MSG, Time Warner Fight Rages On

The New York Rangers are posting some nice ratings gains but that momentum could be coming to an end. With a carriage deadline fast approaching, MSG and Time Warner Cable do not appear to be in serious discussion. From Variety -

MSG Network and Time Warner Cable seem ready to duke it out to a bitter year-end deadline, with New York sports fans pawns in the battle between the host of the Knicks, Rangers, Sabres, Islanders and Devils and the New York area’s major cable operator.
The two sides have “not had any recent, meaningful discussions” MSG Media president Mike Bair said in a statement Wednesday; their carriage deal expires Dec. 31.

A Time Warner Cable rep said “negotiations are ongoing and we are still hopeful.” But insiders acknowledged that while the two sides talk every day, contact hasn’t been fruitful.

Losing MSG on TWC would be a big blow to the New York hockey teams as Time Warner is the dominant carrier in both New York City and Buffalo. While the Sabres are overshadowed in this battle, their ratings are among the highest in the league and this dispute has the potential to drag them down. TWC controls virtually all of Western New York so this dispute has a wide ranging impact throughout the entire state.

MSG has been urging viewers to find alternative carriers. Unfortunately, one alternative isn’t available as MSG isn’t carried on Dish Network after the two sides couldn’t come to an agreement back in October 2010. It’s likely that some Dish customers moved to TWC to get MSG and now they are again twisting in the wind. TWC claims they will not pull the plug on MSG, but you never know in these PR campaigns. Hopefully, the two sides can come up with a New Year’s miracle.

 

Thoughts On NHL Tonight and Other Stuff…

It has been awhile since I did an opinion piece in bullet form, so the time has come for one.

• The much ballyhooed NHL Tonight made its debut last night. It had its new soundtrack and modern looking intro. Besides that though, nothing really changed from NHL On The Fly: Final. It was basically a flashier version of OTF. I was concerned about that, and indeed it seems like NHLN is just trying to update its image and use the vaunted program name to grab some eyeballs.
• Now, not everything was bad about it. The show moved fast and it was updated throughout the night. Kevin Weekes and Billy Jaffe were solid as always and David Amber kept things lively. But let’s face it, fans were expecting something new, and this didn’t cut it. They did use the actual calls on some highlights and I’d still like them to do that during all game packages. But the graphics and style were stale which was a bit of a disappointment on its first night.
• The good news is that as I mentioned before, there is new programming on the way. This will be slowly rolled out and should go full speed once NHLN gets its new studios in Stamford. Their Winter Classic coverage should be interesting although I’m not a fan of then cutting off TSN’s WJC intermissions to go to Philadelphia as they plan on doing. TSN is number one and NHLN should be showcasing them, not hyping the league’s special event.
• Going back to the WJC, I thought NHLN did a decent job of covering the blowout by USA over Denmark. The new graphics looked pretty good and I’d like to see them in use during NHL games. Matt Rosen was solid although I’d prefer to see Gary Thorne or JP Dellacamera come back to the mic. I like Dave Starman, I think he’s very knowledgable and is one of the top college analysts. Rob Simpson was as good as one can be in a rather thankless reporter role. I’d still prefer TSN’s coverage but I understand the want of USA Hockey to have their own cheerleaders.
• Moving on to CBC, Canadian Sports Media Blog has the news that Nabil Karim has moved on to join TSN. This comes at a bad time for the CBC as Mike Milbury is only expected to make sporadic appearances from here on out as NBC starts ramping up their NHL coverage. CBC has been decimated with departures over the past year and this makes it worse. Karim wasn’t an essential part of the HNIC team but he was important when it comes to their digital strategy.
• Milbury’s move leaves a much larger hole, no matter how you feel about him. They could move Glenn Healy to the studio and try someone else between the benches. Both Greg Millen and Cassie Campbell have done it before. Or they can go down to two analysts as the main desk as they did before. Less chatter might be a good thing. And of course, they could go the TSN route and find themselves an ex-coach to join the network. Either way, CBC is lacking in the personnel department compared to where they stood many years ago.

 

Milbury Case Dismissed

Via The Boston Herald –

Ex-Bruin Mike Milbury will not face any charges and his case over an alleged confrontation in Brookline with a boy following a peewee hockey game earlier this month has been thrown out.

Milbury’s legal team announced this afternoon that a clerk magistrate at Brookline District Court has ruled there is not enough evidence to move ahead in the case.

Milbury addressed the media right after saying the incident was just “an unfortunate misunderstanding.”

When asked when he will be back on the air as a hockey analyst, Milbury said he was saving his voice for “Christmas caroling.”

