The previous video was of HBO's 24/7 Pengiuns/Capitals: Road to the NHL Winter Classic. HBO's 24/7 is an American reality television series that follows sportsmen, and sporting organizations, for a period of weeks in the lead up to a major sporting event. The show premiered with episodes featuring pairs of boxers as they prepare for their upcoming boxing match against one another. More recently it has expanded to other sport rivalries as well with NASCAR and the rivalry leading up to the 2011 NHL Winter Classic. Each edition of the show is generally split up into three to four episodes, and is narrated by Liev Schreiber.
The shows historically have focused on boxing, but now cover other sports. In December 2010, a special 24/7 featured the rivalry between the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins and Washington Capitals in the lead up to the 2011 NHL Winter Classic at Heinz Field on January 1, 2011. The hockey episodes paid special attention to the player rivalry between Sidney Crosby and Alexander Ovechkin.
This this new exposure, the NHL has gained more popularity throughout the United States. Without the technology of cameras audiences would not have been able to see a behind the scenes look at the world of professional hockey in the NHL.
Friday, May 6, 2011
Thursday, April 28, 2011
NHL Coverage
The NHL has also made great strides in recent years when it comes to the coverage of the NHL, the players, games, and analysis. The NHL used to be covered by local channels of teams home cities as well as nationally by ESPN. The NHL is now cover exclusively by Verus and NBC today.
The NHL's television deal with Versus was made at the conclusion of the 2004–05 NHL lockout that caused the cancellation of an entire season. At the time, Versus offered a two year, $130 million contract (with a network option for a third year) that delivered guaranteed money for Commissioner Gary Bettman (ESPN, which previously held the rights, wanted a revenue-sharing deal similar to NBC's). Versus was expected to use NHL coverage to show it was a legitimate suitor for Major League Baseball and National Football League packages that were to be negotiated later in 2005, but they did not land agreements with either league. In 2007, the NHL signed an agreement to extend the NHL on Versus to the 2010–2011 season. Versus paid $72.5 million for 2007–2008 and will pay inflationary increases over the next three years.
In April 2011, NBC Sports and Versus announced they had reached a ten year extension to the television contract with the National Hockey League worth nearly 2 billion dollars over the life of the contract. As part of the announcement, the chairman of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol announced that the Versus channel would be renamed "within 90 days", in order to reflect the synergy of the two networks after the Universal-Comcast merger.
On April 19, 2011, the league and NBC/Versus announced a new ten-year agreement. Beginning with the 2011–12 season, the terms of the agreement include:
Versus also provides postgame coverage after every game they broadcast. The postgame show is known as Hockey Central, airing from their Stamford, Connecticut studios.
The NHL's television deal with Versus was made at the conclusion of the 2004–05 NHL lockout that caused the cancellation of an entire season. At the time, Versus offered a two year, $130 million contract (with a network option for a third year) that delivered guaranteed money for Commissioner Gary Bettman (ESPN, which previously held the rights, wanted a revenue-sharing deal similar to NBC's). Versus was expected to use NHL coverage to show it was a legitimate suitor for Major League Baseball and National Football League packages that were to be negotiated later in 2005, but they did not land agreements with either league. In 2007, the NHL signed an agreement to extend the NHL on Versus to the 2010–2011 season. Versus paid $72.5 million for 2007–2008 and will pay inflationary increases over the next three years.
In April 2011, NBC Sports and Versus announced they had reached a ten year extension to the television contract with the National Hockey League worth nearly 2 billion dollars over the life of the contract. As part of the announcement, the chairman of NBC Sports, Dick Ebersol announced that the Versus channel would be renamed "within 90 days", in order to reflect the synergy of the two networks after the Universal-Comcast merger.
On April 19, 2011, the league and NBC/Versus announced a new ten-year agreement. Beginning with the 2011–12 season, the terms of the agreement include:
- Versus (which will be renamed) will increase its regular season telecasts from 50 to 90.
- NBC Sports Group will have exclusive coverage of the NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs beginning with the Conference Semifinals (2nd round). All games will air on one of the NBC Sports Group channels. This means that there will no longer be any local broadcasts after the first round.
- Exclusive American broadcaster of the Heritage Classic.
- Exclusive coverage of Games 3 and 4 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
Versus also provides postgame coverage after every game they broadcast. The postgame show is known as Hockey Central, airing from their Stamford, Connecticut studios.
Tuesday, March 29, 2011
Goalie Camera
The previous video shows a camera being attatched to a hockey goalie's helmet. From this, you are actually able to have a view of what a goalie is looking at. This is a technology that is still being tested. At the same point in time some goalie's may not be comfortable with having the camera on or in their helmet. One reason may be the fact that this adds extra weight to the helmet that is not neccessary. However, this is something different and really puts a viewer into the game.
The National Hokcey League (NHL) has recently been looking for new ways to make the game of hockey more appealing to viewers, both to come to the actual event and those that watch it on TV. By inplementing new technologies and accepting change, the league has become more viewer friendly. This has also come about because of the willingness of players in the league to embrace and support the changes as well. I know they have also used this on regualar players as well. But once again this usually does not take place during regular season games. The main issue again making the technology so it will not get in the way of the player's ability to perform with the main issue being weight or a different feel to the equipment.
The National Hokcey League (NHL) has recently been looking for new ways to make the game of hockey more appealing to viewers, both to come to the actual event and those that watch it on TV. By inplementing new technologies and accepting change, the league has become more viewer friendly. This has also come about because of the willingness of players in the league to embrace and support the changes as well. I know they have also used this on regualar players as well. But once again this usually does not take place during regular season games. The main issue again making the technology so it will not get in the way of the player's ability to perform with the main issue being weight or a different feel to the equipment.
Friday, March 25, 2011
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Sports with TV
Another area of sports that has come a long way over the years is the use of the camera. It is hard for some to believe that games were once only attended and heard only on the radio. Today, sports are offered on a variety of channels and are now even have packages where a person can pay extra to get the specific type of sport they wish to view. When looking back at some of the history of televised games, I found that 1940 was a significant year for televsion:
- January - The FCC holds public hearings on television.
- February 25 - The first ice hockey game is televised in the United States, the New York Rangers vs Montreal Canadiens, from Madison Square Garden on W2XBS-TV.
- February 28 - The first basketball game is televised, from Madison Square Garden; Fordham vs the University of Pittsburgh.
- March 10 - The Metropolitan Opera broadcast for the first time from NBC studios at Rockefeller Center an abridged performance of the first act of Pagliacci, along with excerpts from four other operas.
- March 15 - RCA cuts the price of television sets.
- May 21 - Bell Telephone Laboratories transmits a 441-line video signal, with a bandwidth of 2.7 MHz, by coaxial cable from New York to Philadelphia and back.
- June - W2XBS in New York (NBC) covers the Republican National Convention from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania for 33 hours, over a five day period. The signal is transmitted via coaxial cable.
- August 29 - Peter Carl Goldmark of CBS announces his invention of a color television system.
- September 3 - CBS resumes its television transmissions with the first demonstration of high definition color TV, by W2XAB, transmitting from the Chrysler Building
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