Versus Network Needs to Answer Some Questions
VERSUS DOES NOT DELIVER
Versus Television Network formerly known as (OLN), the Outdoor Life Network, this emerge from the Outdoor Life magazine. OLN was launched in 1993 and became a major network with the contract of the National Hockey League in 2005. The OLN Canadian based network is in Toronto, Canada but the American OLN-Versus Network moved its headquarters to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
America hockey fans were forced to watch the Philadelphia Flyers and Pittsburgh Penguins game five on Tuesday night April 21, 2009. This Network broadcast every Flyer-Penguin playoff game. Versus could and maybe should be called the Flyers-Penguin network.
The Penguins beat the Flyers in game six on the National Broadcasting Company’s weekend hockey show to win the series 4 games to 2.
The National Hockey League have been unsuccessful in promoting its product properly since the season ending strike in 2004 when the NHL locked out its players. The NHL had a broadcast contract with (ESPN) The Entertainment and Sports Programming Network before the strike. When the Strike ended, ESPN retracted and ended its contract and they no longer broadcast NHL games in large part because fill in programming of Texas Hold 'Em (through the "Poker After Dark" airings) provided better ratings than hockey. ESPN Sports Center Show they give only courteous and minimal notice of the league sometimes not giving the scores of games; the scope of their hockey 'segments' lasting less than 2 minutes most times.
By contrast, in Canada during hockey season, The Sports Network (TSN) gives a comprehensive look at hockey in Canada and the U.S., making sure the entire hockey turf and all the burgeoning interests in those areas are explored. TSN's feeds of Canadian teams playing in this year's playoffs have proven to be far superior in their scope of what is happening on ice as well as giving lay fans insight that doesn't insult but invites further interest in the game. .
This has been a serious blow to the NHL. The League had acquired many new fans and viewers through the ESPN telecast. They had created a new cult culture of hockey fans. All of this is now lost and made worse by the broadcasting antics of the Versus Television Network. When you add that the NHL has had two exceptional seasons of overall performance coupled with poor promotion by Commissioner Gary Bettman.
The Versus Television Network is a very small cable network and many American and Canadians do that have this network on their cable systems.
Under the ESPN banner the average hockey fan knew they could view many different teams from the different divisions. This was not been the case when Versus became the hockey network four years ago. Buffalo, Philadelphia, Washington, Pittsburgh, New York, and Detroit have dominated their broadcasts. This is manly due to the rating spikes in these cities.
This Network have been a promotional machine for Sidney Crosby- Pittsburgh Penguins and Alex Ovechkin- Washington Capitals, the new young faces of the NHL. This Network ignores many other NHL stars in the League.
The question remains, what about the brothers playing for the New Jersey Devils, or their star goalie Martin Brodeur? What about the San Jose Sharks? Players like the Devils, Bryce Salvador, Johnny Oduya, and Kevin Weekes, or Setaguchi, Jonathan Cheechoo, Mike Grier of the Western Conference Champion and President’s Trophy winner, San Jose Sharks. Many hockey fans want to see these players and cannot.
What about airing the great battle between brothers Jarome Iginla of the Calgary Flames and Dustin Byfunglien of the Chicago Black Hawks, the list is endless.
The Versus Network got very lucky this week broadcasting three of the four seventh games Monday and Tuesday nights, in Calgary, Anaheim, and Washington. The New Jersey Devils will be out of their broadcasting plans. It is also the seventh game of the Jersey Devils- North Carolina Hurricanes series in Newark, New Jersey.
The Versus network continues to broadcast primarily American teams and northeast teams omitting the seven Canadian teams out, thus hockey viewers never get to see the great teams north of the Canadian-American boarder.
Hockey Fans missed New Jersey goalie Martin Brodeur’s career record for victories (552) three weeks ago because they (Versus) happened to be in Philadelphia. Brodeur now has 557 victories and counting.
Versus missed all star goalie Martin Brodeur tying Patrick Roy’s playoff Shutout record 23 on Thursday April 23, 2009 because they were in Philadelphia again.
Martin Brodeur is only two career shutouts away from Terry Sawchuck’s record of 109. Will the Versus Network miss this record too because they will be broadcasting a game in Buffalo, Philadelphia, Washington, New York, Pittsburgh or Detroit next year?
The Versus Network missed the Columbus Blue Jackets making their first playoff appearance. They also missed the Blue Jackets first home Stanley Cup playoff game because they assumed that it would be a competitive mis-match. The Versus administration may have been right about the Detroit Red Wings beating Columbus 5-1 but the second game the Blue Jackets gave the Red Army a barn burner and a heart stopper. Yes, the Wings won again but the Blue Jackets made Detroit play a complete game.
The Wings ended the series with a 5-4 victory. The Wings scored the winning goal with a minute left to go in the third period. Many Hockey fans wanted to see the Columbus crowd cheering their be-loved team in Blue Jack City; they wanted to see the new Arena in Ohio.
These are all historic moments and the hockey viewing public should have been able to be a part of it. Apparently the NHL, Versus, and the NBC, must not want to join the party.
If the Versus Network is the new hockey station then the Versus Network should broadcast the best game or historic game of the week. This is how you garner new fans and reward older fans for their loyalty.
Apparently this is not being done currently and the NHL has suffered with a drop in the viewing rating outside of the Versus Network targeted area.
Take note the VERSUS NETWORK and NBC there are other teams in the league besides Washington Philly, Pitts, Det, and the New York Rangers,
The NHL, NBC, and Versus networks have some questions that need to be answered.
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Comments
I also agree with you and mr southerneagle on this subject. I was in a great position to see the pens, but a time ago while serving in the united states navy, I was never able to see my teams. Since then, it has been much better, but the NHL has always been the step-child of network coverage.
The game of hockey has only recieved the national coverage in the early 90's once the all star game that year( i hope that year is correct) was finally seen nation wide. with less teams from canada and the nhl expanding to area's like nashville, anaheim, san jose, it has still been a hard sell. The Tv rating the last few years are big here in pittsburgh, and washington with the top 3 points getters from this year.
they are trying to put the faces of the nhl future out there, and hoping more networks will want to carry these games.I also agree with southerneagle that the new NHL network needs to get some game coverage going. Canada does cover the teams better, but they only have 6 teams to show every saturday night during a season. But, it can still be done, i was hoping the nhl would adopt a " hockey night in canada, american style. have a different matchup or historic game or players.
Hockey is a great game, and I still believe it can be more popular, but untill then, we may have to wait to see a better collection of games seen on TV.
As a Flyers fan residing in Florida, I was actually grateful to be able to see that series (Well... at least until the 2nd period of game 6). We don't get them on television very much here as you can imagine. Part of the attraction of that series was that you had the two best teams from the East a year ago matched up in an opening round clash. Still, I understand the point you're making and the frustration that you've felt thus far with not being able to see other games. I've experienced similar frustration myself in regards to the NBA playoff coverage on TNT. We haven't been able to get Sixers-Magic games here (blacked out locally) as they only seem to show the Celtics-Bulls series (great series btw). TNT actually spared me of having to watch that pathetic performance by Philly tonight but I will write about that in a forum post. These networks are like any other business trying to maximize their profit margin. The NHL is responsible for and does need to improve it's marketing efforts. They could use another network to televise games and help to balance things out. Maybe the NHL Network channel will come into play in the future.