His attorney, Mark Berthiaume, said the magistrate ruled there was no probable cause to take the next step in court.

“Mike and his family are are happy to move on,” said Berthiaume. “Mike will be returning to work on the air very, very soon.”

The parents of the alleged victim have left court refusing to speak to the press. Their attorney, John Burke, said the parents are “disappointed” in the ruling.

“They are concerned about the message this sends because they believe that their son was assaulted,” he added.

Milbury is expected to be back in usual spots on TV as a result of this decision.

 

Canada Ratings Update

Here’s an update on NHL ratings from Canada. These BBM ratings are sourced from The Remote Control Blog and BBM Canada.

SATURDAY DECEMBER 10, 2011

CBC 1 PM Montreal @ New Jersey 573,000
RDS 1 PM Montreal @ New Jersey 727,000
CBC 7 PM Regional (Van/Ott,Wpg/Det) 1,592,000
CBC 10 PM Calgary @ Edmonton 1,136,000

TUESDAY DECEMBER 13, 2011

Sportsnet Ontario Carolina @ Toronto 746,000

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 14, 2011

TSN Boston @ Ottawa 519,000

THURSDAY DECEMBER 15, 2011

TSN Philadelphia @ Montreal 548,000

SATURDAY DECEMBER 17, 2011

CBC 7 PM Regional (Van@Tor, Ana@Wpg, NJ@Mtl) 2,382,000
CBC 10 PM Edmonton @ San Jose 797,000

 

Davis Payne Joins TSN For World Juniors

TSN is hyping its coverage of the World Junior Hockey Championships but there’s something more interesting in the release –

TSN’s coverage of the 2012 IIHF WORLD JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIP features James Duthie live on location in Edmonton and Calgary to host pre- and post-game shows – as well as intermissions – alongside Hockey Insider and leading junior hockey expert Bob McKenzie.

TSN game analyst Ray Ferraro makes his World Juniors debut this year calling all Team Canada games with play-by-play commentator Gord Miller. This marks the 10th consecutive year that Miller is in the broadcast booth for the event. Joining Miller and Ferraro is reporter Farhan Lalji, who is rinkside for Team Canada games.

Also featured in the booth are play-by-play commentator Dave Randorf and game analyst Craig Button, who call the action for other round-robin match-ups. New TSN recruit and former St. Louis Blues’ head coach Davis Payne, a native of Port Alberni, BC, provides analysis for these games from the TSN studio.

Like virtually every NHL coach that gets fired, Davis Payne has joined the TSN team. Also, it appears that Pierre McGuire will not be making any appearances on TSN unless it is a cameo of some sort. It’s hard to imagine a WJC without Pierre’s presence but I’m sure there’s plenty of people looking forward to his disappearance. A full WJC on TSN schedule and other broadcasting details can be found here.

 

24/7 & Versus Ratings

John Ourand of SportsBusiness Journal tweeted some NHL ratings today.

HBO drew 284K viewers to the first episode Wed night, which is down from last year

The decline for 24/7 is a little surprising but let’s face it, last year’s rivalry was more interesting. One thing to keep in mind is that all HBO programs see a big bump if you add in on demand and encore presentation views. For instance, last year’s first episode ended up with around 2.8 million viewers. But on its actual debut night, 24/7 only drew 383,000 viewers. The key will be for this year’s version to attract viewers from those same alternative platforms.

This year’s numbers are off from the boxing version of 24/7. Cotto/Margarito drew 618k last month but that was likely helped by being a lead in to live boxing. 24/7 usually drops if live boxing isn’t on the schedule.

Also from John Ourand -

Top NHL game on cable: Versus’ CHI-MIN match on Wed drew 540K viewers. More than 3,350 shows had a higher viewership on cable last week.

These Versus ratings are pretty solid but that’s to be expected. Both teams are good regional draws and it was a competitive matchup.

 

USA Hockey Extending Deal With NHLN

Any hope of the new NBC Sports Network picking up the World Junior Championships appears to be out the window. USA Today’s Kevin Allen reports that NHLN and USA Hockey are extending their deal

USA Hockey expected announce today it has reached agreement for NHL Network to continue broacasting its WJC games through 2018.

With that, hopefully we’ll get some news on the broadcasters for this year’s coverage.

UPDATE Here’s the official statement from USA Hockey with the broadcast schedule. Matt Rosen, Dave Starman and Rob Simpson will make up this year’s broadcast team.

