- The NHL on SportsChannel America
SportsChannel America was the officialAmerican television provider of theNational Hockey League from 1988-1992.Terms of the deal
Taking over for ESPN, SportsChannel's contract paid $51 million ($17 million per year) over three years, more than double what ESPN had paid ($24 million) for the previous three years. SportsChannel America managed to get a fourth NHL season for just $5 million.
portsChannel's availabilty
Unfortunately,
SportsChannel America was only available in a few major markets, and reached only a 1/3 of the households thatESPN did at the time. SportsChannel America was seen in fewer than 10 million households. In comparison, by the 1991–92 season, ESPN was available in 60.5 million homes whereas SportsChannel America was available in only 25 million. When the SportsChannel deal ended in 1992, the league returned to ESPN for another contract that would pay $80 million over five years.SportsChannel America took advantage of using their
regional sports network s' feed of a game, graphics and all, instead of producing a show from the ground up, most of the time. Distribution of SportsChannel America across the country was limited to cities that had a SportsChannel regional sports network or affiliate. Very few cable systems in non-NHL territories picked it up as a stand alone service. Regional affiliates of thePrime Network would sometimes pick up SportsChannel broadcasts, but this was often only during the playoffs. SportsChannel America also did not broadcast 24 hours a day at first, usually on by 6 p.m., off by 1 or 2 a.m., then a sportsticker for the next 16 hours.Philadelphia
Since
SportsChannel Philadelphia did not air until January 1990, PRISM (owned by Rainbow Media, the owners of SportsChannel, at the time) picked up the1989 Stanley Cup Finals . Other than that, there was no NHL television coverage in Philadelphia except for the Flyers for the first half of the original deal.Lawsuit
Shortly after the ESPN deal was signed, SportsChannel America would contend that its contract with the NHL gave them the right to match third-party offers for television rights for the 1992–93 season. SportsChannel America accused the NHL of violating a nonbinding clause. SportsChannel America argued that it had been deprived of its contractual
right of first refusal for the 1992–93 season. Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court justice Shirley Fingerwood would deny SportsChannel America's request for aninjunction against the NHL. Upholding that opinion, the appellate court found the agreement on which SportsChannel based its argument to be "too imprecise and ambiguous" and ruled that SportsChannel failed to show irreparable harm.Regular season coverage
SportsChannel America would televise about 80–100 games a season. It was very rare to have a regular-season game on SportsChannel America that wasn't a regional SportsChannel production from the
Chicago Blackhawks ,Hartford Whalers ,New Jersey Devils ,New York Islanders orPhiladelphia Flyers . TheSan Jose Sharks were added in 1991–92. SportsChannel America for the most part, used the local telecasts.The dedicated SportsChannel America station was little more than an overflow channel in the for SportsChannel New York.
Production
A fair amount of times in their first season, they would use their own production services for games. But very rarely would this sort of practice occur in the last three seasons. Since programming was so sparse otherwise on SportsChannel America, usually the games were replayed immediately following the live telecast.
For playoff coverage, if any of the aforementioned teams made the playoffs, SportsChannel America would focus on those teams, using their facilities. Sometimes, they would use the CBC feed for other series (the
Boston Bruins -Montreal Canadiens series, for example). For the Stanley Cup Championship, SportsChannel America would use their own facilities. They would also use their own facilities for any Conference Final series that did not involve one of SportsChannel's regional teams.John Shannon was the senior producer of "The NHL on SportsChannel America".Announcers
*
Herb Brooks
*Gerry Cheevers
*Bill Clement
*John Davidson
*Don Edwards
*Mike Emrick
*Stan Fischler
*Pat Foley
*Jiggs McDonald
*Peter McNab
*Bob Papa
*Rick Peckham
*Denis Potvin
*Leandra Reilly
*Joe Starkey
*Pete Stemkowski
*Dale Tallon
*Gary Thorne
*Ed Westfall Commentating crews
*
Chicago Blackhawks :Pat Foley andDale Tallon (in 1992, SportsChannel America rode them all the way to the Conference Finals)
*Hartford Whalers :Rick Peckham andGerry Cheevers
*New York Islanders :Jiggs McDonald andEd Westfall
*New Jersey Devils :Gary Thorne andPeter McNab
*Philadelphia Flyers :Mike Emrick andBill Clement
*San Jose Sharks (1991–92 only):Joe Starkey andPete Stemkowski Bob Papa andLeandra Reilly were the studio hosts during the regular season coverage. For theStanley Cup Finals ,Jiggs McDonald served as theplay-by-play man whileBill Clement was thecolor commentator . Also during the Stanley Cup Finals,Mike Emrick served as the host while John Davidson served as the rinkside and intermission anaylst.pecial programming
In 1989, SportsChannel America provided the first ever American coverage of the NHL Draft.
In September 1989, SportsChannel America covered the
Washington Capitals training camp inSweden and pre-season tour of theSoviet Union . The Capitals were joined by the Stanley Cup championCalgary Flames , who held training camp inPrague, Czechoslovakia and then ventured to the Soviet Union. Each team played four games againstSoviet National League clubs. Games were played inMoscow ,Leningrad ,Kiev andRiga . The NHL clubs finished with a combined 6–2 record against the top Soviet teams, including the Red Army club and Dynamo Moscow. Five of the eight contests were televised by SportsChannel America.All-Star Game coverage
SportsChannel America was the exclusive broadcaster of the 1989 All-Star Game. The following year, they covered the first ever NHL Skills Competition and Heroes of Hockey game. SportsChannel America would continue their coverage of these particular events through 1992. In 1991, SportsChannel America replayed the third period of the All-Star Game on the same day that it was played. That was because NBC broke away from the live telecast during the third period in favor of
Gulf War coverage.ee also
*
Hawkvision
*List of Stanley Cup Finals broadcasters
*List of National Hockey League All-Star Game broadcasters External links
* [http://drewlbucket.blogspot.com/2005/08/can-oln-help-rescue-nhl.html The DrewL Bucket: Can OLN Help Rescue NHL?]
* [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11423010.html?refid=ip_hf NHL inks SCA deal for $5.5m. (cable television contract between National Hockey League and SportsChannel America) (Multichannel News)]
* [http://www.andrewsstarspage.com/CBA/8-17cba.htm CBA: TV and the price of expansion]
* [http://www.plaidworks.com/chuqui/blog/001885.html Is the NHL better off?]
* [http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:CcbKsgGcHRIJ:inthecrease.blogs.com/in_the_crease/dallas_stars/index.html+NHL+SportsChannel+America&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=45 ESPN fails to match, Comcast gets NHL]
* [http://ezra.cornell.edu/posting.php?timestamp=702619200 Dear Uncle Erza]
* [http://www.dbsforums.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=69983 The NHL on SportsChannel America (1988-1992)]
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