NHL needs destination television in the U.S. for its Stanley Cup showcase

darrenrovell1: R-A-T-I-N-G-S. Spelling Bee beats game 4 of Stanley Cup Final -- 4M to 3.1M viewers (From sport business reporter Darren Rovell of CNBC June 7th on Twitter.com comparing Saturday's Scripps national spelling competition on ABC with Friday's NHL championship game on cable carrier Versus).

The National Hockey League would be well-served by a simple goal when it sits down to negotiate its next U.S. broadcasting contracts, either with current rightsholders NBC and Versus or some other combination of incumbents, newcomers or returning partners.

The "One Goal" -- to borrow the simple marketing slogan of the Chicago Blackhawks -- should be to ensure its Stanley Cup finals are carried by one network, from start to finish. Its priority should be to deliver destination television to better serve its existing fans and help lure new ones.

As it stands, the NHL is alone among the major professional sports leagues in North America in relegating even one game in its ultimate championship series to cable television alone.

Granted, the environment is changing and cable juggernauts such as ESPN are outbidding networks on a variety of fronts -- including varsity sports -- and they do so on the strength of dual revenue streams (advertising and subscription fees) and the quality of their all-sports audience demographics.

Yet only CBS, FOX and NBC are in the discussion for the NFL's conference championships and the game's greatest showcase, the Super Bowl. FOX is the exclusive custodian of Major League Baseball's classic, the World Series. The ESPN on ABC simulcast platform is locked in and a winner with the NBA Finals.

The Stanley Cup, however, does not have one consistent U.S. television home. In the current 2010 slugfest, NBC claimed games 1, 5, 6 and 7, while Versus picked up games 2, 3 and 4. It's a sharing formula they've used throughout the existing NHL rightsholder agreement, not only in the Stanley Cup showcase but throughout the post-season.

It is not the right solution for the NHL in the U.S. market and for the Stanley Cup as the game's marquee event.

A stronger rights deal in 2012 with NBC, one which engaged the network throughout the Stanley Cup final, would make the most sense (and while you're at it, graduating from the ranks of pure revenue-sharing into rights fees would be a worthy side goal with the Peacock network).

Getting another major network to take ownership of the league's championship series would be the next best bet. Failing those options, having a cable network designated as the go-to carrier of all seven games would be better than the current on-again, off-again relationship in which Stanley Cup final games literally bounce back and forth between network television on NBC and second-tier cable on Versus.

It is true that -- despite the baton approach used by NBC and Versus in passing games back and forth -- the Stanley Cup in particular and the 2010 playoffs in general is delivering to the NHL its best U.S. audiences in almost 15 years. Progress has been made, with even Versus declaring record ratings (topped off by Philadelphia's overtime win in game 3; the most-watched program in the cable network's young history).

That's the point. The product can finally say it deserves better. Much like its overall economic success despite the financial basketcases it carries in the U.S. sunbelt, the NHL needs to ask what could be with an even better roster of American broadcast partners on even better terms.

The most important contract condition is simple: destination television on one network for its Stanley Cup. That way, the sport's centrepiece will never again be O-U-T-D-R-A-W-N by Spelling Bee.

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Contrasting family storylines pump up Masters television ratings in U.S. and Canada

A final round 67 gave Phil Mickelson his third Masters title and fourth major championship Sunday at the Masters at Augusta National. It also gave the iconic tournament one of the more interesting photo finishes in the world of sport in 2010.

Images of Mickelson embracing his wife Amy in a joyous yet tearful hug Sunday went worldwide on television, internet and print at the conclusion of the Masters, which was Mickelson's first major in four years. The photograph was worth at least the proverbial thousand words given the battle Amy is fighting against breast cancer and how the illness has shaped much of what her golfer husband has done or not done on the PGA Tour over the past year.

It was an emotional moment for Lefty and his family.

It also couldn't have painted a starker contrast between Mickelson as a poster boy husband and his rival Tiger Woods, who used the Masters to return to the PGA Tour after a five-month absence triggered by his bizarre car accident November 27th, 2009 and the sex scandal that followed.

The juxtaposition of Mickelson against Woods was not lost in all of the buzz surrounding Tiger's much-anticipated comeback.

The two diametrically-opposed storylines were one of the reasons why the 2010 Masters became the third most-watched golf event in U.S. television ratings history. At a rating of 12 and a share of 25, this year's tournament ranked behind only Woods' first Masters win in 1997 (15.8 and 32) and his second title at Augusta in 2001 (12.9 and 27). Not only did the television numbers grow by 36% over 2009 on CBS in the United States, they were up 74% on Global Television in Canada, with 1.8 million Canadians watching Sunday's final round.

Numbers like that and a 43% increase on ESPN in the U.S. and audience numbers on TSN in Canada that were 76% north of the previous Masters record do not happen on the strength of hard core golf fans alone. They are fueled by so-called "soft users", ranging from sports fans who only watch headline-making golf to non-sports fans drawn by other factors (in this case the comeback of Woods and the compelling family story surrounding Mickelson).

