August 15, 2005, - 3:42 pm
This is a Joke, Right?: NHL’s New Network Deal
By Debbie Schlussel
USA Today’s TV sports columnist, Michael Hiestand, reports that the NHL has found “a legitimate suitor,” the Outdoor Life Network, for it’s national TV rights. This is how low this “major” sports league has sunk–the Outdoor Life Network.
Remember that, the next time you are asked to fund–through your taxes–the playing palaces of these millionaire players and their billionaire team owners, who, respectively, wouldn’t agree to a salary cap and won’t cut ticket prices.
Tags: Debbie Schlussel, Major, Michael Hiestand, TV sports columnist
The USA Today article simplified it too much and as such is technically wrong. What it actually is is that Comcast Cable wants to create a TV network patterned after OLN (which they own) to cover the NHL. It would more like the local Philadelphia sports cable channel that they own that shows Phillies games (or something like Fox Sports Net in many other cities) than an obscure cable channel like OLN. A step down from ESPN or NBC, but still not the “basement door” that OLN would be.
This makes sense in that Comcast indirectly (through Ed Snider) owns a hockey team, the Philadelphia Flyers.
I do think that the fact that no broadcast TV networks nor in all likelihood ESPN (who dropped them during the lockout) is telling and does speak many volumes in agreement with what you’re saying, but just wanted to get the story right.
hairymon on August 15, 2005 at 7:07 pm