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Written by Maury Brown
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Thursday, 05 June 2008 15:02 |
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 Henrik Zetterberg had an assist and scored a goal as the Detroit Red Wings held off a late charging Pittsburgh Penguins to claim their fourth Stanley Cup championship in 11 seasons last night, taking the series 4-2.
For his contributions over the series, Zetterberg was awarded the Conn Smythe trophy. Red Wings players, coaches and staff will participate in a parade to celebrate the 2008 Stanley Cup Championship on Friday, June 6, 2008, starting at 11:00 a.m. The parade will end with a celebration rally at Hart Plaza. Details of the parade route will be released later today. The series was deemed a “dream match-up†due to the talent laden teams, including having Sidney Crosby on the ice, which impacted viewership. It also highlighted US markets with a strong history in the NHL, pitting Hockeytown against Pittsburgh. Ratings for the playoffs and the Stanley Cup were all up from last year’s figures, a possible sign that the game is holding interest with more casual fans. Game 6 ratings figures have not yet been released, but NBC earned a 3.8 overnight rating and a 7 share for Game 5, the best overnight rating for a Stanley Cup Final Game 5 in six years, and the best for an NHL game on NBC since NBC reacquired the NHL in 2004. The average of 6.2 million viewers made it the most-watched Stanley Cup Final game since Game 5 in 2002 between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Red Wings (6.8 million). NBC also saw a 2.8/5 overnight Nielsen rating compared to 1.5/3 for last year's Game 3, an increase of 86.7%. from the year prior. Games 1 and 2 were aired on Comcast’s VERSUS garnering high marks for the cable network. Game 1 drew a 1.8 rating in the U.S. with over 2.3 million viewers according to Nielsen Media Research. The game also marked the highest rated NHL broadcast ever for the VERSUS channel, surpassing the Penguins’ 4-2 victory in Game 2 of this year’s Eastern Conference finals. VERSUS also garnered a 1.9 national rating and 2,537,560 total viewers for its Game 2 telecast of the 2008 Stanley Cup Final Monday, making it the most-watched program in network history. The increased interest has allowed for deals to be brokered that bode well for the NHL as the 2007-2008 season draws to a close. The six-year broadcast and digital-rights deal with TSN, and renewal of the pouring rights deal with Anheuser-Busch for Bud Light as the Official Beer of the NHL are but two deals that occurred over the last few days. Questions remain about the future with some franchises. Jim Balsillie continues to explore possible options for purchasing a team and moving them to Hamilton, Ontario. There have also been questions regarding the ownership structure of Predators and the impending launch of the Continental Hockey League; all questions for the off-season. But, for now, the NHL will surely be happy about how the past season transpired. Eyes can now be focused on where the next Outdoor Winter Classic will be held and riding the wave that was the 2007-2008 NHL season.
OTHER NEWS ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK
Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network. |
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Written by Maury Brown
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 22:13 |
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 After Monday night’s triple-overtime thriller during Stanley Cup Final Game 5 between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Detroit Red Wings, on Tuesday National Hockey League (NHL) fans consumed more streaming video at NHL.com than any other single day in the history of the site.
On Tuesday, fans flocking to the NHL Network Online, and tuning to the Game Highlights Channel presented by Verizon Wireless, consumed 50 percent more streaming video than NHL.com’s previous daily record. The achievement is particularly notable because the amount of highlight video consumed in the wake of Game 5 eclipsed nights when the NHL has had 15 games being played across North America. Â
On Tuesday, the Game Highlights Channel presented by Verizon Wireless saw a record number of visitors and concurrent users.
“The NHL has made digital a central platform for activating avid fans and scaling the business, and video is the key part of that strategy,†said John Collins, NHL Senior Executive Vice President of Business and Media. “As a League, we’re demonstrating in record numbers the ability to deliver a large audience, both to traditional media as well as New Media platforms that are widely consumed by the most appealing demographics.â€
The achievement comes on the heels of the news that NBC earned a 3.8 overnight rating and a 7 share for Game 5, the best overnight rating for a Stanley Cup Final Game 5 in six years, and the best for an NHL game on NBC since NBC reacquired the NHL in 2004. The average of 6.2 million viewers made it the most-watched Stanley Cup Final game since Game 5 in 2002 between the Carolina Hurricanes and the Red Wings (6.8 million).
Source: The National Hockey League
OTHER NEWS ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK
Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network. |
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Written by Maury Brown
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 21:59 |
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 The National Hockey League (NHL) announced today it has reached an agreement with Anheuser-Busch, Inc. for Bud Light to remain the Official Beer of the NHL through the 2010-11 season.
Simultaneous renewals with Anheuser-Busch and Labatt, which markets and distributes Bud Light in Canada, gives the brand category exclusivity and a brand presence in-game and at retail across North America.
Bud Light has been the Official Beer Sponsor of the NHL since 1998 and, at the local level, sponsors 21 of the League’s 24 U.S. teams. In addition to remaining the official and exclusive beer sponsor of the NHL All-Star Game, Bud Light gains the same distinction for the NHL Winter Classic, as well as the opportunity to offer a consumer promotion involving the Stanley Cup.
