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Entries with the tag: espn
The NHL Needs ESPN
by Paul on 08/15/09 at 12:15 PM ET
Comments (5)
from Tom Reed of Puck-rakers at the Columbus Dispatch, .
..the NHL still cannot cut a deal with its old broadcast partner, ESPN. The network helped the league gain popularity in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It also stuck with the NHL in the early part of this decade when the game had become almost unwatchable due to the un-penalized obstruction.
Post-lockout hockey is an entertaining product, but the casual sports fan—the one the NHL needs to attract—isn’t programmed to search it out.
There are things I don’t like about ESPN, but it lends credibility to a sport. The league can tout its improved ratings on Versus, but it’s not a destination channel.
added 12:44pm, Sean Leahy of Puck Daddy has some suggestions for the NHL Network.
Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: ESPN,
Get Off The High Horse
by Paul on 08/05/09 at 12:10 PM ET
Comments (4)
from Frank DeFord at NPR,
Imagine if Vogue magazine was not only the country’s single dominant fashion medium, but also produced most major runway shows. Imagine if The Wall Street Journal was not just the nation’s only powerful business outlet, but it also owned the rights to the listings on the New York Stock Exchange.
Well, essentially, so it is with ESPN and sports. ESPN rules the land, the seas and the firmament of sport, and ESPN sees that it is good. ESPN has multiple channels, a magazine, a radio network, and now it’s starting local Web sites in many cities to compete on that level.
What it covers is so often what it owns the rights to — in almost every major sport. To be sure, other networks share some rights to the various leagues, but only ESPN is a critical mass. ESPN can make you.
thanks to a KK member for the link…
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: ESPN,
The ESPN Debate
by Paul on 07/18/09 at 11:21 AM ET
Comments (17)
from Ken Campbell of The Hockey News,
But the league struck only a two-year deal with NBC for one very important reason. Its cable deal with Versus expires in two years and the league is hoping that by having both its over-the-air and cable contracts up for renewal at the same time it will have more options when it comes to its next television contracts.
“It was the right deal at the right time,” said one industry insider.
Could that mean the league is poised to return to ESPN in two years? After all, ESPN is owned by ABC, so the league could package both its over-the-air and cable packages in one deal.
A new deal with ESPN would be a welcome relief for those who don’t have access to Versus and are essentially shut out of NHL games. The league left ESPN after the lockout in favor of Versus after ESPN publicly questioned the value of hockey on its network.
Filed in: NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting, VERSUS | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: ESPN, NBC,
What Are Some People Thinking?
by Paul on 07/17/09 at 09:40 PM ET
Comments (4)
Truthfully, with all the people that now have access to locker rooms, I am surprised we have not seen more of this.
I imagine it is a huge concern for anyone in the public eye and the threat always exists.
LOS ANGELES, July 17 /PRNewswire/—With respect to recent Internet postings of Erin Andrews, she has authorized her attorney, Marshall B. Grossman of Bingham McCutchen LLP, to issue the following statement:
“While alone in the privacy of her hotel room, Erin Andrews was surreptitiously videotaped without her knowledge or consent. She was the victim of a crime and is taking action to protect herself and help ensure that others are not similarly violated in the future. Although the perpetrator or perpetrators of this criminal act have not yet been identified, when they are identified she intends to bring both civil and criminal charges against them and against anyone who has published the material. We request respect of Erin’s privacy at this time, while she and her representatives are working with the authorities.”
Filed in: Hockey Related Stories | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: Erin+Andrews, ESPN,
Greater TV Exposure Needed
by Paul on 05/03/09 at 08:06 AM ET
Comments (0)
from Larry Brooks of the NY Post,
Slap Shots has learned that NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly and director of business affairs Glenn Healy met with ESPN executives earlier this year, with Bettman’s knowledge and authorization. We’re told ESPN, which did in fact treat the NHL like an unwanted stepchild while it was the league’s cable rights-holder, showed substantial interest in bringing the sport back to the network.
But that interest, which included an offer of a rights fee that was reported to the commissioner, has not been seriously returned from the league, at least not yet. Versus would have to relinquish its national cable exclusivity in order to strike a deal with ESPN. From what we’re told, NBC opposes a deal with ESPN because of ABC’s parentage of the cable network.
From what we’re told, Bettman places a fair amount of stock into what NBC thinks, though we cannot imagine why.
