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ESPN's John Skipper: "We are doing hockey highlights."
One of the fronts where ESPN has taken the most criticism lately is their handling of hockey, and that's understandable. The network hasn't exactly given the NHL a lot of coverage in recent years, which some would say is thanks to a serious belief inside Bristol that hockey "doesn't transfer to a national discussion." Others would argue it's because they don't have NHL broadcast rights (and competitor NBC does). Regardless of which side of that debate you fall on, it's become a prominent topic of discussion in the sports media world, and ESPN president John Skipper made some fascinating comments to Sports Illustrated's Richard Deitsch on the subject this week. Here's what he had to say (page two, item #4):
He's delusional if he thinks ESPN does even a marginal job at covering the NHL or hockey in general.
Ratings are through the roof and interest in the game is growing every year, proving that the NHL doesn't need ESPN. Soon ESPN will wish it had the rights to the NHL.
Sadly, ESPN is no longer about sports broadcasting as it's tailored all of it's coverage to hype to fit it's target audience and has thus relegated itself to a marketing portal.
Last edited by The Leviathan: 02-21-2013 at 09:41 PM.
Yeah right.. I was in the Dominican Republic with no internet, just ESPN on TV, and I had to wait literally 30 minutes of SportsCenter just to see the Leafs score.. ON THE TICKER.
And then 2 min of hockey highlights the very last 5 minutes of the show.
**** ESPN. They cover the NBA religiously and feel that the NBA is king outside of the NFL. ESPN isn't news, it's marketing.
pretty much how i feel on that channel. basically you get this is espn covering espns monday night coverage of nfl on espn. that channel became crap by starting to promote espn instead of mlb,, nfl, nba, or the nhl. i swear that channel thinks that those sports couldnt continue without their coverage.
I just went to ESPN's website then to the NHL section and this is what I see
Apparently there are not any games today.
If people really want to see ESPN cover more hockey than perhaps they should go randomly click on the NHL section of the website every day. If ESPN sees their hockey stuff is getting a lot of traffic they will increase it, of course it won't happen over night but over time they would increase their hockey coverage if they thought they would make more money from it
**** ESPN. They can keep peddling their bull**** coverage. Ride the NBA, NFL long and hard. Every personality they have is a joke. I'm happy with NHL Network, NBC Sports Network
I just went to ESPN's website then to the NHL section and this is what I see
Apparently there are not any games today.
If people really want to see ESPN cover more hockey than perhaps they should go randomly click on the NHL section of the website every day. If ESPN sees their hockey stuff is getting a lot of traffic they will increase it, of course it won't happen over night but over time they would increase their hockey coverage if they thought they would make more money from it
Maybe try a browser that works, I can see all of the scores fine on chrome.
they havnt done it in a while, but i find deadspin's "bristolmetrics" articles are a pretty good indication of how much attention ESPN gives to each sport (and team).
MOST-COVERED TEAMS BY SPORT
Miami Heat (NBA): 144 minutes (36.4%)
Los Angeles Kings (NHL): 29 (7.3%)
San Francisco Giants (MLB): 11.75 (3%)
Auburn Tigers (college football): 2.25 (0.6%)
New England Patriots (NFL): 2 (0.5%)
MOST-MENTIONED SPORTS FIGURES
Rather than break down the amount of time a specific athlete or figure was covered, we counted how frequently names were mentioned in the transcripts from the week. The 15 most-mentioned sports people for June 8-14:
LeBron James: 266
Kevin Durant: 152
Dwyane Wade: 117
Chris Bosh: 95
Russell Westbrook: 54
Shane Battier: 51
Tiger Woods: 44
Martin Brodeur: 33
Matt Cain: 30
Rajon Rondo: 25
Phil Mickelson: 21
Mario Chalmers: 21
Bubba Watson: 20
Paul Pierce: 18
Erik Spoelstra: 17
CUMULATIVE STATISTICS: JAN. 7-JUNE 14
Total time: 10384.25 minutes
Time (minus commercials): 7833.75
they havnt done it in a while, but i find deadspin's "bristolmetrics" articles are a pretty good indication of how much attention ESPN gives to each sport (and team).
so dont try to tell me that ESPN isnt biased against the NHL and towards the NBA. The NBA's ratings in the USA are not 6x the NHL's.
If it weren't for the LA Kings then yeah it probably would of been 6x. Nobody would of watched a Coyotes-Devils finals. Not to mention the NBA had a lot more superstars playing than the NHL did.
NHL and NBA national and local TV ratings are not as far apart as ESPN's news coverage of NHL and NBA.
ESPN has a TV deal with NBA. Through 2015-2016, ESPN and ESPN2 air 75 regular season games per season as well one of the conference finals. ABC airs 15 regular season games per season and the entire NBA finals. Beyond ratings for Sportscenter, PTI, and Around the Horn, ESPN sells ad time during their NBA broadcasts. It's in their financial interest to use their shows to boost interest in upcoming NBA games. Obviously they don't have this double-pronged motivation with the NHL. That said, they didn't do the best job promoting the game while they did have NHL broadcasting rights. So who knows.
I'm having a good laugh at all the anti-ESPN comments.
ESPN is covering what the viewers want them to cover, otherwise no one would be watching ESPN. Simple supply and demand.
They don't exist to satisfy viewers or to cover what "viewers want them to cover", they exist to make money. The viewers are as much the product as the customer. If they don't have the rights to cover the NHL and they do have the rights to cover the NBA and they feel that it's beneficial overall to use Sportscenter to cross-promote their other shows, that's what they'll do. You're right that "it's just business", but don't confuse that with simply showing what viewers are demanding them to show.
Even taking hockey out the equation, being a HUGE football and baseball fan, ESPN's programming is completely insufferable to watch unless they're broadcasting an actual game.
