NHL on SportsChannel America was the presentation of NHL broadcasts on the now defunct SportsChannel America cable television network.
Terms of the Deal
Taking over for ESPN, SportsChannel's contract paid $51 million ($17 million per year) over 3 years, more than double what ESPN had paid ($24 million) for the previous 3 years SportsChannel America managed to get a fourth NHL season for just $5 million.
SportsChannel's Availability
Unfortunately, SportsChannel America was only available in a few major markets and reached only a 1/3 of the households that ESPN did at the time. SportsChannel America was seen in fewer than 10 million households. In comparison, by the 1991–92 season, ESPN was available in 60.5 million homes whereas SportsChannel America was available in only 25 million.
As a matter of fact, in the first year of the deal (1988–1989), SportsChannel America was available in only 7 million homes when compared to ESPN's reach of 50 million. When the SportsChannel deal ended in 1992, the league returned to ESPN for another contract that would pay $80 million over 5 years.
SportsChannel America took advantage of using their regional sports networks' feed of a game, graphics and all, instead of producing a show from the ground up, most of the time. Distribution of SportsChannel America across the country was limited to cities that had a SportsChannel regional sports network or affiliate. Very few cable systems in non-NHL territories picked it up as a stand alone service. Regional affiliates of the Prime Network would sometimes pick up SportsChannel broadcasts, but this was often only during the playoffs. SportsChannel America also did not broadcast 24 hours a day at first, usually on by 6 p.m. and off by 1 or 2 a.m., then a sport sticker for the next 18 hours.
Philadelphia
Since SportsChannel Philadelphia did not air until January of 1990, PRISM (owned by Rainbow Media (the owners of SportsChannel at the time) picked up the 1989 Stanley Cup Finals. Other than that, there was no NHL television coverage in Philadelphia except for the Flyers for the first half of the original deal.
Lawsuit
As previously mentioned, the NHL would return to ESPN following the 1991-92 season. Shortly after the ESPN deal was signed, SportsChannel America would contend that its contract with the NHL gave them the right to match third-party offers for television rights for the 1992–93 season. SportsChannel America accused the NHL of violating a nonbinding clause. SportsChannel America argued that it had been deprived of its contractual right of first refusal for the 1992–93 season. Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court justice Shirley Fingerwood would deny SportsChannel America's request for an injunction against the NHL. Upholding that opinion, the appellate court found the agreement on which SportsChannel based its argument to be "too imprecise and ambiguous" and ruled that SportsChannel failed to show irreparable harm.
In the aftermath of losing the NHL, SportsChannel America was left with little more than outdoors shows and Canadian Football League games. For SportsChannel, the deal was a disaster overall. While the cable channel three years later, was available in 20 million homes (as previously mentioned), the broadcaster lost as much as $10 million on the agreement, and soon faded into obscurity.[14] Some local SportsChannel stations – which carried NHL games in their local markets – were not affected.
Coverage Overview
Regular Season Coverage
SportsChannel America would televise about 80–100 games a season (whereas ESPN aired about 33 in the 1987–88 season). Whereas the previous deal with ESPN called for only 1 nationally televised game a week, SportsChannel America televised hockey 2 nights a week in NHL cities and 3 nights a week elsewhere.
It was very rare to have a regular-season game on SportsChannel America that wasn't a regional SportsChannel production from Chicago Blackhawks, Hartford Whalers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders, or Philadelphia Flyers. San Jose Sharks were added in 1991-92. As previously suggested, SportsChannel America for the most part, used the local telecasts. The dedicated SportsChannel America station was little more than an overflow channel in New York area for SportsChannel New York.
Special programming
In 1989, SportsChannel America provided the first ever American coverage of the NHL Draft. In September 1989, SportsChannel America covered the Washington Capitals' training camp in Sweden and pre-season tour of the Soviet Union. The Capitals were joined by the Stanley Cup champion Calgary Flames, who held training camp in Prague, Czechoslovakia and then ventured to the Soviet Union. Each team played four games against Soviet National League clubs. Games were played in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev and Riga. The NHL clubs finished with a combined 6–2 record against the top Soviet teams, including the Red Army club and Dynamo Moscow. Five of the eight contests were televised by SportsChannel America.