The combination of local support with activation across the NHL’s comprehensive portfolio of marketing and media assets creates great opportunities for both brands.
“The NHL’s expanded partnership with Bud Light validates our strategy to successfully activate avid fans across a portfolio of media and marketing assets,†said John Collins, the NHL’s Senior Executive Vice President of Business and Media. “Renewing and expanding our relationship with Bud Light aligns us with a premier North American brand in a key sports marketing category.â€
“The NHL continues to put out a great product year after year and is doing a fine job of using new marketing platforms to connect with its fans,†said Tony Ponturo, Vice President of Global Media and Sports Marketing, Anheuser-Busch, Inc. “This is especially true of the digital space, which is a shared point of emphasis for Bud Light.â€
Source: The National Hockey League
OTHER NEWS ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK
Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network. |
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Written by Maury Brown
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 05:09 |
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 TSN and the NHL have agreed to a new six-year broadcast and digital rights deal that provides the NHL on TSN with more coverage of Canadian teams than ever before, it was announced today by NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly and Rick Brace, President, Revenue, Business Planning and Sports, CTV Inc. The agreement commences with the 2008-09 season and runs through 2013-14.
Reportedly, the deal is worth approx. $100 million, with TSN’s rights fees possibly half that. “This landmark agreement provides TSN with its strongest NHL package ever. Giving Canadian hockey fans more coverage of their teams has always been a top priority for TSN and this new deal delivers with greater access to Canadian teams and expanded hockey coverage on the digital platforms,†said Brace. “The deal underscores TSN’s valued partnership with the NHL and we look forward to reaching new audiences and achieving new milestones with our all-encompassing NHL programming.†"TSN does an outstanding job of capturing all aspects of NHL hockey, and we are extremely pleased that our fans in Canada can look forward to six more seasons of creative, innovative and passionate NHL coverage," said Daly. Under terms of the deal, TSN secures exclusive Canadian specialty television rights for national English-language broadcast and digital coverage of NHL games. Details of the agreement are as follows:  - TSN will televise 70 regular-season games annually; for the first time, all games will feature at least one Canadian team
- TSN will televise the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, with the possibility of featuring a Canadian team in the Conference Quarter-Finals; marks the first time TSN would have coverage of a Canadian team in the post-season
- Vast majority of games will be in High Definition on TSN HD
- Suite of digital rights for TSN telecasts includes broadband, wireless and video-on-demand
- Continued exclusivity of Wednesday Night Hockey, in which there are no other national or local telecasts
- Continued exclusive Canadian coverage of the NHL Entry Draft and NHL Draft Lottery Special
- Under the current television deal set to expire at the end of the season TSN only showed playoff games in the U.S.
- Headlining TSN’s increased Canadian team coverage is the Toronto Maple Leafs with 17 appearances annually, followed by Montreal with 15, and 10 appearances each for Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton and Ottawa.
TSN’s relationship with the National Hockey League dates back to 1987.  Since then, TSN has aggressively worked to grow its NHL telecasts to marquee status. In fact, audience levels have increased 32% in the last five seasons, going from 311,000 viewers in 2002-03 to a season-ending national average audience of 410,000 viewers in 2007-08 (2+). Audience levels have also increased 30% over the past five seasons in the key A25-54 demo coveted by advertisers. TSN has continually reached and surpassed audience levels previously attained only on conventional networks, with the crowning moment occurring on opening night of the 2005-06 season when a record 2.1 million viewers tuned in to TSN’s Senators-Maple Leafs telecast. It was the largest audience ever for an NHL on TSN telecast. TSN previously owned the NHL national package from 1987-88 to 1997-98 and from 2002-03 to 2007-08. Under the current expiring agreement, TSN owned the broadcast rights to 70 regular-season games annually and the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Source: The National Hockey League, The Globe and MailÂ
OTHER NEWS ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK
Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network. |
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Written by Maury Brown
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Wednesday, 04 June 2008 02:57 |
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Last night's Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final, a game on NBC earned a 4.3 overnight rating and an 8 share (8 p.m.