 

NHL Network To Get Another New Look

NHL Network has had plenty of logos and on air looks during its short history. It is poised for its biggest change in just a few days. Just in time for the Winter Classic and NHLN-US’ coverage of the World Junior Championships, NHLN will be getting a whole new look. New idents, logos, and programs are on the way. You’ve probably seen that new logo on some promos on NHL Network. It made its first appearance online on All-Star ballots. Since then, it’s been showing up on promos promoting the WJC’s and NHL games. The full change and idents haven’t been rolled out yet, but they should make it to air shortly. In the meantime, here’s a preview, from Studio1Group’s website.

Studio 1 has been the primary developer of several NHL promotional animation and logo spots this season. They also designed the new studios at the NHL Store powered by Reebok in New York.

The new NHLN logo is pretty snazzy and is a definite improvement over the prior ones. The whole ident is very modern and it looks great. It is a real upgrade, and puts NHLN near the level of the other sports league’s network.

The new logo is great but more importantly, some new programming is also on the way. Several new Top 10 countdown styled shows are in the pipeline. Many of those have already had some sneak previews on the channel. The biggest change though is the addition of a new nightly show, NHL Tonight.

NHL Tonight will be replacing NHL On the Fly: Final Edition as of December 26. It will air at 10 PM EST and run through the night like OTF currently does. This greatly shortens OTF’s airtime as it will be down to three hours. NHL Tonight is described as this in TV guide listings -

NHL Tonight takes you around the NHL for all the latest news, scores, highlights and information at the end of every game night. Listen as players and coaches sound off in post game press conferences and the NHL Network team of analysts breakdown every game.

That doesn’t sound like much of a change from OTF but the look is drastically different. The logo above comes from a screenshot for the opening of the show. The full opening can be found on Studio1′s website. As you can see from the opening, it appears to be a big improvement from what OTF offers, at least aesthetically. It is still unknown if OTF will see some major changes when it comes to its format. Cutting its airtime could be a sign of wholesale changes. Regardless, for the first time in a long time, I’m pretty excited about the future of NHL Network. Things are finally looking up.

 

Mike Milbury Accused Of Assaulting Child

This is an interesting story, assuming it is all accurate. There’s not much info out there about it yet, so it’s hard to say what happened. From WCVB -

A former Boston Bruin and current TV analyst has been charged with assault and battery on a child.

Michael Milbury, who currently works as a hockey analyst for Versus NHL, was accused of assaulted a 12-year-old youth hockey player at the Dexter School Ice Rink in Brookline last week.
Milbury is an assistant coach of a local hockey team, and the alleged victim is a player from an opposing team.

Milbury played 12 seasons for the Bruins and was head coach for one season.

More details from the Boston Herald -

The incident allegedly occurred at the end of the Winter Classic between the Boch Blazers for whom Milbury coaches and his son plays forward vs. the Boston Junior Black Hawks. It is alleged that after Milbury’s son and a player for the Black Hawks got into a scrape on the ice, Milbury charged out onto the rink and verbally berated and grabbed and shook the 12-year-old opposing player.

 

Ratings Update

Here’s an update on NHL ratings.

These Canadian BBM ratings are sourced from The Remote Control Blog.

TUESDAY DECEMBER 6, 2011

Sportsnet Ontario New Jersey @ Toronto 789,000
Sportsnet Pacific Colorado @ Vancouver 469,000

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 7, 2011

TSN Washington @ Ottawa 525,000
TSN Carolina @ Edmonton 488,000

FRIDAY DECEMBER 9, 2011

Sportsnet Ontario Toronto @ Washington 891,000
TSN Colorado @ Edmonton 484,000

SATURDAY DECEMBER 10, 2011

CBC 1 PM Montreal @ New Jersey 573,000
CBC 7 PM Regional (Van/Ott,Wpg/Det) 1,592,000
CBC 10 PM Calgary @ Edmonton 1,136,000

All in all, the Leafs continue to be strong. CBC struggled somewhat without them and the Habs afternoon game was a bit disappointing in their numbers. The very early start likely impacted their viewership.

Now, we move on to the United States. These Nielsen ratings come from Puck The Media.

MONDAY DECEMBER 5, 2011

Phoenix @ Chicago 302,000

TUESDAY DECEMBER 6, 2011

Detroit @ St. Louis 259,000

WEDNESDAY DECEMBER 7, 2011

Philadelphia @ Buffalo 585,000

A decent week for Versus. Monday’s numbers are a little disappointing since the game was exclusive in Chicago. Phoenix likely dragged the numbers down. Tuesday’s look low but since the Wings were on FS Detroit, that severely impacted what should’ve been a very attractive matchup. However, Wednesday was, as expected, a big ratings draw. The Flyers and Sabres always draw plenty of eyeballs as proven by their strong regional ratings.