All-Star Game coverage
SportsChannel America was the exclusive American broadcaster of the 1989 All-Star Game. The following year, they covered the first ever NHL Skills Competition and Heroes of Hockey game. SportsChannel America would continue their coverage of these particular events through 1992. In 1991, SportsChannel America replayed the third period of the All-Star Game on the same day that it was played. That was because NBC broke away from the live telecast during the third period in favor of Gulf War coverage.
| Year | Play-by-play | Color commentator | Ice level reporters | Studio host | Studio analysts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Jiggs McDonald | Scotty Bowman | Gary Thorne | Denis Potvin and Herb Brooks | |
Stanley Cup playoffs
Divisional finals
| Year | Teams | Play-by-play | Color commentator(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Montreal-Boston | Rick Peckham Mike Emrick |
Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney Bill Clement |
| Pittsburgh-Philadelphia (Games 1–5 aired on tape delay) | Rick Peckham Mike Emrick |
Gerry Cheevers Bill Clement | |
| St. Louis-Chicago | Rick Peckham Mike Emrick |
Gerry Cheevers Bill Clement | |
| Calgary-Los Angeles | Rick Peckham Mike Emrick |
Gerry Cheevers Bill Clement | |
| 1990 | Boston-Montreal (Games 1–2 aired on tape delay) | Mike Emrick Rick Peckham |
Bill Clement Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney |
| New York Rangers-Washington (Games 3–5 aired on tape delay) | Mike Emrick Rick Peckham |
Bill Clement Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney | |
| Chicago-St. Louis | Mike Emrick Rick Peckham |
Bill Clement Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney | |
| Edmonton-Los Angeles (all games were joined-in-progress) | Mike Emrick Rick Peckham |
Bill Clement Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney | |
| 1991 | Boston-Montreal | Jiggs McDonald, Bill Clement, John Davidson, and Herb Brooks Rick Peckham |
Jiggs McDonald, Bill Clement, John Davidson, and Herb Brooks Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney |
| Pittsburgh-Washington (all games aired on tape delay) | Jiggs McDonald Rick Peckham |
John Davidson Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney | |
| St. Louis-Minnesota | Jiggs McDonald Rick Peckham |
John Davidson Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney | |
| Los Angeles-Edmonton (all games were joined-in-progress) | Jiggs McDonald Rick Peckham |
John Davidson Gerry Cheevers and Dave Maloney | |
| 1992 | Montreal-Boston | Bob Cole Jiggs McDonald |
John Garrett and Dick Irvin, Jr. Ed Westfall |
| New York Rangers-Pittsburgh (Game 1 was joined-in-progress) | Bob Cole Jiggs McDonald |
John Garrett and Dick Irvin Jr. Ed Westfall | |
| Detroit-Chicago | Bob Cole Jiggs McDonald |
John Garrett and Dick Irvin Jr. Ed Westfall | |
| Vancouver-Edmonton (Games 1–4 used CBC's feed; Games 3–4 were joined-in-progress) | Bob Cole Jiggs McDonald |
John Garrett and Dick Irvin Jr. Ed Westfall |
Conference finals
See also: NHL Conference Finals
| Year | Teams | Play-by-play | Color commentator |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Montreal-Philadelphia | Mike Emrick and Bill Clement | Mike Emrick and Bill Clement, and John Davidson, and Bill Clement |
| Calgary-Chicago | Jiggs McDonald, Bill Clement, John Davidson, and Herb Brooks | Jiggs McDonald, Bill Clement, John Davidson, and Herb Brooks | |
| 1990 | Boston-Washington | Jiggs McDonald | Bill Clement |
| Edmonton-Chicago | Pat Foley | Dale Tallon | |
| 1991 | Boston-Pittsburgh | Jiggs McDonald, Bill Clement, and John Davidson | Jiggs McDonald, Bill Clement, and John Davidson |
| Edmonton-Minnesota | Mike Emrick and Bill Clement | Mike Emrick and Bill Clement, and John Davidson, and Bill Clement | |
| 1992 | Pittsburgh-Boston | Jiggs McDonald | Bill Clement |
| Chicago-Edmonton | Pat Foley | Dale Tallon |
Stanley Cup Finals
| Year | Teams | Play-by-play | Color commentator | Studio host | Studio analyst | Ice-level reporter |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1989 | Calgary-Montreal | Jiggs McDonald | Bill Clement | Mike Emrick | Herb Brooks | |
| 1990 | Boston-Edmonton | Jiggs McDonald | Bill Clement | Mike Emrick | John Davidson | |
| 1991 | Pittsburgh-Minnesota | Jiggs McDonald | Bill Clement | Mike Emrick | John Davidson | |
| 1992 | Pittsburgh-Chicago | Jiggs McDonald | Bill Clement | Mike Emrick | John Davidson | |
Production
A fair amount of times in their first season, they would use their own production services for games, but very rarely would this sort of practice occur in the last 3 seasons. Since programming was so sparse otherwise on SportsChannel America, usually the games were replayed immediately following the live telecast.
