After talking with many people involved with the TV coverage of the hockey
regional's both at the NCAA level and the RSN level it has become clear that
this was a mistake waiting to happen. My talks/emails included Jim
Marchiony (NCAA Dir. of Broadcast Services), Phil Buttafuoco (NCAA), Chris
Farrow (NCAA productions), Dennis Poppe (AD of NCAA championships), Joe
DelBalso (Empire), and Kate Kingsley (MSC), Kevin Smith (MSC). After a few
tries I was able to get everyone on the phone and had lengthy conversations
discussing the debacle that occurred. There was a clear consensus that
mistakes were made by all and that it "will" be much better next year. What
follows is my best attempt at explaining what took place and who let the
ball/puck drop.
1) The NCAA asked for bids in Jan for the rights to broadcast the
regional's. At that point in time one single station put in a bid. That
station being here in Ithaca, NY, home of Cornell. This was the reason that
no one was able to find out who had rights to broadcast the games until
hours before the games started. The NCAA was disappointed most stations
waited to see what teams were in what region before deciding to pick up the
games. They had hoped to have it figured out nationally early in the year
and only deal with the local stations when the pairings were announced.
2) During the week after bids are announced major players such as MSC,
Empire, Pass picked up the games along with 10 or so local market stations
in the teams locals. This list changed throughout the week making it
difficult to know who had what rights.
3) The NCAA hockey committee passes its own rules changing the blackout
policy from the normal 35 mile radius to 200 miles. The NCAA Dir of
Championships was himself unaware of this policy change. I talked with the
leader of the Ice Hockey committee about this policy. They feel that since
instituting this mile limit the attendance has increased dramatically. They
will not be reducing it in the near future. I asked if other factors such
as increased popularity were perhaps a cause as well and that was dismissed.
I asked why the NCAA womens B-Ball has no such policy. It was stated that
they are desperate for viewer ship. Their regional's had a fill rate of 25%
vs 85% for hockey. They need to be seen to build the sport so ESPN gets to
carry them for almost nothing and no blackout rules are in place....
4) The NCAA hockey committee decides that in addition to attendance
blackouts they will give the major networks (MSC, Empire, Pass) broadcast
rights to their traditional market only!!! This is where the breakdown
starts to happen. MSC accepts what they are told as no one outside their
area watches hockey on their station.... or that is what they think. Now
would be a good time to send Kevin Smith at MSC ([log in to unmask]) a
note to let them know what market lives outside Minn!! I asked Kate Kingsley
at the station and she gave me the same answer, that they didn't realize
they had a viewing public for hockey across the country. Empire asks for
rights to be extended, but instead they are reduced. They are only allowed
to broadcast to people who get their channel on Cable TV. This was solely
because of the Ithaca Tv pickup of the game. Thus people with Sat Dishes in
Ithaca who don't get cable could not watch their own team play... It became
clear after talking with the various TV entities at the NCAA that they don't
understand the viewing market or the TV industry in todays world. It took
several attempts before I was able to explain Sat tv's capabilities to do
blackout by zip code. They are still in a network TV mode of thinking...
They also don't understand the exclusive use of Sat Tv vs Cable when
granting rights. Most people I know have one or the other not both. In any
case trying to explain that Empire Tv could have been turned off for the
cable market and left on for the Sat. market was another bewildering idea
to them.
5) The NCAA, protecting the few thousands of potential viewers at the 10
local stations, blacks out 99.9% of the nation. This leads to several
hundreds of calls to Primestar, Dish, Directv, MSC, Empire on sat and sun
with people asking why things are blacked out. Most of these entities were
unprepared for the calls and had little if any staff around to answer the
calls. MSC and Empire did not know until game time what they had rights to
broadcast. The Satellites had no idea why the games were blackout but were
forced to do so. The NCAA forced the blackouts at the requests of the
small tv stations to protect marketshare in places they had no marketshare.
Some future hopes that were expressed. The move from competing against
basketball may open the games up to more people. The ESPN/ESPN2 channels
are in discussion for showing the games and removing the regional's from the
RSN's entirely. While opening up the playoff games to more casual viewers,
it does hurt the RSN's advertising abilities. ESPN pays almost no attention
to hockey all year but gets the final four, and even then passes it off as
an after thought. Call ESPN at (860)-585-2236 to complain to them about
that. The RSN's would show more games if they had the pot at the end of the
rainbow to offer advertisers. The NCAA wishes RSN's would bid earlier so
marketing of the games could take place. With the breakup of NCAA voting
powers each entity has more power to decide its rules. Its hoped that this
will lead to a 16 game playoff which all agree is better for the sport. It
comes down to giving each NCAA athlete the same chance to compete in a
championship, not what's best for each sport... Perhaps the longed hoped
for game of the week package can come to fruition as well. Someone needs to
step up and realize there is a large market of viewers that will never show
on MSC's or Empire's ratings reports but are loyal to the game if the powers
to be don't continue to hide it from the viewing public.
All in all its a pretty garbled mess. I was told by NCAA productions to
call 913-339-1906 next spring and see what they have planned for next years
playoff.
Lets hope we have enough info to make intelligent plans before the games
start so we all aren't watching black screens and throwing popcorn at the TV.
HOCKEY-L is for discussion of college ice hockey; send information to
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