Entries with the tag: nbc

Your Guide to Exclusive Telecasts in Round Two

I understand that viewers in Dallas, Colorado, New York, Detroit and Philadelphia will be very confused as to where each of their games are airing during Round Two, with NBC and Versus able to pick two games of each series and air them exclusively, shutting out your regional sports network.  Here’s your guide to Round Two’s exclusives, and E-Mail me at if you have any further questions, because I’m still a little confused by it.

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To Make Your TV Guide a Little Easier…

Here are the TV schedules for the first round of he playoffs for both the United States and Canada.  A couple of rules for looking at this:

1. In the United States, all VERSUS telecasts are non-exclusive.  That means that, unless the team consents to it (Nashville-San Jose last year is an example), your local regional sports network will air the game.  NBC telecasts are exclusive, and will only air on NBC.

2. Note that these will be subject to change after every series is past Game Four, and schedules will change as series end.

3. All VERSUS and NBC action is slated to air in High-Def.  Not certain, but at least two of CBC’s and TSN’s series should be as well.

Enjoy:

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Quarterfinal Schedules Are Set

From NHL.com:

NEW YORK (April 6, 2008) – The National Hockey League today announced dates, times and national broadcast information for the 2008 Stanley Cup Playoff Conference Quarter-final round, which begins Wednesday, April 9.

More, as it includes times, dates and National TV Schedules:

Networks Battle For Playoff Games

From William Houston at The Toronto Globe & Mail:

Cheering in the broadcast booth might be forgiven this weekend.

For television executives, the result of each game during the final two days of the NHL’s regular season will have a potentially huge impact on playoff programming, audiences and advertising.

The networks will be hoping for the most attractive match-ups. And they will be pushing for a schedule that will best allow them to showcase the games.

Read on:

With Winter Classic Behind it, Revamped NHL On NBC Looks to Move Forward

If the Winter Classic taught the NHL and NBC one thing, it’s that hockey fans are attracted to the spectacle.  That, and for real.no more Darren Pang.  That’s why even the most cynical, hockey-chondriac media critics are upbeat that the NHL can do some acceptable business with it’s retooled lineup and flex scheduling policies. 

For those of you who are unaware, NBC will use a similar policy to what it does for late-season NFL games, except it won’t mean that I have to stand in Giants Stadium until 1 AM on a Monday Morning watching the Redskins clean up what’s left of the G-Men.  Instead, and I feel you puck-heads should be aware of this, NBC will air one game in it’s timeslot (Usually 12:30-3:00 PM ET or 3:30-6:00 PM ET) and basically move all the games deemed not-worthy (i.e. Crosby doesn’t play for or against you) to three hours before or after NBC’s slot. 

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Handicapping the Flex Schedule

NBC begins it’s NHL “Flex Scheduling” arrangement later in January, when they pick between a Bruins-Rangers tilt and the Stars-Ducks game.  NBC was so certain they wanted the Rangers and Boston, that they announced their choice five days early, during the Winter Classic. 

So I thought, heading into eight weeks of this little experiment (NBC is guaranteed to air Rangers-Canadiens on Super Bowl Sunday), I would try predicting what the league and network will go with.  I will use the following criteria when making judgments:

1. Market Quality (Big Markets = Ratings)
2. Star Power (Crosby, Jagr, Ovechkin = Ratings)
3. Game Quality (When in doubt, a good game can draw you in)
4. Competition (If ABC’s airing an NBA game involving the same city, the NHL won’t jump in there)

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