Canucks Re-Up With Team 1040, HE Extends Deal With NESN

A couple quick media notes. Bell Media’s Team 1040 has signed an extension with the Vancouver Canucks. The extension lasts until 2016-17 and helps solidify Bell’s strength of covering the NHL on the radio in Canada. Bell also holds rights in Ottawa, Montreal and Winnipeg. While 1040 hasn’t been re-branded as TSN Radio yet, there’s a good bet that this will happen down the road, especially with this renewal in place.

Over in college hockey, one of the longest broadcasting partnerships will continue for four more seasons. Hockey East and NESN have come to an agreement which will see the net air at least 16 games per year. The deal also adds “flex” scheduling, giving NESN the right to pick the most attractive games during the last few weeks of the season. Additionally, the women’s hockey championship will get TV time. All ten HE teams will have at least one game aired on NESN.

 

Notes: NBC Confirms College Hockey Deal With ND & Oil Change Moves to Sportsnet/Citytv

In all the digging for clues over the NHL Euro rights debacle, I’ve fallen behind on a couple of other stories so let’s play catch up.

NBC OFFICIALLY ANNOUNCES IT WILL CARRY ND HOCKEY GAMES

Notre Dame made their move to Hockey East official this afternoon, and with it came confirmation that the new NBC Sports Network will be showing Notre Dame hockey beginning in 2013-14 to go along with the Irish’s move to HE. From a press conference transcript -

JOHN MILLER: I think the question is how much hockey, how much Notre Dame? The exciting thing is we’re working with Tom Nevala and the Notre Dame team as we lay that out starting the year after next.

Our hope is to get a very robust schedule on our air of Notre Dame games, and, obviously, when the opportunity arises, Hockey East games as well.

That quote is from the president of programming at Versus. I fail to see how Notre Dame hockey has earned a deal like this. While ND has improved the last 5 years or so, it is hardly an elite hockey program. NBC is promoting this the opposite of how it should be. Hockey East should be the priority, not ND hockey. Apparently the HE members were willing to take this deal if it meant they would gain some TV time and another status school in the conference.

While rumors have been swirling for months that Versus will be airing college hockey this season, that is yet to be confirmed. This is an interesting move for NBC as college hockey does not draw many viewers and even the most diehard NHL fans are often unfamiliar with it.

OIL CHANGE SET TO RETURN FOR A SECOND SEASON

The terrific documentary style series that follows the Edmonton Oilers, Oil Change, is returning for a second season beginning on October 21. The biggest change is what channel will be carrying it. The series will move from TSN to Edmonton’s Citytv and will also air throughout Canada on Sportsnet. The second season will have six episodes. The full press release and schedule can be found here. The series is also available on demand at oilers.com. Last season, the NHL Network aired the show in the United States but there is yet to be an announcement on whether they will show it this year.

 

CBS Sports Network Announces 2011-12 Hockey Schedule

CBS Sports Network has announced their college hockey broadcasting schedule for 2011-12. The broadcasting team features Matt McConnell, Eric Frede and Ben Holden doing play by play. Dave Starman and Jim Paradise will handle analyst duties while Shireen Saski returns as reporter and intermission host. The full schedule is after the jump.

 

NHLN Booted From U-verse & Other Weekend Scribbles

Here’s some scribbles and commentary to start out your weekend including some breaking news about AT&T U-verse dropping NHL Network from its lineup.

• As of this morning, AT&T has pulled the NHL Network off of their U-verse television service. AT&T has launched a website to keep fans updated over negotiations. U-verse is unique because NHLN is carried as a stand alone channel on the service. In most  of NHLN’s distribution deals, its included as part of carriage deals invloving NHL Center Ice. Because AT&T has declined to carry NHLCI, NHLN is negotiated on its own. Because of its bundling with NHLCI, I don’t think it’s likely that NHLN will see a rash of carriage battles. One thing is for sure, this is terrible timing. Just as the season begins, fans have had the rug pulled out from under them. Very few U-verse customers receive NHLN as it is carried on very high tiers. It’s likely that NHLN wants to be on a lower tier of service and much of this conflict stems from that along with an increase in carriage fees.
• In case you missed it, Rogers Sportsnet officially announced this week that they are dropping Rogers from their name as part of a re-branding effort. One of their new logos and their new tagline can be seen above. I’m not a fan of the new logo as it’s too dull for me but I’m looking forward to the new graphics, music and presentation as their current ones are pretty tired. The Canadian Sports Media Blog has more details on the re-branding including a video interview with Rogers Media’s Dan Bender, VP of Creative Services.
• College hockey television schedules are slowly leaking out. Hockey East and Atlantic Hockey have released their schedule of games to be aired on CBS Sports Network. HE will get 8 games on CBSSN while the net will show two Atlantic Hockey games. Whenever the full national schedules come out, I plan on putting a full schedule up on the site. The Minnesota Gophers released their TV schedule which has 32 of its 37 games televised.
• NHL On the Fly is now officially back with season previews starting to air this weekend. So far the show had only aired between games or during intermissions. We’ve seen plenty of talent on board this season with Jamie McLennan leading the way. Brad May, Mike Johnson and Kevin Weekes have also made multiple appearances. What’s interesting is who hasn’t been on the air. Kelly Chase joined the show during last season’s playoffs but he has yet to make it on this season. Larry Murphy, Craig Button and Gary Green have also been nowhere to be found even though they have been the most regular analysts for the show over the past few years. Green’s disappearance is interesting since he’s been with NHLN since its original launch in Canada in 2001. I’m not sure any of the analysts have really stood out to this point. McLennan and May still need some seasoning but they are getting better. For me, Weekes and Johnson are their strongest analysts.
• One of the few NHL Network original series to return year after year is Lord Stanley’s Summer. Its new season premieres on Monday night and I highly recommend it. One change on NHLN’s NHL Live is the addition of arena cams. They haven’t been utilized much but it wouldn’t surprise me if they also get used on OTF.
• Plenty of people have wondered what play by play man Peter Loubardias has been up to since Rogers let him go. While Loubo drew mixed reactions for his TV work, virtually everyone agrees that he’s one of the most knowledgable people about hockey and Loubo is taking advantage of that. The Pipeline reported that Loubardias has joined the Red Deer Rebels as a scout. Loubo has plenty of CHL knowledge so it seems to be a perfect fit. Good luck to him but hopefully, he’ll find himself in the booth again soon as I enjoyed his work.
• And finally, since TSN doesn’t have enough hockey contributors, they’ve added another. Yahoo! Sports writer Dmitry Chesnokov has joined TSN while staying with Yahoo! as a writer for Puck Daddy. Chesnokov is a terrific writer and he gained great notoriety for his reporting on the tragic story of the Lokomotiv plane crash. Congrats to him on his new gig.

