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The NHL is staying on main network television in the United States for at least another year. NBC will announce today an extension of its broadcast agreement with the league through the 2008-09 season.
Although NHL ratings on NBC have been modest, the partnership is viewed as advantageous to both sides. The telecasts have given the NHL a national presence on a broadcast network. NBC has received major-league content without the cost of a rights fee. The league and network have been sharing revenue and expenses.
NBC's audiences in the regular season were up 11 per cent from last year, but only when the 2.2 rating (percentage of potential households tuned in) for the Jan. 1 outdoor game in Buffalo is counted. In the advertiser friendly 18-49 men's demographic, the audiences increased a significant 33 per cent.
Last weekend, NBC earned a 1.2 overnight rating for the Philadelphia Flyers-Washington Capitals telecast on Saturday, up 33 per cent from the comparable telecast in 2007. The Sunday telecast, Detroit Red Wings-Nashville Predators, earned a 1.3, an 18-per-cent jump from last year.
Habs on CBC
Real or perceived, the CBC has an image problem related to its coverage of the Montreal Canadiens. Out of touch. A bias against le bleu, blanc et rouge. Those are the complaints.
Hockey Night in Canada commentator Don Cherry went into damage control on Monday by explaining why he favoured the Boston Bruins over Montreal in the first-round NHL series. He had coached the Bruins for five years, he noted, and during that time was involved in some epic struggles with the Habs. "I've never been neutral on anything," he added.
Last week, Scott Moore, the head of CBC Sports, wrote a piece on his blog assuring viewers the network was not anti-Canadiens.
But it's been a sometimes chilly, long-distance relationship. Play-by-play voice Bob Cole flies in from St. John's to call the games. Colour commentator Greg Millen lives in Peterborough, Ont. The host, Ron MacLean, calls Oakville, Ont., home, by way of Red Deer, Alta.
There was no Montreal presence on the telecasts, aside from P.J. Stock, who reports the out-of-town scores most nights.
After Montreal eliminated Boston on Monday, Cherry, dressed in the Bruins' colours of black and gold, described the Canadiens' win as largely due to luck. A deflection here, a bad bounce there. Across the country, you could hear Habs nation grinding its teeth.
One Globe and Mail reader felt Hockey Night focused as much or more on Canadiens assistant coach Kirk Muller, who is from Cherry's hometown of Kingston, than head coach Guy Carbonneau, a French-Canadian.
At the start of the series, MacLean wondered whether Muller would have the team sequestered at a hotel. But, of course, that decision would be Carbonneau's, not Muller's.
In the Montreal media, Pat Hickey of The Gazette has complained about Cherry's work and reprised old grievances about the CBC not airing enough Canadiens games countrywide during the regular season.
But a French-Canadian journalist we talked to yesterday said there has been little commentary, aside from Hickey's, in the Montreal newspapers about Cherry.
"Don Cherry is what he is," he said. "We understand that."
Still, it doesn't take much to upset a hockey fan or, for that matter, Hickey, who objected to Cherry "taking a shot" at the club for not adequately promoting goaltender Carey Price for rookie of the year.
Since the Canadiens will draw the largest Hockey Night audiences for as long as they're in the playoffs, the CBC should increase its Montreal presence for the second round.
Why not bring in former Habs coach Pat Burns, who provides commentary on Montreal radio, for a game or two before he joins Canada's team at the world hockey championship?
Or use the analysis of Bob Hartley, another former NHL coach. He does postgame commentary for RDS, but would probably be available to the CBC for second-intermission analysis.
It might be interesting to hear what a former Canadiens goalie has to say about Price. Viewers we talk to ask: Where did Price come from, and what's his story? Instead of a second intermission with more talk, why not a two-minute or three-minute feature on the rookie goaltender?
CBC on top
The CBC and RDS each drew its largest audience of the postseason for the seventh game of the Bruins-Habs series. The CBC, for the first time in the series, outdrew RDS, but just barely, 2.070 million viewers to 2.031 million, for for a combined national audience of 4.101 million. RDS's audience was a network record. Over the seven games, RDS averaged 1.696 million and the CBC 1.501 million.
