NBCSN shutting down, NHL and other sports being moved to USA Network and Peacock

[nucci]

9 hours ago, LTS said:

It's all designed to drive people to Peacock.  USA is just the least failing NBC station so they'll use it as bait. I think i said it in the streaming Sabres thread. This year is the year that everyone gets punted to streaming services. Those who produce the content want to control the delivery, gather the ad revenue, the analytics, and certainly get paid for it. No more contracts to discuss on carriage rights.

Give the success the NHL is having this season with announcers calling games while not in the building I would HIGHLY suspect that the NHL pulls back its streaming rights and begins to hire local camera operators and some local personnel in rinks and then uses remote announcers to call the games.  Hell, they could go to an all remote camera operations crew if they wanted to.  The technology is there.

Then they control their whole product.

a bit off topic but do we really need announcers anymore? Last night Ray and Dunleavy just talked the whole game. Very little play by play and no analysis because Ray is a terrible analyst. I watch parts of football and hockey with volume off and it's much better. I don't need someone to tell me what I just saw.

[dudacek]

I thought the broadcast was noticeably bad for exactly the above reason.

The Sabres crew was watching a TV screen in Buffalo and sounded like two buddies watching from a couch in their living room. They weren’t focused at all.

[JohnC]

15 minutes ago, dudacek said:

I thought the broadcast was noticeably bad for exactly the above reason.

The Sabres crew was watching a TV screen in Buffalo and sounded like two buddies watching from a couch in their living room. They weren’t focused at all.

I watched the Washington crew cover the game. I got the same sensation as you did with the Buffalo tandem that they were not focused on the game but were simply two guys chatting and not concentrating on the game. Because this is such an odd hockey year without the fans I'm fine with the looseness of coverage. 

[LTS]

1 hour ago, nucci said:

a bit off topic but do we really need announcers anymore? Last night Ray and Dunleavy just talked the whole game. Very little play by play and no analysis because Ray is a terrible analyst. I watch parts of football and hockey with volume off and it's much better. I don't need someone to tell me what I just saw.

Do WE need announcers?  Perhaps not.  Does the avg. viewer need announcers? Absolutely.

If you think about it, most other sports are littered with announcers telling stories during the game. It's usually because there are a lot of breaks in the action.  I do think that Dunleavy and Ray were a bit off in how they called the game. I have no doubt that there is a level of excitement gained when you are in the arena with the crowd all around you.

That said, good announcers would be able to work around that.

[GASabresIUFAN]

You would think they get them some decent size monitors to watch on.  Broadcasting across the board has been terrible.  My daughter and I watched an IU basketball game on a national broadcast and had the same sensation.  The guy sounded something like this “went to dinner with the wife and kids”. “IU has the ball” “We order two large with pepperoni and mushrooms”.  “My daughter said she doesn’t like mushrooms” “Now Michigan St with the ball”. 

[GASabresIUFAN]

3 hours ago, nucci said:

USA Network is an American basic cable channel owned by the NBCUniversal Television and Streaming division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast.

 

but that's not important right now

Good Airplane reference.  My first reaction to this news was “Surely they can’t be serious”, but then it passed.  Now It’s

admittedly a terrible song for a terrible network and company.

[JohnC]

7 minutes ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

You would think they get them some decent size monitors to watch on.  Broadcasting across the board has been terrible.  My daughter and I watched an IU basketball game on a national broadcast and had the same sensation.  The guy sounded something like this “went to dinner with the wife and kids”. “IU has the ball” “We order two large with pepperoni and mushrooms”.  “My daughter said she doesn’t like mushrooms” “Now Michigan St with the ball”. 

Was that thin pizza or Chicago pan pizza? More specificity in describing the meal would be more palatable! 🤡

[Radar]

1 hour ago, JohnC said:

I watched the Washington crew cover the game. I got the same sensation as you did with the Buffalo tandem that they were not focused on the game but were simply two guys chatting and not concentrating on the game. Because this is such an odd hockey year without the fans I'm fine with the looseness of coverage. 

Many times with sports on TV I actually mute the sound. Almost more distractions than information.