-12:45 a.m. ET), the best overnight rating for a Stanley Cup Final Game 5 in six years (2002 - Carolina-Detroit, 4.5/8) and the best for an NHL game on NBC since NBC reacquired the NHL in 2004. The rating, which peaked at a 5.8/10 from 11-11:30, was up 79 percent over last year's Game 5 on NBC (Anaheim-Ottawa, 2.4/4). Also, NBC's Saturday night Game 4 coverage captured the night in Adults 18-49, the first primetime victory for the NHL in seven years (see below). The Pittsburgh Penguins 4-3 triple overtime “instant classic†victory over the Detroit Red Wings delivered a 35.4/52 in Pittsburgh and a 29.6/46 in Detroit. Pittsburgh's Petr Sykora scored the winning goal at 9:57 of the third overtime period after forecasting his goal in the second overtime to NBC's Inside-the-Glass reporter Pierre McGuire, who was stationed between the teams' benches. McGuire reported on the air: "Usually you don't have people tell you they're going to score in overtime, they just go out and do it. Petr Sykora just tapped the glass, pointed to his chest and said 'I'm going to score.'" The game was the fifth-longest Stanley Cup Final game in history going 109:57 The Game 5 ratings bonanza came on the heels of Saturday night's Game 4, which earned a 2.3/5 national rating, up 21 percent over last year (Anaheim-Ottawa, Monday, June 4, 1.9/3). NBC ranked No. 1 in primetime on Saturday in Adults 18-49, Adults 18-34 and all key adult-male demographics. This marks the first time Stanley Cup coverage has scored a primetime win since Saturday, June 9, 2001 (Stanley Cup Final Game 7, Colorado-New Jersey). The two-game average of a 2.4/4 is 60 percent higher than last year (1.5/3). In the coveted Men 18-49 demo, NBC has scored 109 percent higher than the first two games of last year's Final, 2.3 to 1.1. NBC Sports is broadcasting Games 3-7 of the Stanley Cup Final in primetime. Coverage resumes with Game 6 tomorrow night at 8 p.m. ET in Pittsburgh, with the Red Wings leading the series 3-2. "We're going to a Game 7," said NBC's McGuire. "The Penguins have all the momentum, the crowd's going to be nuts and I can't see them not coming up with anything but their best effort of the Final." Source: National Hockey League
OTHER NEWS ACROSS THE BUSINESS OF SPORTS NETWORK
Maury Brown is the Founder and President of the Business of Sports Network, which includes The Biz of Baseball, The Biz of Football, The Biz of Basketball and The Biz of Hockey. He is contributor to Baseball Prospectus, and is available as a freelance writer. Brown's full bio is here. He looks forward to your comments via email and can be contacted through the Business of Sports Network. |
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Written by Peter Morrison
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Monday, 02 June 2008 04:35 |
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 With the victory of the Russian National Team at the World Ice Hockey Championships this month, much has been said about the resurgence of the sport in Russia. While the NHL is full of young Russian stars like Alexander Ovechkin, Evgeni Malkin, and Ilya Kovulchuk, it has been the new league set to begin this year in Russia and three other former Soviet Republics, known as the Continental Hockey League (KHL), which has also received a great deal of press.
The attention given to the league is largely the result of the ambitious people running it, who openly state that their intentions are to create a rival to the NHL. Alexander Medvedev, deputy CEO of the state run gas giant Gazprom, Vladislav Tretiak, President of the Russian Hockey Federation, and Slava Fetisov, the Russian Sports Minister are just a few of the prominent men involved with the league. In addition to Gazprom, which controls 16% of the world’s gas reserves and have promised sponsorship of $100 million a year, several other major state run companies are contributing money to the league including insurance companies Ingosstrakh, banks VTB Group and Vnesheconombank, and oil pipeline monopoly OAO Transneft. With big money and influential people involved in the project, there is huge excitement for the league which is set to kick off this September. The League has goals of bringing the top players in the world, with rumors that stars like Jaromir Jagr are interested, while other clubs have expressed interest in signing Ovechkin (and giving him a huge pay raise) if contract talks in the NHL fall through. The KHL also has talked of expanding to create a ‘Super League’ throughout Europe. But despite all the press and the big goals, the question remains, is this league a genuine threat to North American hockey or just hype which will soon fade away? This report will look at Ice Hockey in and sports in general in Russia, to see what chance this league has for success. Collapse and Revival of Russian Ice Hockey
Having won seven gold medals and 22 World Championships, for many years the Soviet Union was without doubt the major force in International Ice Hockey, with players on the famed Red Army team such as Fetisov, Tretiak, and Valery Kharlamov who became household names for hockey fans around the world. But with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the hockey structure, like many other areas in Russia, quickly fell apart. Mass departures of talented Russian hockey players followed, as they sought fortunes in the NHL, as well as other parts of Europe. The opportunities to make a fortune in the West combined with the terrible financial situation made it nearly impossible for Russian clubs to hold onto their players. By 1995, the average player in the Russian league was only making $1000 a month, while during the same year the average NHL player was earning approximately $750,000 a year. In this situation, many teams were forced to sell their young players just to get the transfer compensation from the NHL, which at the time was about $150,000 per player. Pretty soon, development programs fell apart. Dynamo Moscow, one top Russian club, provided free training to everyone during Soviet times, but in the 1990’s they could no longer provide equipment or skates, meaning that children from the lower classes were often excluded from participating. However, over the years, hockey in Russia slowly began to improve. Largely thanks to the patronage of politicians or businessmen some clubs began to pay higher salaries and keep more of their talent. By the turn of the century, players were often paid around $25,000 a season, but just a few years later, top players were earning hundreds of thousands of dollars a year. Select Read More to see details on this original article on Russian hockey, and the upcoming Continental Hockey League |
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