Emrick, Snider Among US Hockey Hall Inductees

The 2011 U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame Inductees were announced today.  They are Chris Chelios, Gary Suter, Keith Tkachuk, NBC Sports broadcaster Mike Emrick and Comcast Spectacor Chairman Ed Snider.

For Emrick, this is his second big honor in the past year.  He recently won his first Sports Emmy Award for Best Play-By-Blay.  In the past, Emrick has won both the Lester Patrick Award and the Foster Hewitt Memorial Award.

Snider is already a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame.  As chairman of Comcast Spectacor, his duties include being the chairman of the Philadelphia Flyers.  Comcast Spectacor manages several arenas through it’s Global Spectrum subsidiary and they also run a large food service company, Ovations, which handles concessions at many entertainment venues.  Spectacor’s operations also include the regional sports network, Comcast SportsNet Philadelphia.

 

Versus To Be Re-Branded As NBC Sports Network

Several media outlets are reporting that Versus will be re-named the NBC Sports Network. The move has been widely expected and as previously reported, the changeover won’t happen until January 2012. The January 2 name change coincides with NBC’s Winter Classic telecast.

The next step will be creating a comprehensive marketing plan to promote the new network. Fans should expect to see plenty of advertising to promote the new image during Versus’ telecasts and on Comcast’s regional sports networks. It was expected that the regional Comcast SportsNets would be renamed with “NBC Sports” replacing the Comcast brand as the RSN’s are now also under NBC Sports management but that no longer appears to be the case.  Instead, NBC may share graphics and presentation features with CSN keeping the Comcast branding.

The new NBC Sports Network logo can be seen above. All I can say about that is meh. It still looks like something from the past. The NBC Sports branding has been dated for years and this new logo doesn’t really change that. Outside of a slight change in the font, it’s largely the same as the current NBC Sports brand. Personally, I was hoping for a better update similar to how CBS Sports has created a modern look for their identity. I’m sure something a little more modern could’ve been used with the iconic peacock. This one largely fails and the Versus logo actually looks much more current.

Sources:

http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/43966021/ns/sports/

http://www.philly.com/philly/sports/126495098.html

Versus set to become the NBC Sports Network – USATODAY.com.