For all the anxiety felt inside the golf industry over the past few months as its cash cow struggled through a messy media firestorm and messier public relations, could it be that the Woods scandal will only prove to be a boost for the PGA Tour?

Is it possible that the bubble bursting on the public image of Tiger Woods will have many of us finding both him and his major rivals on the tour more interesting than we did a year ago, rather than less compelling?

The early returns on the television ratings for the 2010 Masters, along with the record internet page views and online traffic around the tournament, appear to suggest exactly that.

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NFL and The Who cross-promote CSI for CBS

Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend wrap their set at

the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show

Sunday at Sun Life Stadium in Miami. (Photo: Bethie Curley)

When the National Football League began considering who should perform at this year's Super Bowl XLIV in Miami, The Who was suggested as a natural fit given the league's recent predisposition towards iconic rock acts for its halftime show.

Most would agree they'd belong in the conversation with Paul McCartney (Super Bowl XXXIX at Jacksonville, Fla. in 2005), the Rolling Stones (Super Bowl XL at Detroit in 2006), Prince (Super Bowl XLI at Miami in 2007), Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (Super Bowl XLII at Glendale, Arizona in 2008) and The Boss himself, Bruce Springsteen (Super Bowl XLIII at Tampa in 2009).

Along with Aerosmith (Super Bowl XXXV at Tampa in 2001) and U2 (in their moving 9/11 tribute during Super Bowl XXXVI at New Orleans in 2002), The Who is among the legendary bands of the 1970s and 1980s still rocking after all these years. That makes raspy lead vocals by Roger Daltrey and windmill guitar work by Pete Townshend resonate as a blast from the past with the boomer generation while still being relevant to the core Generation X NFL demographic and at least intriguing as historic rock'n'roll curiousities to the young adults in Generation Y and the young teens making up Generation Z.

Yet make no mistake: The Who earned the nod mainly because Super Bowl XLIV U.S. television rightsholder CBS loved the idea.

Giving The Who the high-profile gig made CBS Entertainment a happy camper because it would effectively cross-promote three of its most valuable television properties in one flick of the guitar pick: CSI and the Crime Scene Investigation trio. That's because The Who licensed their music to all three shows produced by Jerry Bruckheimer Television and CBS Paramount Television.

The original CSI (created in 2000 by Anthony E. Zuiker and still running strong Thursday nights at 9 p.m. PT on CBS in the U.S. and CTV in Canada) opens with about 40 seconds of Who are You?, the 1978 classic considered among the top-100 (#97) on the Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Songs of All-Time.

Its first spin-off CSI: Miami (launched in 2002 and running Mondays at 10 p.m. PT on CBS and CTV) begins with Won't Get Fooled Again, The Who's 1971 anthem that ranks #133 on the Rolling Stone Top 500. CSI: New York(which made its debut as the third in the trio of crime dramas and airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. PT on CBS and CTV) features Baba O'Reilly, another 1971 song (#340)by The Who.

We first raised The Who/CSI/CBS connection with Blake Price on The Blake Price Show on Vancouver sports radio TEAM 1040 on November 27th, the day after the NFL Network announced the selection of the 2010 halftime show headliners during a Thursday night showdown between the Oakland Raiders and the Dallas Cowboys.

So when Townshend leaked the Super Bowl set list in an interview with Billboard two weeks before the February 7th game on CBS and CTV, it should have surprised no one that Baba O'Riley, Who Are You? and Won't Get Fooled Again were part of the plans for Miami.

The Who followed Townshend's Billboard promises to a tee. Before a capacity crowd of 74,059 at Sun Life Stadium and a record North American television audience of 114 million on CBS and CTV, they opened the Bridgestone Super Bowl XLIV Halftime Show with Pinball Wizard and did a short segment from the close of Tommy. Yet it was nothing but CSI theme music the rest of the way.

Baba O'Riley was first up among the CSI themes. Then came Who Are You? and the quick "See Me, Feel Me" from Tommy. The ending was perfectly-scripted. As the theme song for CSI: Miami, The Who's Won't Get Fooled Again was the natural finale as an ode to the host city.

The 12-minute set was solid, arguably strong enough to knock off Diana Ross and comfortably rank among the top-10 Super Bowl halftime shows of all time. Performed on a wildly-impressive stage that starred in its own right and provided a modern light show extravaganza, the set served the event and its television audience well.

More than anything, though, it stoked host broadcaster CBS and its Bruckheimer-produced CSI franchise -- not to mention CTV as the Canadian rightsholder to both the Super Bowl and CSI -- in a brilliant medley of cross-promotion and co-branding.

It's much more likely he'll be owning a National Hockey League franchise in Las Vegas sometime soon, but it almost makes you wonder how long before Pete Townshend's guitar windmill from Sunday's Super Bowl XLIV re-starts the rumour windmill about Bruckheimer getting himself involved in the return of the NFL to Los Angeles later this decade.

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