On 30 Sep 2003 at 15:00, Deron Treadwell wrote:

> Hockey East will be back on NESN this year.  That's the good news.
> The other good news is the championship game will be live for the
> first time in two years.
>
> Bad news, the package still does not begin until January and seems to
> be similar in number of games to recent Fox Sports New England deals.
>
> Overall, it has to be an improvement.
>
> http://www.hockeyeastonline.com/presarch/0903/sep30ne.html
>
>

There is actually more good news, as all nine Hockey East teams will
be televised at least once.  Even more, the nine telecasts will be
broadcast from eight of the nine Hockey East rinks, with only New
Hampshire not playing host for a NESN game (BC will have 2 games
broadcast from Conte Forum).  The big four, BU, BC, UNH and Maine,
still get the most appearances with three each, but PC, UML,
Merrimack and Massachusetts get one each from there home rinks.
NU is the lone team to have two games broadcast, one from Matthews
and one on the road.  So NESN will showcase both the HE teams and
rinks.

The NESN games will also all be broadcast on Friday night at 7pm,
making it easy for viewers to find the broadcasts.  This probably made
it easier for the individual teams to make deals, as only the Friday
games after the new years were off limits.  New Hampshire has a 12-
game schedule (11on NHPTV and 1 on WMUR), while Maine and BU
have 8-game schedules (on WABI and FSNE, respectively).

It also appears that Northeastern has been able to make a TV deal with
Comcast as they will have 2 home games broadcast, vs. UNH 21
November and vs. BC 3 January.  The big surprise is the long rumored
BC television deal has yet to materialize.

The only possible downside to the deal is that NESN has committed to
broadcast only one quarterfinal game, but has left open the option to
televise more.  FSNE televised at least 2 and several times 3
quarterfinal games.

Sean

Sean Pickett            E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Go Terriers             Beanpot Champions