Friday, August 26, 2005

OLN Not To Have An EXCLUSIVE NHL NIGHT

(From Sports Business Daily)

In LOS ANGELES, LARRY STEWART reports OLN "WILL NOT HAVE AN EXCLUSIVE NIGHT" as part of its NHL NATIONAL TV DEAL until the 2006-2007 SEASON.

2 comments:

JB said...

LABAY,
What does this mean, that coverage is not guaranteed? any insight helpful,

NHL fan (still)

-JB

RLabay said...

JB,

Not having an EXCLUSIVE or NATIONAL night for a sporting event in TV means that another REGIONAL SPORTS NETWORK (RSN) can air the same game locally.

For instance with baseball on ESPN, SUNDAY NIGHT BASEBALL is A FULL NATIONAL GAME every Sunday. If the match up is YANKEES/RED SOX, you'll ONLY see the game on ESPN (not YES or NESN -- The Yankees and Red Sox's RSNs).

However, if that game happens on say a Wednesday or Thursday evening and ESPN is televising the game, it's NOT AN EXCLUSIVE NIGHT. So, if you're in the Boston area, you'll see the game on NESN; in the New York area, you'll see the game on YES; and anywhere else in the country, it's on ESPN.

OLN's NHL deals does NOT allow for any kind of EXCLUSIVE NIGHT of NHL until 2006-2007.

Under the terms of the old NHL deal, ESPN had exclusivity on NHL games on certain nights of the week (I believe it was Thursdays).

Does that help?

Rob