 

3 Hockey Voices Join CBS Sports Net’s College Football Coverage

Many NHL fans have been hoping for a return of Gary Thorne. Thorne has been around the block, working for several networks but is best known as the voice of the NHL on ESPN. It appears any chances of him working hockey on a regular basis are still on hold for the time being. Thorne is joining the CBS Sports Network this season to call Army college football games. While that wouldn’t disqualify him from calling some hockey games, it appears that it won’t be likely. Thorne has called the Frozen Four for ESPN the last several years and has also called the World Junior Championships for NHL Network in the United States.

Two other personalities that are familiar to hockey fans will also be a part of CBSSN’s college football coverage. Josh Lewin who formerly called CCHA games for Fox Sports Net and has worked on some Dallas Stars broadcasts will call a couple of Navy football games while longtime ESPNer Dave Ryan will call Mountain West and Conference USA games. While Ryan worked many NHL games on ESPN, he’s perhaps best known as the voice of PBA Bowling on the network and he previously filled in on some NFL broadcasts on CBS. Lewin currently calls radio coverage of the San Diego Chargers. There hasn’t been any announcement on whether any of these announcers may show up on CBS’ extensive coverage of college hockey.

Source: CBS Press Release.

 

NHL Euro Broadcasts Still In Limbo & Some Other Notes

NHL INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTS STILL UP IN THE AIR

I’ve gotten a lot of e-mails and queries about the fate of the NHL’s international broadcasts since ESPN America lost the rights last month to Medge/AMI. Fans are anxious to see what it means for them and they have been left twisting in the wind by all parties involved. I contacted Advisors Media International and the reply was that there’s nothing new to report on the subject. So, hopefully this will be finalized soon but for now, hockey fans are still in limbo about where to find their games online and over the air across the pond.

CONSOL ENERGY CENTER STRUGGLING TO ADD NEW DEVELOPMENTS IN THE AREA

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has an article up detailing the lack of development in the neighborhoods surrounding the Consol Energy Center. The arena was expected to help revitalize the Hill District but that spin-off has been slow to occur. Currently, a TGI Friday’s and Cambia Suites hotel are the only major new developments in the area and the Cambria is struggling to fill up rooms outside of Penguins game nights. Adding to the slow down in the area is the future of the former Mellon Arena. A preservation group has sued to prevent the demolition of the iconic building leaving the site and it’s future prospects in question. All is not lost for the new arena as the city is seeing a boost in arena tax revenue and more events have been booked. I can also say that the area looks much cleaner than it did in the past. Previously, the area around the Igloo wasn’t very inviting and was pretty depressing.

MORE ON COLLEGE HOCKEY

A few weeks ago, I did a post on the instability that college hockey is currently facing. Since then, there has been more talk about conferences merging and possible future broadcasting deals. The Boston Globe’s Fluto Shinzawa is the latest to touch on the subject with an article featuring Paul Kelly of College Hockey, Inc. Kelly has some pointed comments in the story including this -

“As much as the CHL denies it, there are still instances where money is being paid to the family to lure kids away and de-commit from colleges,’’ Kelly said. “It’s off the books, under the table, whatever you want to call it. If your dad is a fisherman, an out-of-work machinist, or a farmer, and a CHL program comes along and offers you $300,000 in cash, it’s tough for these families not to accept that type of proposal.’’

Perhaps it’s time for the NCAA to change its rules and allow CHL players to come back to the States. I believe that the NCAA would gain a decent amount of talent with that move.

SPORTSNET MAGAZINE GETS READY TO LAUNCH

Rogers Media’s new Sportsnet Magazine will hit newsstands at the end on September and some more details are leaking out about it. The Toronto Star’s Raju Mudhar has an article about the launch and mentions what Rogers’ plans are for it. One interesting note in the article is that longtime sports journalist Gare Joyce has joined the publication. Joyce has been doing work with ESPN.com focusing on NHL prospects and the draft. The article also mentions that the magazine has plucked some people from The Hockey News but no names are listed.

 

College Hockey’s Instability

The folks at College Hockey, Inc. are dealing with plenty of issues. CHI’s job is to market NCAA ice hockey and for the most part, it has succeeded. Since the quasi-lobbying group’s founding, college hockey has seen growth in virtually all facets. Even with that, college hockey is now at a crossroads. The folks at the Big Ten have decided to start their own hockey conference, and while on paper, that’s a good thing, especially for TV purposes, it’s also leading to an upheaval of several conferences and that instability may be sending players to the Canadian Hockey League just as college hockey is on the brink of signing a major broadcast deal with Versus.