NHL 2021: I Pledge Allegiance to Gritty

[Kepler]

ESPN has been rumored to want it back

Oh god, no.

NBC is so much better than ESPN was. The only thing worse than the N on ESPN is college hockey on ESPN.

F-ck it, give it to RT. At least they understand the game.

[Kepler]

ESPN has been rumored to want it back, and Buccigross has been dropping a lot of hints on Twitter.

So ESPN will have NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, NCAA everything, three tennis majors, and basically every non PL soccer league.

NBC will have NFL, Notre Dame football, Premier League, NASCAR, horse racing, golf, and the French Open.

With NBCSN going teats up, where does that put EPL? On their other pilot fish (CNBC, MSNBC)? On Peacock?

[Spartanforlife4]

With NBCSN going teats up, where does that put EPL? On their other pilot fish (CNBC, MSNBC)? On Peacock?

Rumors are that EPL is going to Peacock. NASCAR races that would normally be on NBCSN will be on USA. Everything else only airs on NBC so there wouldn't be a change.

If NBC gets the NHL again, it would likely follow the same format as NASCAR, but I would guess some stuff would end up on Peacock as well.

[Jimjamesak]

Rumors are that EPL is going to Peacock. NASCAR races that would normally be on NBCSN will be on USA. Everything else only airs on NBC so there wouldn't be a change.

If NBC gets the NHL again, it would likely follow the same format as NASCAR, but I would guess some stuff would end up on Peacock as well.

Yeah, NBC has already been moving EPL games to Peacock this season (Man U v Liverpool was a Peacock only game). It may be a move by NBC to force Cable Companies to add Peacock as part of their digital service.

[Jimjamesak]

ESPN has been rumored to want it back, and Buccigross has been dropping a lot of hints on Twitter.

So ESPN will have NFL, NBA, NHL, MLB, NCAA everything, three tennis majors, and basically every non PL soccer league.

NBC will have NFL, Notre Dame football, Premier League, NASCAR, horse racing, golf, and the French Open.

If the NHL was smart they'd go the MLS route: dump the local TV contracts and sell a streaming package along with the National TV rights.

But NHL and smart have never been in the same sentence...

[Kepler]

If the NHL was smart

[aparch]

If the NHL was smart they'd go the MLS route: dump the local TV contracts and sell a streaming package along with the National TV rights.

HuluTV (nee Disney) and YouTubeTV have unceremoniously dumped the Sinclair owned Fox Sports regionals from their services. And there is rumors that Sinclair wants to ditch the providers and offer the regional networks "straight to consumers via streaming," which likely won't fly with the NHL, NBA, and MLB.

And... some of the major pro sports teams had contracts ending with the regional networks and are looking at alternatives themselves.

[Jimjamesak]

HuluTV (nee Disney) and YouTubeTV have unceremoniously dumped the Sinclair owned Fox Sports regionals from their services. And there is rumors that Sinclair wants to ditch the providers and offer the regional networks "straight to consumers via streaming," which likely won't fly with the NHL, NBA, and MLB.

And... some of the major pro sports teams had contracts ending with the regional networks and are looking at alternatives themselves.

Yeah, MLS told teams not to sign local TV contracts past the expiration of the national TV deal and are expected to bundle in the local rights to either ESPN or Turner as a streaming deal.

With cord cutting the RSN's are going to be hurt big time. People can get around blackout restrictions somewhat easily these days.

[Slap Shot]

The Wild haven't been explosive offensively (especially on the PP) but I'll take a 4-1 start anytime. The schedule hasn't been that difficult yet though so not expecting them to run away with anything.

[state of hockey]

The Wild haven't been explosive offensively (especially on the PP) but I'll take a 4-1 start anytime. The schedule hasn't been that difficult yet though so not expecting them to run away with anything.

Just gotta mediocre their way to 4th in the division. I think they could do that. The California teams are awful. Pretty much between us and St. Louis for that fourth spot. Phoenix might cause problems, time will tell.

[MichVandal]

Oh god, no.

NBC is so much better than ESPN was. The only thing worse than the N on ESPN is college hockey on ESPN.

F-ck it, give it to RT. At least they understand the game.

Ignoring the problem of broadcasters (which I do think they will get some of NBC's out of necessity), like you, I wonder if ESPN will be helpful. Unlike you, I do think it will help.

Sports Center has become mostly unwatchable during the winter because the NBA, right? They promote the heck out of it because they broadcast it and owe the NBA TONS of $1000 bills. Adding even poorly broadcasted NHL games will at least expand their news coverage of it by a huge amount. NBCSN nor CBSSports do not have anything like SC. And having a real sport replace BS sports like poker and whatnot will increase ESPN's eyes overall.

To the broadcasts- if they have more than one game going on during one evening, they will be forced to add people. Which will dilute the Butchy "twisted wrister" problem. I'm sure ESPN will try to force FB and other people to try to talk through it- but the color people will have to be hockey people.

NBCSN has no money, and no real prospects anymore to expand. Especially with FoxSports being forced to merge with ESPN (I think that's still in the works).

[Kepler]

Sports Center has become mostly unwatchable during the winter because the NBA, right?

I stopped watching SportsCenter when Keith left. I'm not even joking, that must be 25 years now.

[Spartanforlife4]

Ignoring the problem of broadcasters (which I do think they will get some of NBC's out of necessity), like you, I wonder if ESPN will be helpful. Unlike you, I do think it will help.

Sports Center has become mostly unwatchable during the winter because the NBA, right? They promote the heck out of it because they broadcast it and owe the NBA TONS of $1000 bills. Adding even poorly broadcasted NHL games will at least expand their news coverage of it by a huge amount. NBCSN nor CBSSports do not have anything like SC. And having a real sport replace BS sports like poker and whatnot will increase ESPN's eyes overall.

To the broadcasts- if they have more than one game going on during one evening, they will be forced to add people. Which will dilute the Butchy "twisted wrister" problem. I'm sure ESPN will try to force FB and other people to try to talk through it- but the color people will have to be hockey people.

NBCSN has no money, and no real prospects anymore to expand. Especially with FoxSports being forced to merge with ESPN (I think that's still in the works).

Fox kept FS1, FS2, and BTN for themselves in the sale. Disney was forced to sell off the Fox Sports Regionals due to antitrust concerns, so I don't believe Disney ended up with any additional sports in the merger.

Sinclair bought the FS Regionals and has owned them for at least the last year. They've started playing hardball with quite a few providers to the point that I don't believe any streaming cable (i.e. Youtube, Hulu) has them now. They're planning to rebrand them soon as "Bally Sports" named after the Atlantic City Casino. It sounds like the plan is to eventually role out an app that will have real-time gambling integration and possibly make it a stand alone streaming service.

[Kepler]

Fox kept FS1, FS2, and BTN for themselves in the sale. Disney was forced to sell off the Fox Sports Regionals due to antitrust concerns, so I don't believe Disney ended up with any additional sports in the merger.

Sinclair bought the FS Regionals and has owned them for at least the last year. They've started playing hardball with quite a few providers to the point that I don't believe any streaming cable (i.e. Youtube, Hulu) has them now. They're planning to rebrand them soon as "Bally Sports" named after the Atlantic City Casino. It sounds like the plan is to eventually role out an app that will have real-time gambling integration and possibly make it a stand alone streaming service.

They may be trying to run from the "Sinclair" name, too, as it has become synonymous with the Nazis.

[Jimjamesak]

They may be trying to run from the "Sinclair" name, too, as it has become synonymous with the Nazis.

Well, Sinclair isn’t the smartest company with their properties, being associated with nazis is just one reason.