Yesterday, the NHL and NBC announced that they were extending their national broadcast contract for an additional season. This means that the NHL on NBC will air again during the 2007-08 season.
According to the announcement, the NHL and NBC have agreed to introduce schedule flexibility for next season: “The NHL and NBC will pick from three slotted games each week and one will be the featured “Game of the Week,” while the other two will air on their local carrier.”
I guess this means that there will be no repeat of the situation that occurred this past Sunday. NBC was covering two games that began at 12:30 Eastern Time:
- Boston Bruins at Pittsburgh Penguins
- New York Rangers at New York Islanders
The Bruins-Penguins game was designated the “Game of the Week” and aired on every NBC affiliate outside of the State of New York. It was an utterly forgettable 5-0 victory for Pittsburgh, that didn’t really mean anything in the standings. The Bruins had lost three in a row and six out of their last eight coming into the game.
The Rangers-Islanders game had major playoff implications and went to overtime. The Rangers pulling out a 2-1 road victory.
NBC switched from the Bruins-Penguins to the Rangers-Islanders with five minutes remaining in regulation time. They should have made the switch after the first period, when the Penguins were already up 3-0.
Any professional sports league that expects to have viewership on a national TV package must provide schedule flexibility to the network that carries them. The NBC-NHL deal should have had this flexibility at the beginning. Good thing it’s been written into the contract now.