Taking over for
ESPN,[7][8] SportsChannel's contract paid US$51 million[9][10][11] ($17 million per year[12]) over three years,[13] more than double[14][15] what ESPN had paid ($24 million) for the previous three years[16] SportsChannel America managed to get a fourth NHL season[17] for just $5 million.[18][19][20][21][22][23][24]
Unfortunately,
SportsChannel America was only available in a few[27] major markets (notably absent though were
Detroit,
Pittsburgh, and
St. Louis[28])[29][30][31] and reached only a 1/3 of the households that
ESPN[32] did at the time.[33][34] SportsChannel America was seen in fewer than 10 million households.[35][36] In comparison, by the
1991–92 season,[37] ESPN was available in 60.5 million[38] homes whereas SportsChannel America was available in only 25 million. As a matter of fact, in the first year of the deal (
1988–89), SportsChannel America was available in only 7 million homes when compared to ESPN's reach of 50 million.[39] When the SportsChannel deal ended in
1992, the league returned to ESPN[40] for another contract that would pay US$80 million over five years.[41]
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.[42] Very few cable systems in non-NHL territories picked it up as a stand-alone service, with many only taking it on a
pay-per-view basis during the
Stanley Cup Finals. In addition to the SportsChannel regional networks,
Maryland-based
Home Team Sports and
Minneapolis-based
Midwest Sports Channel (independently owned and operated despite the similar sounding name) carried the games. In 1991, two
Prime Sports networks,
KBL (
Pittsburgh) and
Prime Sports Northwest agreed to carry the playoff package, expanding it reach to an additional 2.6 million homes.[43]
Philadelphia
Since
SportsChannel Philadelphia did not air until January
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.
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[44][45] 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. 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[46][47] (whereas ESPN aired about 33 in the
1987–88 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
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 the New York area for SportsChannel New York.
Special programming
In
1989, SportsChannel America provided the first ever American coverage of the
NHL Draft.[48] In September 1989, SportsChannel America covered the
Washington Capitals' training camp in Sweden and
pre-season tour[49] 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.[50] 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.[51][52]
SportsChannel America's national coverage of the
1990 Stanley Cup Finals was
blacked out in the Boston area due to the local rights to Bruins games in that TV market.
NESN televised three games at
Boston Garden in the Boston area while
WSBK had two games in
Edmonton. In
1991, SportsChannel's Stanley Cup Finals coverage was again blacked out in the Minnesota and Pittsburgh areas due to the local rights to North Stars and Penguins games in those respective TV markets. In Minnesota,
KMSP-TV aired three games in Pittsburgh while the
Midwest Sports Channel had three games in
Bloomington. In Pittsburgh,
KBL televised three games at
the Igloo while
KDKA aired three games in Minnesota. Had there been a Game 7, it would have aired on KMSP-TV in Minnesota and KBL in Pittsburgh respectively. Finally, in
1992, in Pittsburgh, KBL televised the first two games while KDKA aired the next two in
Chicago. However, in Chicago,
SportsChannel Chicago aired the first two games, and
Hawkvision aired the next two.
Production
SportsChannel America's Master Control facilities were located in Floral Park, NY at Cablevision's Rainbow Network Communications facilities, and their studios were located at Dempster Hall at Hofstra University in Hempstead, NY. Most of the games that aired on the network were simulcasts of the other SportsChannel Regional games. However, there were times when the network did produce games of importance not available on one of the regional networks.
If any of the aforementioned teams made the playoffs, SportsChannel America focused on those teams. For example,
SportsChannel Chicago produced the SportsChannel America coverage for the
Blackhawks' 1990 playoff run. Because of Blackhawks owner
Bill Wirtz' disdain for free and basic cable home game telecasts, 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, but this time,
their home games were broadcast on a pay-per-view basis via "
Hawkvision".[192] The Blackhawks broadcasts were also simulcast on Chicago's WBBM radio during those years. The typical outcue to commercial break was...."(score) on SportsChannel......(pause) and WBBM" SportsChannel America would run their own bumper music from the Floral Park Master Control facility so that they could fade out the remote's audio after the announcers said "SportsChannel".
For the
Stanley Cup playoffs, SportsChannel America used Bob Papa as the anchor for the coverage. The studio kicked off coverage of each night with a pregame show for all of the regions. Once the games began, the studio produced live cut-ins of every goal for each of the regional games aired. The studio also switched viewers of one game to another game when a period ended or when the game was over. After the early games, the studio then took all viewers out to a West Coast game. After all the hockey for the night, the studio finished the night with a postgame wrap-up show. In 1989, both Conference Finals series involved two of SportsChannel's regional teams.