
Posted by mudshark from Divetown, Colorado on 03/18/09 at 03:21 PM ET
Then there are those of us who have Dish and Versus is only in the higher tier. I pay for Center Ice and I am not able to watch any games on Versus without subscribing to 250 channels. Not to mention that my local team is only broadcast on Comcast Sportsnet which isn’t available on Dish at all so I can never watch my local team.
And I can’t leave Dish because they are the only ones to offer a foreign language channel for my wife.
Posted by Dish subscriber from DC on 03/18/09 at 04:59 PM ET
Comcast gets around putting the games on directv or dish by running the network on standard cable translation line. they do it for Comcast Sportsnet philadelphia.
i dont understand why there is a problem w/ comcast. the have every right to put it differnt tier because it’s a speicality channel.
Posted by FlyersFan on 03/18/09 at 05:50 PM ET
Excuse my language but the NHL is too tight-ass about blackout restrictions. And they don’t even like to tell you why games are blacked out. I’m not allowed to see any games involving the Buffalo Sabres and I don’t even know why (I’m in Toronto). I’ve tried calling in and asking and they don’t have an answer for me other than saying that I’m a liar and I must be in Buffalo’s area.
Posted by bcrt on 03/19/09 at 09:39 AM ET
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There is also people on the other side of the coin. I am out of town this week and had the NHL not put it on NHL Network I would not have been able to watch the game. As a lifelong Devils fans I’m glad they moved the game to NHLN.
Perhaps they should have kept the game on Center Ice as well but putting it on NHL Network was a good decision by the league.
Posted by jkrdevil on 03/18/09 at 02:29 PM ET