Brian Morris writes:
> Is the NC$$ brain dead (kind of a rhetorical question.)  Why are they trying to
> emulate the brilliant strategy of the NHL, which took its TV from a primary
> national cable outlet (ESPN) to a secondary/regional network (Sportschannel)?
> The NHL succeeded in destroying a good piece of its national audience--and they
> wondered why no one in the Sun Belt cared about their product? ;-)The problem
> is not the broadcaster, it's their schedule.  Mike M's suggestion of a Friday
> night/Sunday afternoon tournament avoids going head to head with the men's
> basketball Final Four.  I would doubt that PRIME has significant national
> cable penetration.
 
In the SF Bay area, there is only one very small cable system on the
peninsula that carries Prime feeds on a channel called Pacific Network
(PN).  The local Sportschannel outlet is heavily into the pro teams:
SJ Sharks, GS Warriors, SF Giants and Oak A's, so it is unlikely that
they would pick up a feed of college hockey since there are no local
Div I hockey programs.  ESPN is on all of the local cable systems and
is not considered a premium service, so it will not cost more when the
cable systems restructure their channels in the future.
 
I think the best cable outlet for college hockey is ESPN.  They already
carry the Final Two game (is that OK to say?, or has BBall copyrighted
all the Final N combinations ;-), and they have wide national
exposure.  The problem is that some of the leagues have cut their own
deals for TV coverage with other networks: HE and NESN, CCHA and
Prime.  Are the WCHA and ECAC games on a regional network?  The obvious
next step for college hockey is to get complete coverage of the league
tournaments and the regional NCAA tournament games.
 
-John Hughes
Amdahl/Advanced Systems
Fremont CA
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