For playoff coverage, if any of the aforementioned teams made the playoffs, SportsChannel America would focus on those teams, using their facilities. For example, SportsChannel Chicago produced the SportsChannel America coverage for the Blackhawks' 1990 playoff run. Because of Hawks owner Bill Wirtz's disdain for free and basic cable home telecasts of his games, the road games were shown in Chicago, with the home games only given short live look-ins as "bonus coverage". The same occurrence happened in 1992 only this time, Blackhawks' home games were broadcast on a pay-per-view basis via "Hawkvision" Sometimes, they would use the CBC feed for other series (Boston Bruins-Montreal Canadiens series, for example). For the Stanley Cup Finals, SportsChannel America use their own facilities. They also use their own facilities for any Conference Final series that did not involve one of SportsChannel's regional teams.
John Shannon was the senior producer of The NHL on SportsChannel America.
Announcers
For the Stanley Cup Finals, Jiggs McDonald served as play-by-play, Bill Clement served as the color commentator. Also during the Stanley Cup Finals, Mike Emrick served as the studio host, and John Davidson served as rinkside and studio analyst (Herb Brooks filled into that role in 1989).
Play-by-play
- Mike Emrick
- Pat Foley
- Steve Grad
- Dave Hodge
- John Kelly
- Jiggs McDonald
- Rick Peckham
- Jeff Rimer
- Joe Starkey
- Gary Thorne
- Ken Wilson
Color commentators
- Bruce Affleck
- Herb Brooks
- Gerry Cheevers
- Bill Clement
- John Davidson
- Don Edwards
- Brian Hayward
- Craig Laughlin
- John Kelly
- Dave Maloney
- Peter McNab
- Joe Micheletti
- Pete Stemkowski
- Dale Tallon
- Ed Westfall
Ice level personalities
- Herb Brooks
- John Davidson
- Stan Fischler
- Al Koken
- Gary Thorne
Studio personalities
- Herb Brooks
- John Davidson
- Stan Fischler
- Al Koken
- Bob Papa
- Leandra Reilly
Commentating crews
- Chicago Blackhawks: Pat Foley and Dale Tallon (in 1991–92, SportsChannel America rode them all the way through the Stanley Cup Finals)
- SportsChannel Chicago
- Hartford Whalers: Rick Peckham and Gerry Cheevers
- SportsChannel New England
- New York Islanders: Jiggs McDonald and Ed Westfall
- SportsChannel New York
- New Jersey Devils: Gary Thorne and Peter McNab
- SportsChannel New York
- Philadelphia Flyers: Mike Emrick and Bill Clement
- SportsChannel Philadelphia
- San Jose Sharks: Joe Starkey and Pete Stemkowski
- SportsChannel Pacific
See also
Chicago Blackhawks seasons
- 1988–89 Chicago Blackhawks season
- 1989–90 Chicago Blackhawks season
- 1990–91 Chicago Blackhawks season
- 1991–92 Chicago Blackhawks season
Hartford Whalers seasons
- 1988–89 Hartford Whalers season
- 1989–90 Hartford Whalers season
- 1990–91 Hartford Whalers season
- 1991–92 Hartford Whalers season
New York Islanders seasons
- 1988–89 New York Islanders season
- 1989–90 New York Islanders season
- 1990–91 New York Islanders season
- 1991–92 New York Islanders season
New Jersey Devils seasons
- 1988–89 New Jersey Devils season
- 1989–90 New Jersey Devils season
- 1990–91 New Jersey Devils season
- 1991–92 New Jersey Devils season
San Jose Sharks seasons
- 1991–92 San Jose Sharks season