Re: NBC/Versus deal with College Hockey
Well, I think part of the problem may be that college hockey never really got a national audience...for the regular season. For the most part, apart from CBS College Sports/CSTV and the BTN, regular-season games have been entirely on RSNs. The only real national exposure is during the NCAAs...when casual fan interest is turning to baseball, or following with bated breath the results of March Madness. It's really difficult for someone to pick up the game, when they don't even know who's playing (and not just "Who the hell is Ferris State", but "What's their deal? What kind of hockey do they play?").
Now I'm hardly saying it's a guarantee that more regular season exposure feeds that, but it couldn't hurt. CHI and Versus are definitely banking on the possibility that "if you show it, people will watch", and that the market for regular season hockey on a national scale is virtually untapped. In other words, we don't even know that the market's not there; nobody's tried yet.
The other thing, of course, is that good ratings for ESPN are probably quite a bit higher than what Versus would consider a good rating. A hit on Versus might be a flop for ESPN.
I'm not so sure it's not a test balloon by Versus for a more NCHC-centric contract down the line. Obviously the BTN is going to get a first crack at Big Ten inventory, so Versus might be looking for the best of the rest. If a Denver-Miami or Duluth-Omaha game draws decent ratings, they might consider upping their commitment to those teams to replace games they might lose to the BTN. If they don't, target another league. If the ratings just plain suck, "Well, we tried."
Originally posted by Rover
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Now I'm hardly saying it's a guarantee that more regular season exposure feeds that, but it couldn't hurt. CHI and Versus are definitely banking on the possibility that "if you show it, people will watch", and that the market for regular season hockey on a national scale is virtually untapped. In other words, we don't even know that the market's not there; nobody's tried yet.
The other thing, of course, is that good ratings for ESPN are probably quite a bit higher than what Versus would consider a good rating. A hit on Versus might be a flop for ESPN.
Originally posted by CHFAN222
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