NHL, NBC extension
It’s really good for the NHL to have a presence on NBC. Period.
Sports as a whole are slowly going away from broadcast TV stations and moving on to cable. Cable shouldn’t give you the same bad vibe as it would 10 years ago. Every day, more people are watching brand new, highly rated shows on cable TV.
But that said, anytime you can be on broadcast TV, it’s better. Broadcast TV offers up a more broad audience. The hit cable TV shows Jon and Kate Plus Eight and Cake Boss work great on TCL, but wouldn’t on NBC or CBS.
I think some of the negative vibes the NHL on NBC gets is because the Peacock ignores hockey. Running promos during golf, bull riding and poker events are one thing, but I think we can count on one hand how times a player or team official appeared on Today (NBC’s morning show), one of the Late Night shows, or even one of their hit TV shows (I know, insert joke here).
I know… There have been some NHL appearances on NBC’s Monday through Friday shows, but not enough to make a significant impact.
I’m glad to see NBC and the NHL have agreed to two more years. But let’s see if NBC can boost the cross-promotional tools that are at their disposal. That will really help ratings and be great for the NHL.
If NBC truly wants more afternoon viewers for their hockey games, they HAVE to experiment with more cross promotion. Perhaps the generic NHL commercials can air at least once on the friday or saturday prior to their weekend national game. It's not just the NHL that has to assist in growing the viewing audience. The responsibility lies also with the network. They have the most to gain from it.
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