According to sources, the NHL made approximately $3 million last year out of its profit-sharing arrangement with NBC. That’s $3 million, total, or $100,000 per team. Not even Phoenix needs that, not when the NHL’s signature series is all but shut out by the NBC, not when there’s no ESPN to showcase it.
Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting, VERSUS | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: ESPN, NBC,
ESPN- Mike Brown Hit On Francois Beauchemin? Oops
by Paul on 05/02/09 at 09:43 AM ET
Comments (10)
ESPN starts off on the wrong foot in this video hightlight of game 1 between the Wings and Ducks…
Filed in: NHL Teams, Anaheim Ducks, Detroit Red Wings, NHL Media, NHL Video | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: ESPN,
Afternoon Line
by Alanah McGinley on 12/04/08 at 01:59 PM ET
Comments (3)
“I am very, very excited about coming back home to ESPN, where I have had so many great years. I look forward to analyzing people being fired, rather than being the guy fired.”
-- Barry Melrose via The Daily Gazette
In his return to the network, Melrose will be joining Matthew Barnaby.
Filed in: NHL Media | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: barry+melrose, espn, matthew+barnaby,
NHL is Overly Criticized
by Alanah McGinley on 10/27/08 at 02:53 PM ET
Comments (2)
From ‘The Carulli Critique’ at the Sporting News:
The NHL is by far the most heavily criticized major sport in North America. Major TV networks (ahem, ESPN) and casual fans everywhere don’t think twice about taking cheap shots at hockey. They’ll talk about how fighting is a disgrace, how there’s consistently an on ice attack every year, or how the NHL is embarrassing because they’re on a network that isn’t shown by many major cable networks. That’s about the extent of the criticisms that anybody has about hockey, and the only legitimate one is about some violent on ice occurrences, but even that is pretty rare. It may seem frequent because the only time ESPN cares about showing the NHL is when something controversial happens.
Filed in: NHL Media | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: espn, media,
Adding Up Ovechkin
by Alanah McGinley on 10/01/08 at 12:21 PM ET
Comments (0)
Alex Ovechkin was modeling for the cover of ESPN Magazine a few days ago. In the aftermath, ESPN came up with a simple equation…
Filed in: NHL Teams, Washington Capitals | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: alex+ovechkin, alfred+e+neuman, espn, mad+magazine, media,
Barry Melrose vs Tampa Fans
by Alanah McGinley on 08/21/08 at 02:31 PM ET
Comments (1)
From Craig Custance at the Sporting News,
SN: What was the reaction in Tampa from fans when you were hired?
Melrose: A lot of people there were still mad at me for 2004. Supposedly, I made derogatory remarks about Tampa Bay. If people remember you saying it, it doesn’t matter if you said it. That was fun. [...]
SN: So what did you supposedly say in 2004 that has fans in Tampa so riled up?
Melrose: That Tampa didn’t have a chance (in the Stanley Cup final), not nearly as good as Calgary. That was nuts—I picked Tampa Bay. I don’t know what was going on. If they think you said it, you said it.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Tampa Bay Lightning | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: barry+melrose, espn, hockey+fans, media,
Things Learned in Ottawa at the Draft
by Alanah McGinley on 06/25/08 at 10:22 AM ET
Comments (5)
From Elena Bergeron and Sarah Turcotte at ESPN Magazine,
9. If it weren’t for silly trades, the draft would last 10 minutes. The first round took 90 million hours, because GMs insisted on brushing by tables like a chesty cocktail waitress.[...]
10. We need to start calling ourselves The Worldwide Leader, Except in Canada. No one knows what ESPN is in Ottawa. We had to tell people we were “the TSN of America.” They probably thought we were making it up to meet Mike Fisher.
11. Canadiens are nice to everyone—except Ray Emery. The Sens’ decision to place Ray Emery on waivers during the draft kind of soured things for us.
Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Entry Draft | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: espn, nhl+entry+draft,
Osgood on Jim Rome
by Alanah McGinley on 06/12/08 at 09:48 AM ET
Comments (5)
Yesterday, Chris Osgood spoke to Jim Rome on ESPN.
