From: jjm+@andrew.cmu.edu (James J. Murawski)
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey
Subject: Re: NHL strikes TV deal with ESPN
Date: 3 Sep 92 12:05:16 GMT
Organization: Administrative Systems, Carnegie Mellon, Pittsburgh, PA


Here's the ESPN news:

On 03-Sep-92 in NHL strikes TV deal with ESPN
user 3357)                           8 writes:
>	NEW YORK (UPI) -- The National Hockey League, taking a more aggressive
>marketing role under president-elect Gil Stein, announced Wednesday
>night it had struck a conditional five-year deal with ESPN to televise
>professional hockey through the 1996-97 season.
>	The series of agreements grants ESPN exclusive national coverage of
>the NHL starting with the 1992-93 season, and the cable network has an
>option to extend the term of that domestic agreement for four more
>years. The deal also grants ESPN exclusive international television
>distribution, excluding Canada, for the next five years.
>	Both parties refused to reveal financial terms of the agreement, but
>it reportedly is worth $80 million, a bonanza compared to the one-year
>$5.5 million deal the NHL signed with SportsChannel America on the eve
>of the 1991-92 campaign.
>	The league's new TV contract calls for ESPN to televise up to 25
>regular-season games to its domestic audience this coming season and 37
>playoff games, including the entire Stanley Cup Final. The majority of
>ESPN's regular-season games will be televised on Friday nights.
>	``This is an agreement that works for everyone -- especially hockey
>fans nationwide,'' said Steve Bornstein, ESPN president and chief
>executive officer. ``We are delighted to resume season-long coverage of
>the NHL, culminating with the league's crown jewel series. Fans will be
>able to follow the NHL the ESPN way -- with important matchups, a focus
>on star players and the network's trademark studio wraparounds and
>electronic cut-ins.''
>	What the NHL has been seeking in a new TV deal since Stein took over
>for longtime president John Ziegler is a wider U.S. viewing audience,
>which SportsChannel America promised when it took over broadcasting
>hockey games four years ago but failed to achieve. Before switching to
>SportsChannel, the NHL had a deal with ESPN from 1985 to 1988. ESPN also
>showed select games from 1980 to 1982.
>	``The NHL is excited to be returning to ESPN after a four-year
>absence,'' Stein said.
>	ESPN ranks as America's largest cable network, reaching 61.4 million
>homes, 66 percent of U.S. homes with television. SportsChannel America
>reaches 20 million to 25 million homes.
>	Stein said the NHL Board of Governors approved the deal in a
>Wednesday morning conference call.
>	``I would say they're very satsified,'' he said.
>	ESPN's first telecast will be on opening night, Tuesday, Oct. 6, when
>the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Pittsburgh Penguins host the
>Philadelphia Flyers. The game will pit the league's biggest current star
>in Penguins center Mario Lemieux against Flyers rookie Eric Lindros,
>touted as the league's next superstar.
>	Despite reports that ABC, which owns ESPN, might be part of the new
>TV deal and telecast 4-6 games a year, there has been no such agreement,
>yet.
>	``We are going to work with the National Hockey League to see if that
>is possible. We have no commitment right now,'' ESPN executive vice
>president Ed Durso said.
>	Stein said the NHL and ESPN will be working together ``to effect
>major network (ABC, CBS or NBC) exposure of games during each of the
>next five seasons.''
>	Stein also said there would be ``ongoing dialogue'' between the NHL
>and SportsChannel America, to be joined by ESPN, ``that might result in
>a continued role for SportsChannel in the NHL's overall broadcast plans.
>''

====================================================================
    Jim Murawski
    Sr. Data Base Analyst               (412) 268-2650  [office]
    Administrative Systems              (412) 268-6868  [fax]
    Carnegie Mellon University          jjm+@andrew.cmu.edu
    4910 Forbes Avenue                  Office: UCC 155
    Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890
Newsgroups: rec.sport.hockey