What's new
By:
USCHO Fan Forum

This is a sample guest message. Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

  • The USCHO Fan Forum has migrated to a new plaform, xenForo. Most of the function of the forum should work in familiar ways. Please note that you can switch between light and dark modes by clicking on the gear icon in the upper right of the main menu bar. We are hoping that this new platform will prove to be faster and more reliable. Please feel free to explore its features.

after many years of having every regional game on a linear cable channel

H

hockeylover00

Registered User
2 of the games this year are streaming only.

ESPN News was used in years past (sometimes ESPN 2) -
Feels like regression of coverage.

other than the obvious (money) anyone here hear a reason why these 5:30 PM ET games are not being "televised"?
 
ESPN will be televising MLB, a bigger draw than college hockey for sure, at the time. ESPN2 is televising SportsCenter and a bunch of nothing important at the time. Doesn't say much for college hockey television ratings.
 
Nobody should be surprised at this. Hockey in general and college hockey in particular have long been at or near the bottom of the ESPN pecking order.
 
Ratings for the regionals hover in the tens of thousands, with the occasional game cracking six figures. Cornhole gets higher ratings.

No, I'm not kidding. Cornhole.
 
ticapnews said:
Ratings for the regionals hover in the tens of thousands, with the occasional game cracking six figures. Cornhole gets higher ratings.

No, I'm not kidding. Cornhole.
Click to expand...
That is very sad. I don’t have much confidence in the general public’s intellectual level here in the US if that is the case.

Where is it headed? Will rock paper scissor contests be the next “sport” to bump college hockey off espn2, esp NU, etc…
 
Darius said:
ESPN will be televising MLB, a bigger draw than college hockey for sure, at the time. ESPN2 is televising SportsCenter and a bunch of nothing important at the time. Doesn't say much for college hockey television ratings.
Click to expand...
Im talking specifically about ESPN News - not mothership or the duece. - they are spending the $$ anyways to produce it, maybe its a way or pushing subscriptions
 
NCAA really needs to re-evaluate these television deals and separate out all the sports. Yes, ratings may be low, but it's also kind of the chicken or the egg thing: are they low because they are not televised/easy to find to begin with? I think there are enough sports channels out there that someone would pick up the individual sports (even swimming/diving, etc) if they were bid on separately, and NCAA could probably get near as much money, if not more, and it would ultimately help grow some of these other sports.
 
In case anyone was wondering how bad college hockey ratings are, ESPN just switched away from a playoff game going to a second overtime to a regular season SEC baseball game. (And the baseball game will get better ratings).

Also note that we are seeing the same handful of ads every commercial break because no one wants to pay for ad time.

Edit: ...and ESPN+ subscribers just lost the hockey game because apparently no one is able to switch the feeds so we're stuck with "technical difficulties"
 
Last edited:
ticapnews said:
In case anyone was wondering how bad college hockey ratings are, ESPN just switched away from a playoff game going to a second overtime to a regular season SEC baseball game. (And the baseball game will get better ratings).

Also note that we are seeing the same handful of ads every commercial break because no one wants to pay for ad time.

Edit: ...and ESPN+ subscribers just lost the hockey game because apparently no one is able to switch the feeds so we're stuck with "technical difficulties"
Click to expand...

Not really correct- They moved it to much more accessible espn2
 
ticapnews said:
In case anyone was wondering how bad college hockey ratings are, ESPN just switched away from a playoff game going to a second overtime to a regular season SEC baseball game. (And the baseball game will get better ratings).

Also note that we are seeing the same handful of ads every commercial break because no one wants to pay for ad time.

Edit: ...and ESPN+ subscribers just lost the hockey game because apparently no one is able to switch the feeds so we're stuck with "technical difficulties"
Click to expand...
Ratings for hockey may be bad, but I don't think that's directly why they bumped/moved channels in this case - that was more done because ESPN is in bed with the SEC. They will promote all/any SEC 'thing', and any NBA related thing above anything else. ESPN has a vested interest in hyping the SEC/NBA regardless of ratings because they are locked in, and need to hype them to generate interest/create ratings and earn $$$. Other than these tournament games, they don't show any hockey, so these are 'stand-alone'/don't help them hype other product they have contracts for. If the SEC had hockey teams, they would be on.
 
LordofBrewtown said:
Ratings for hockey may be bad, but I don't think that's directly why they bumped/moved channels in this case - that was more done because ESPN is in bed with the SEC. They will promote all/any SEC 'thing', and any NBA related thing above anything else. ESPN has a vested interest in hyping the SEC/NBA regardless of ratings because they are locked in, and need to hype them to generate interest/create ratings and earn $$$. Other than these tournament games, they don't show any hockey, so these are 'stand-alone'/don't help them hype other product they have contracts for. If the SEC had hockey teams, they would be on.
Click to expand...
You are making too much of this. ESPN 2 was scheduled to cover the final game so they switched hockey to where hockey was going to be.
 
LordofBrewtown said:
NCAA really needs to re-evaluate these television deals and separate out all the sports. Yes, ratings may be low, but it's also kind of the chicken or the egg thing: are they low because they are not televised/easy to find to begin with? I think there are enough sports channels out there that someone would pick up the individual sports (even swimming/diving, etc) if they were bid on separately, and NCAA could probably get near as much money, if not more, and it would ultimately help grow some of these other sports.
Click to expand...
I don't think that'd work. The ONLY reason ESPN even shows hockey and some of the other NCAA sports is because the Football deal requires them to. Until very recently, ESPN bemoaned having to show EVERY GAME of the women's basketball tournament in order to get the football deal from the NCAA., that's now become a ratings thing for them, but I don't see college hockey getting that swing, ever.

Poker will get way more ratings than College hockey and ESPN would rather be showing it than this but, they have to as its part of the deal to get the College Football contract. If the NCAA were to split it out, we'd be lucky to get games on FloSports.
 
Last edited:
The annoying thing about games on ESPN+/streaming in general is the inability to quickly toggle between two games. This was almost an issue yesterday with MN ST/WMU in OT and Cornell/MI ST heading for OT. Cornell generously removed the need.
 
Darius said:
The annoying thing about games on ESPN+/streaming in general is the inability to quickly toggle between two games. This was almost an issue yesterday with MN ST/WMU in OT and Cornell/MI ST heading for OT. Cornell generously removed the need.
Click to expand...
That is why I put one game on the TV and stream one on my iPad. Problem solved.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top