[LabattBlue]

I can understand RJ not wanted to travel with the team because of his age, but is there any reason why Drone on Dan and Razor can’t broadcast from the away arena, or are none of the broadcasting teams across the NHL traveling with the team?

[PASabreFan]

10 minutes ago, LabattBlue said:

I can understand RJ not wanted to travel with the team because of his age, but is there any reason why Drone on Dan and Razor can’t broadcast from the away arena, or are none of the broadcasting teams across the NHL traveling with the team?

Rick said no one's traveling.

[IKnowPhysics]

Live content (sports) has long been predicted to tentpole traditional broadcast outlets as other content (like scripted TV series) face exterminatingly fierce competition from streaming services and massive revenue reduction.  Sporting events and exclusivity agreements are the silver bullet to keeping network television afloat.

NBC Universal must have evaluated that preserving/protecting the USA Network brand with a mix of of sports and other NBC content was more lucrative than isolating sports onto NBCSN and hoping the other content could keep USA alive.  This also allows USA to siphon some of that rich sports advertising money into making/buying new shows that will eventually aid Peacock's content portfolio as well.  And this doesn't just get USA more viewers and more cash from advertisers, it's also leverage in negotiations with content carriers (like cable and satellite companies) to pay them to carry the USA channel in their lineups.

Imagine what TNT would look like without NBA.  That's what NBC Universal wants to avoid with USA.

 

Cash rules everything around me.

[SwampD]

2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

Good Airplane reference.  My first reaction to this news was “Surely they can’t be serious”, but then it passed.  Now It’s

admittedly a terrible song for a terrible network and company.

The only reason we've gotten to watch as much playoff hockey for the last five years as we have is because of NBC.

ESPN (the S supposedly stands for sports) gave up on hockey in the early 2000s to air GD poker tournaments.

 

As a 25+ year employee, I have nothing bad to say about the company.

[PerreaultForever]

4 hours ago, dudacek said:

I thought the broadcast was noticeably bad for exactly the above reason.

The Sabres crew was watching a TV screen in Buffalo and sounded like two buddies watching from a couch in their living room. They weren’t focused at all.

Just like the team. 

[Getpucksdeep]

On 1/23/2021 at 9:19 AM, nucci said:

a bit off topic but do we really need announcers anymore? Last night Ray and Dunleavy just talked the whole game. Very little play by play and no analysis because Ray is a terrible analyst. I watch parts of football and hockey with volume off and it's much better. I don't need someone to tell me what I just saw.

Idk if Dunleavy has gotten worse or I'm just extra grumpy since the on ice product appears to be trash again, but completely agree. Call the game!  My fandom is in serious jeopardy if the team AND broadcast sucks.  

Tony Romo is the best case for announcers. He is great. And I'm not much of an NFL guy. 

[steveoath]

I would love an alternate commentary that literally was a couple/or more fans that know the team talking like they would on the couch.  Sky sports did that over here with football(soccer) with a fan from each team. That was fun.

[Doohickie]

On 1/22/2021 at 2:25 PM, miles said:

Hmmm. I dont get the usa network. 

Let's see how it works out.  Peacock is the CBS All Access of NBC and has a free component.  Hopefully they will carry games on the Peacock free.

[GASabresIUFAN]

On 1/23/2021 at 12:02 PM, JohnC said:

Was that thin pizza or Chicago pan pizza? More specificity in describing the meal would be more palatable! 🤡

That would have made the broadcast almost close to sort of interesting. Had it been a Sabres broadcast, they would have said LaNova, but I’m a Bocce Club guy.

[JohnC]

2 hours ago, GASabresIUFAN said:

That would have made the broadcast almost close to sort of interesting. Had it been a Sabres broadcast, they would have said LaNova, but I’m a Bocce Club guy.

One of the neighborhood guys I grew up with on the west side owned a pizza place that did very well. He was a regular at the hockey games. He used to bring boxes of pizza to the game and give it to the police working traffic control who would then make sure that he had a quality parking space even if his arrival was late. He showed his appreciation toward the men in blue and they reciprocated with a choice free parking spot. Some people bribe the authorities with $$$$ and some people bribe the authorities with high caloric dough.