Is ESPN Killing the National Hockey League?

New York Islander Fan Central | 8/15/2007 06:57:00 AM | | | |
Negative Press: Is ESPN Killing the National Hockey League by Influencing Public Attitudes?

I'm presenting this here and now because Espn is doing the exact opposite and trying to set the fan agenda with a sport they do own the rights to, MLS soccer here.

Good set of articles back in July on Espn and how they only serve to promote the sports they own while doing all they can to ruin hockey because the league signed with versus here.

ESPN ombudsman Le Anne Schreiber here claims during the NHL's regular season, the only time hockey came up was when there was "some egregious brawl" or it was being "dissed" by some on-air talent. "It was dissed for its invisibility — because it's no longer on ESPN."

NYI Fan Central Comments:
Good reading. The soccer article specifically mentions in 2002 New York,
Spanish-language radio broadcasts of the New York Mets were already getting better ratings than the Devils and the Islanders, what it fails to mention is Msg controls the Islanders content and exposure and that's why the ratings are low.

Islander rating in 2002 was 0.31, Devils 0.18. Last season Islander ratings were around 0.12 for anyone wanting reference.

Espn plays it's games to influence the public, Dolan and Msg are infamous for it and now that they own the Islanders television rights they will never allow our club top billing over Msg teams because they hate competition so they pay to control it.

Of course what Dolan has not figured out is by limiting hockey, he limited his own teams exposure to a point they are irrelevant even in the playoffs with television ratings similar to the Islanders in 2002.