NHL on SportsChannel America


NHL on SportsChannel America was the presentation of National Hockey League broadcasts on the now defunct SportsChannel Americacable television network.

Terms of the deal

Taking over for ESPN, SportsChannel's contract paid US$51 million over three years, more than double what ESPN had paid for the previous three years SportsChannel America managed to get a fourth NHL season for just $5 million.
The SportsChannel America deal was in a sense, a power play created by Charles Dolan and Bill Wirtz. Dolan was still several years away from getting control of Madison Square Garden, and Wirtz owned 25% of SportsChannel Chicago. NHL president John Ziegler convinced the board of governors that SportsChannel America was a better alternative than a proposed NHL Channel backed by Paramount and Viacom that had interests in the MSG Network and NESN.

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, 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 US$80 million over five 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, and often to justify the cost, some cable providers carrying it during the playoffs only carried it as a pay-per-view option. SportsChannel America also did not broadcast 24 hours a day at first, usually on by 6 p.m., off by 12 Midnight, then a sportsticker for the next 18 hours.

Philadelphia

Since SportsChannel Philadelphia did not air until January 1990, PRISM 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, the broadcaster lost as much as $10 million on the agreement, and soon faded into obscurity. Some local SportsChannel stations – which carried NHL games in their local markets – were not affected.

Coverage overview

Regular season coverage

SportsChannel America televised about 80–100 games a season. Whereas the previous deal with ESPN called for only one nationally televised game a week, SportsChannel America televised hockey two nights a week in NHL cities and three 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 the Chicago Blackhawks, Hartford Whalers, New Jersey Devils, New York Islanders or Philadelphia Flyers. The San Jose Sharks were added in. 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 the 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.

Stanley Cup playoffs

Divisional finals
Conference finals
YearTeamsPlay-by-playColor commentatorIce level reporters
1989Montréal-PhiladelphiaMike EmrickBill Clement-
1989Calgary-ChicagoJiggs McDonaldHerb Brooks-
1990Boston-WashingtonJiggs McDonaldBill ClementMike Emrick and John Davidson
1990Edmonton-ChicagoPat FoleyDale Tallon-
1991Boston-PittsburghJiggs McDonaldJohn Davidson-
1991Edmonton-MinnesotaMike EmrickBill Clement-
1992Pittsburgh-BostonJiggs McDonaldBill ClementMike Emrick and John Davidson
1992Chicago-EdmontonPat FoleyDale Tallon-
Stanley Cup Finals

Production

A fair number of times in their first season, they used their own production services for games. But very rarely this sort of practice occurred in the last three seasons. Since programming was so sparse otherwise on SportsChannel America, usually the games were replayed immediately after the live telecast.
For playoff coverage, if any of the aforementioned teams made the playoffs, SportsChannel America focused 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 situation happened in 1992, but 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. For the Stanley Cup Finals, SportsChannel America used their own facilities. They also used their own facilities for any Conference Final series that did not involve one of SportsChannel's regional teams. In 1989, both Conference Finals series involved two of SportsChannel's regional teams. However, Hawks owner Bill Wirtz's banned home games from televising in Chicago. So, Jiggs McDonald and Herb Brooks called the Clarence Campbell Conference Final between Calgary and Chicago on SportsChannel America. SportsChannel America's master control was at a Cablevision studio in Oak Park, Illinois with its NHL studios located at Adelphi University on Long Island.
John Shannon was the senior producer and lead producer of The NHL on SportsChannel America.

Announcers

and Leandra Reilly were the studio hosts for the network. Denis Potvin was the studio analyst for the network. For the Stanley Cup Finals, Jiggs McDonald served as the play-by-play man while Bill Clement was the color commentator. Also during the Stanley Cup Finals, Mike Emrick served as the host while John Davidson served as the rinkside and intermission analyst.

Play-by-play

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