ESPN gives the NHL the Kiss of Death
How does Gary Bettman feel now that ESPN opted out of showing any NHL games next season? Unless the NHL gets their act together the NHL may never play another game on TV under Bettman's leadership. Last week ESPN opted out of a $60 million dollar deal with the NHL to televise its games next season.
I can't blame ESPN for their reluctance to air games after being left holding the bag this year. The owners have also said there may be no hockey next year, or the threat of using replacement players. Bettman now has a lot less exposure for his product in the U.S. The CBC in Canada still has national hockey night, but the majority of the teams are in the U.S. with a lot less national TV exposure. The NHL owners have to do one of two things to get hockey back on track.
The first thing the owners should do is fire Gary Bettman. This experiment has proven itself disasterous. Bettman may have studied in the NFL and brought some of his expertise to hockey, but he isn't doing anything to innovate the game, gain positive exposure for the sport, or make the owners more money than they did before he started as the commissioner of the NHL. If the owners balk at that idea, then they need to take the next one seriously.
Now that you have no TV coverage, start your own TV network. Instead of modeling it after the NFL Network, model it after the regional Fox Sports Network. The New NHL network will group together teams on a reigonal basis. Show the games of each team over one of five reigonal sports channels. The NHL could use old footage of the teams in each reigonal network to fill airtime. The NHL could get some commentators and come up with shows to show across all regional channels at the same time.
The NHL could also sell local/regional advertising to advertisers who want to reach specific markets and use some of the revenue to outfit every arena with cameras and digital video editing studios. The telecasts could be broadcast completely from studios inside the arenas. If they use a digital format they could sell single game access to game vidoe content over the web from each team's website. Some of the revenue could also be shared with each team in the regional network. The NHL could also make money selling the complete regional network to the cable operators one channel at a time.
With the extra revenue made from broadcast rights, and advertising, it would start to make the owners value their brands as well as maximize their revenue. The games on TV would still be subject to blackouts if they aren't sold out at the arena. Bettman and the NHL owners had better seize the opportunity before they're left begging someone to televise their games next year. I know for a fact that the NHL could easily make more that $60 million on their own series of regional hockey channels. The "All Access NHL Package" to all channels in their network will make more than that alone.
I can't blame ESPN for their reluctance to air games after being left holding the bag this year. The owners have also said there may be no hockey next year, or the threat of using replacement players. Bettman now has a lot less exposure for his product in the U.S. The CBC in Canada still has national hockey night, but the majority of the teams are in the U.S. with a lot less national TV exposure. The NHL owners have to do one of two things to get hockey back on track.
The first thing the owners should do is fire Gary Bettman. This experiment has proven itself disasterous. Bettman may have studied in the NFL and brought some of his expertise to hockey, but he isn't doing anything to innovate the game, gain positive exposure for the sport, or make the owners more money than they did before he started as the commissioner of the NHL. If the owners balk at that idea, then they need to take the next one seriously.
Now that you have no TV coverage, start your own TV network. Instead of modeling it after the NFL Network, model it after the regional Fox Sports Network. The New NHL network will group together teams on a reigonal basis. Show the games of each team over one of five reigonal sports channels. The NHL could use old footage of the teams in each reigonal network to fill airtime. The NHL could get some commentators and come up with shows to show across all regional channels at the same time.
The NHL could also sell local/regional advertising to advertisers who want to reach specific markets and use some of the revenue to outfit every arena with cameras and digital video editing studios. The telecasts could be broadcast completely from studios inside the arenas. If they use a digital format they could sell single game access to game vidoe content over the web from each team's website. Some of the revenue could also be shared with each team in the regional network. The NHL could also make money selling the complete regional network to the cable operators one channel at a time.
With the extra revenue made from broadcast rights, and advertising, it would start to make the owners value their brands as well as maximize their revenue. The games on TV would still be subject to blackouts if they aren't sold out at the arena. Bettman and the NHL owners had better seize the opportunity before they're left begging someone to televise their games next year. I know for a fact that the NHL could easily make more that $60 million on their own series of regional hockey channels. The "All Access NHL Package" to all channels in their network will make more than that alone.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home