Saturday Night Hockey:Something to be Shared by all

Saturday tradition at my house usually involves a hockey game or two, either on the tube or in person at the arena. For us Canadians, it's almost religion. Saturday night and hockey go together like pork chops and apple sauce. I was on twitter earlier this morning (I'm on twitter almost every morning) and I came across a tweet about taking Saturday Night hockey rights from CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation). I am not sure if I should put up who put out that tweet, because perhaps I misunderstood. After all there is only so much you can say with 140 characters.

This all started with the fantastic job HBO did with the 24/7 special featuring the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Washington Capitals leading up to the Winter Classic. The special was outstanding and showed a humanistic side to the business and operations of people involved with the two NHL franchises. Unfortunately, a very popular tweeter and blogger, based in Washington, DC, found it important to say that HBO should have a weekly NHL game on their network and that CBC should be reliquished of their broadcasting of NHL hockey on Saturday nights. Here's the quote:

"The next @NHL TV contract should include an @HBO NHL Game of the week. W/ players and refs mic'd. Take Saturday night hockey way from CBC!" 

I simply replied that Saturday night hockey shouldn't be taken away from CBC, but it can certainly be shared. After all, as far I as know, only Buffalo and Detroit are the two hockey markets that get that televised on CBC in their markets. It's not like CBC is taking away the television viewing rights of NHL fans in the United States.  For those CBC games that feature American-based NHL teams, there is a listed US broadcaster of the game. That's listed on the NHL.com site.

That brings me to why would this tweeter/blogger feels that CBC isn't deserving of keeping Hockey Night in Canada? Isn't Hockey Night in Canada the original and longest lasting hockey broadcast on TV today? In fact, it's been since the radio days that CBC has hosted that show. So why would they have to have it taken away? The show's viewership is loyal, committed, and passionate about HNIC, the NHL and of course the sport itself.

Also, it's highly unlikely the NHL would 'shun' CBC from their broadcasting rights since the network does pay the league an ample amount of money to have exclusive rights on Saturdays for games involving the Canadian based teams.  I highly doubt that Mr. Bettman, as stubborn as he appears to be, would relinquish $100 million dollars of TV revenue money from one network to appease a 'maybe' south of the border. It doesn't make sense.

I am all for different broadcasters and networks having national broadcasts of NHL games, but to say that CBC should lose the rights to broadcast the NHL on a non-cable network because a cable network did a fantastic job on small special is not only ludicrous, it's bad business.

This has been A View From A Broad

Justine Galo