UPDATE: Jets Make TSN Deal Official; Engblom, Johnson and Hnidy Hired As Analysts

The Winnipeg Free Press is reporting that the Jets will finally announce their broadcasting plans this afternoon. All the details have largely been leaked out already (check the category listing on the right for my numerous Jets stories) so there’s not much new that will probably be announced. There is one thing that’s still a mystery and that’s who will be the analysts for Jets games. The Free Press says that Shane Hnidy is being considered. Hnidy hasn’t officially retired and he has zero media experience so that would be an odd choice. We should find out all the details today as the Jets will hold a media conference at 1 PM Winnipeg time.

UPDATE: TSN and the Winnipeg Jets have finally announced their agreement to air games on a specialty regional sub-feed channel. The channel will be named TSN Jets and will launch September 20 to coincide with the first Jets preseason game. Also, as previously speculated, Bell Media’s Sports Radio 1290 will get the radio rights. In addition, TSN will create a Winnipeg bureau with Sara Olesky heading it up. The contract is for 10 years with a minimum of 60 games all being in HD on TSN Jets. The Jets broadcast territory will include Manitoba, Nunavut, Saskatchewan, the Northwestern Territories and parts of Northwestern Ontario including Thunder Bay, Dryden and Kenora. TSN will also offer pre and post game coverage of all games.

As far as on air talent goes, the play by play duties, as originally reported, will have Dennis Beyak handling the main duties with Brian Munz as the backup radio man when Beyak is doing television. We now have confirmation on the analysts and they are a bit of a surprise. On the radio side, Shane Hnidy will handle the colour duties. Hnidy has decided to retire to join the broadcast booth in an interesting decision. On TSN, Brian Engblom and Mike Johnson will join Beyak. Hnidy’s inclusion is very interesting as he has never broadcasted games at all nor do I believe has he ever even guested in a booth. It’s certainly a risk and all eyes will be on him. Johnson already works for TSN’s regional coverage of Montreal so it appears that he might be doing double duty and Engblom will do the same supplementing his current NBC Sports and Altitude Sports duties with his new TSN Jets job. 

Via the Winnipeg Free Press, here’s a link to the press conference.

Here’s the TSN Jets Broadcast Schedule

More info on TSN Jets including channel information and talent bios

 

Versus Adds “NBC SportsTalk” & Has A New Lineup

Yesterday, I mentioned that reports had Russ Thaler joining Versus and we now have the details behind that. Multichannel News is reporting that Versus will be the home of NBC SportsTalk weekdays from 6PM-7PM EST. The shows are an extension of the NBC Sports websites that all feature “talk” in their names. The block begins on September 8. In addition to the new SportsTalk block, NBC Sports has announced their new daily programming lineup on Versus which includes the new NHL Live as a replacement for Hockey Central. NHL Live will debut on October 10.

The new Versus/NBC Sports Network shows (EST):

• Monday 5-6 PM College Football Talk hosted by Liam McHugh with Ross Tucker and Roland Williams
• Monday 6-7 PM NBC SportsTalk / ProFootballTalk with Mike Florio
• Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday 6-7 PM NBC SportsTalk, hosted by Russ Thaler
• Thursday 10-11 PM NFL Turning Point
• Friday 6-7 PM NBC SportsTalk hosted by Russ Thaler with Mike Florio and Peter King
• Friday 7-7:30 PM CNBC Sports Biz: Game On hosted by Darren Rovell
• NHL Live will air before and after most NHL games

Over at The Washington Post, Dan Steinberg has more details on Thaler and the new shows.
Included in Steinberg’s article is this quote from Versus president Jon Miller -

“We’re not looking to break news; we’re looking to take news and analyze it and tell you how to feel about it, what it means,” Miller said. “We want a place for people to go where they know they’re going to see good, intelligent, quality sports television.”

Steinberg notes that the shows won’t be highlight shows and it’s likely that the NHL will take over the final 30 minutes of SportsTalk on Wednesdays depending on what’s going on. Essentially, these will be “talking heads” shows but they are a definite improvement to what Versus is currently airing. They also appear to be a much more serious offering compared to what the prior Comcast regime had for original programming which included the goofy and low budget shows of The Daily Line and Sports Soup. It appears that the NHL will finally get some decent lead-in programming which should help boost their ratings.