The Versus NHL broadcast schedule was released today and your Pittsburgh Penguins will play on the network 11 times. The interesting thing about their Versus schedule is that they only play on the network 3 times during the first two months of the season, before playing 8 Versus games over the final three months…
Here is how their games on the network shake out…
10/7 – Philadelphia
12/14 – @ Philadelphia
12/15 – New York Rangers
1/10 – Bruins
2/1 – @ New York Rangers
2/2 – New York Islanders
2/21 – Washington
2/23 – San Jose
3/2 – @ Toronto
3/21 – @ Detroit
4/5 – Devils
You can check out the entire Versus Broadcast schedule on our facebook page or by heading over to Versus via the link below!
I noticed on the pens website that one of the preseason games will be on KDKA. I haven’t heard anything about this and was wondering if you had any more details about this or who or whom would be the broadcast team or what brought this about.
One thing I’ve never understood about Versus hockey coverage…why the Monday Tuesday schedule? Why not Tuesday Wednesday or something? I never saw the point of trying to go up against Monday Night Football every week for the 1st half of the hockey season. That’s a matchup the NHL will lose every time. Hockey is my #1 sport but I like watching football too and I don’t feel like I’m part of a minority here. If you’re trying to grow the fanbase of the NHL I would think you’d have better luck convincing NFL fans to add hockey to their existing sports viewing schedule rather than try to get them to replace their current game with hockey. For lots of people it takes time to fall in love with hockey. If you force people to choose between their current favorite (football) and a new game they don’t fully understand, hockey will never get a chance.
You can’t overlook the fantasy football junkies too. Their entire week often comes down to that one game on Monday night. It doesn’t matter which crappy teams might be playing, that’s a game they’re not gonna miss. Let them have their night and give them a chance to see hockey on 2 nights that don’t interfere with their football schedule. The fastest way to grow the NHL is to admit that it takes a backseat to some other sports a lot of the time so you’re better off going for max visibility at times that don’t conflict with the leaders. That’s how you get more people hooked. Once the numbers are there, then you can start thinking about forcing your way into other time slots.
Is there some reason why Wednesday is such a bad time for a national TV broadcast?
@ixnay8 -Has anything ever actually succeeded on a Wednesday night (honest question, I don’t personally watch TV outside of hockey season)
@OneSmugPug: no clue…I’ve never been good at putting myself in front of the TV at the same time every week.
I did have one thought though…is there a national broadcast in Canada on Wednesdays? I know the Canadian viewers wouldn’t count towards ratings in the US but maybe they fear losing some US viewers if the Versus matchup is weaker than whatever CBC or TSN or whoever is showing.