Video below:
Filed in: NHL Teams, Detroit Red Wings | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: chris+osgood, espn, jim+rome,
Tampa Bay Gong Show
by Alanah McGinley on 05/26/08 at 07:09 PM ET
Comments (0)
From Eric Duhatschek at the Globe & Mail hockey blog,
A more intriguing story is what will happen next in the organization if and when the Oren Koules group completes its purchase of the team from Palace Sports & Entertainment. The assumption is that Koules will then ask Feaster to replace his current coach, John Tortorella, with Barry Melrose, the ESPN analyst and coach of the Wayne Gretzky-led Los Angeles Kings team that went to the 1993 Stanley Cup final. Koules is from Chicago; he played junior hockey in the Western League, for a time in Great Falls and then in Medicine Hat. That’s the connection to Melrose - that and the fact that because of his ESPN platform, Melrose may be one of the most recognizable faces in hockey south of the 49th parallel, even if he hasn’t coached in more than a decade and the game has changed in so many dramatic ways since he last worked behind an NHL bench.
If Tampa shows signs of being a gong show, how will Vincent Lecavalier respond to ongoing attempts to sign him to a what could amount to a lifetime contract extension? He might just ask that negotiations be put off until everything settles out between the old and new ownership groups and he can see how the front-office shapes up.
Filed in: NHL Teams, Tampa Bay Lightning | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: barry+melrose, espn, john+tortorella, oren+koules, vincent+lecavalier,
Report- Return To ESPN In The Hands Of The NHL
by Paul on 12/12/07 at 03:21 PM ET
Comments (5)
from Michael Farber of Sports Illustrated,
The door is open, then, for ESPN.
According to an ESPN source, the network could be interested if it saw a fit in terms of cost and content. The network would require playoff hockey and one night of exclusivity during the regular season. “It’s totally in the NHL’s hands,” the source said.
As one media critic expressed it, does the NHL want to be No. 7 on ESPN or No. 1 on Versus? The league does indeed receive more loving care from Versus than it did on ESPN, despite the half-hour show ESPN2 used to give it nightly, but its absence from the cable heavyweight has taken hockey one step further from the national conversation.
Filed in: NHL Media, Hockey Broadcasting | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: ESPN,
NHL Needs ESPN
by Alanah McGinley on 12/06/07 at 11:43 PM ET
Comments (8)
From Kevin Allen at USA Today,
One of the most powerful forces in the NHL today is an organization that owns no standing in the NHL. And therein lies the problem.
ESPN has become the big elephant sitting in our room, only in this case everyone is talking about it.
The lack of a television deal with ESPN is now the No. 1 gripe in hockey today. Players complain about it. General managers complain about it. Coaches complain about it, and fans truly complain about it in most vulgar terms.
Filed in: NHL Media | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: espn, media,
Barry Melrose Apologizes to NJ
by Alanah McGinley on 11/06/07 at 06:24 PM ET
Comments (0)
From the AP,
ESPN hockey analyst Barry Melrose apologized Tuesday for negative remarks about the area around the New Jersey Devils’ new Prudential Center arena.
In a video segment posted on ESPN.com last week, Melrose described the recently opened arena as a “beautiful new building” but added, “Don’t go outside if you have a wallet or anything else, because the area around the arena is just horrible.”
Newark Mayor Cory A. Booker and Municipal Council President Mildred Crump took exception to the remarks and called for Melrose to apologize.
“All of us make mistakes, but it’s a shame when it’s at the expense of 300,000 people,” Booker said, referring to Newark’s population.
Filed in: NHL Teams, New Jersey Devils, NHL Media | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: arenas, barry+melrose, espn, new+jersey+devils,
Buccigross, Roenick and Some Top Plays
by Alanah McGinley on 11/06/07 at 12:18 PM ET
Comments (2)
From John Buccigross at ESPN,
Last Friday afternoon, I was sure of two things:
1. You will never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever see me in a pair of Crocs.
2. Jeremy Roenick would never say no to anything media related.The first will forever hold true. But, much to my surprise, while Roenick was answering your e-mails over the phone, he told me that media exchanges like this will be few and far between this season.
STOP THE PRESSES!
Video below features ESPN’s Top Plays of the Week:
Filed in: NHL Teams, San Jose Sharks, NHL Media | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: espn, jeremy+roenick, san+jose+sharks,
Bettman Mentions ESPN
by Paul on 10/06/07 at 07:46 AM ET
Comments (1)
Garry Bettman was in Atlanta last night and answered a few questions regarding the game, the Thrashers, etc…
from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution,
Q: What do you see ahead as far as TV deals?
A: We have great partnerships with NBC and [cable network] Versus. ... There have been reports that ESPN is interested in us. ... I do believe our current partners will be in the picture long-term. Whether or not there is an opportunity to have another partner is something we’re always open to looking at.
more from Bettman…
Filed in: NHL Talk, NHL Business of Hockey | KK Hockey | Permalink
Tags: espn, gary+bettman, media,
