There's a common theme that undercuts everything the National Hockey League does in the digital space: Of course they're being innovative, what do they have to lose Commissioner Gary Bettman took issue with that idea this morning in a Q&A with our co-editor and EVP Staci D. Kramer. "I don't think we're niche… If you go market by market we're not always No. 4 in the places we're going head to head" regionally with other sports. Not only was.com a platform for the league to make its case directly to fans during the 2004-2005 season-long lockout, it's also become a hub for hockey content that fans can't get elsewhere. "We've got to be reaching them on their terms… It's an opportunity you're going to have to take advantage of or else you're going to be left behind… We hope to do a lot of catch-up by being very forward thinking." The evolution to online hasn't gone off without a hitch, though. The New York Rangers have legally challenged the league's approach and are attempting a go-it-alone approach that's dragging some of the site's momentum's online strategy calls for the 30 teams to provide local content to the site while the league manages the sites features and provides the platform. Bettman: "We're going to have to continue to argue this out."-- Olympics: While the league has committed to participating in the 2010 games in Vancouver, Bettman hinted that players might not appear in the international competition going forward. "Beyond that we really have to go through a balancing act… Stopping the season in the middle is a breaking momentum. It raises some competitive issues… We think that that has an impact on the season." -- Hockey Mom VP candidate: "I'm married to a hockey mom so I'm quite fond of hockey moms. It's interesting, the amount of attention that Sarah Palin has generated" for opening dropping pucks to open recent games. "To me I don't think it was a political statement," he said. "My guess is if the McCain-Palin ticket wins, hockey will get a slightly higher profile." And yet, he was careful to make it clear he wasn't endorsing either candidate. "Interestingly enough, the first time I met John McCain was at a hockey game. He's a hockey fan as well."-- Subscriptions: Bettman didn't give many specifics, but said the league has sold tens of thousands of subscriptions for its new Game Center Live streaming package—and that's in line with the's forecasts. He also said that existing deals with TV and satellite providers prevent the league from making the same content available online through a single subscription. He admitted that the league's own product does generate more revenue per subscription. Lockout: "Our approval rating on the management side never dipped below 60 percent in support of what we were doing." And that's something unheard of in the sports world during a lockout, he added. "Our fans are so connected to the game; they knew why we were doing it and supported it… I don't think there's ever been a business … that's been able to shut its doors for a year … and then come back to record revenues and record customers, which is what we did."-- Switching from ESPN to Versus: As the lockout winded down three years ago, Bettman decided it was in the league's best interest to go another way. "Coming back from the work stoppage we may have lost our place in their rotation… I felt we needed to be more important to whoever our national programmer was." Being careful not to criticize ESPN (NYSE: DIS), Bettman pointed out that the number of games carried by the network was dwindling for years. "We got less and less. In fact there wasn't a game every night." Three years later, ratings have returned to pre-lockout levels. "By the end of last season, our ratings during the playoffs began to look like what we got with ESPN and ESPN2… They've gotten excellent at covering hockey games and fans have been able to find their way to Versus… I think people are respecting the quality of coverage that we get." On October 29 at the Edison Ballroom in New York City, EconSports will delve into everything: the complicated economics of league rights, data business, syndication, exclusivity, premium and more. Register for Econsports: http://econsports.eventbrite.com Source
Thursday, October 30, 2008
@ EconSports: Commissioner Bettman: NHL Players May Not Be In Olympics After 2010
There's a common theme that undercuts everything the National Hockey League does in the digital space: Of course they're being innovative, what do they have to lose Commissioner Gary Bettman took issue with that idea this morning in a Q&A with our co-editor and EVP Staci D. Kramer. "I don't think we're niche… If you go market by market we're not always No. 4 in the places we're going head to head" regionally with other sports. Not only was.com a platform for the league to make its case directly to fans during the 2004-2005 season-long lockout, it's also become a hub for hockey content that fans can't get elsewhere. "We've got to be reaching them on their terms… It's an opportunity you're going to have to take advantage of or else you're going to be left behind… We hope to do a lot of catch-up by being very forward thinking." The evolution to online hasn't gone off without a hitch, though. The New York Rangers have legally challenged the league's approach and are attempting a go-it-alone approach that's dragging some of the site's momentum's online strategy calls for the 30 teams to provide local content to the site while the league manages the sites features and provides the platform. Bettman: "We're going to have to continue to argue this out."-- Olympics: While the league has committed to participating in the 2010 games in Vancouver, Bettman hinted that players might not appear in the international competition going forward. "Beyond that we really have to go through a balancing act… Stopping the season in the middle is a breaking momentum. It raises some competitive issues… We think that that has an impact on the season." -- Hockey Mom VP candidate: "I'm married to a hockey mom so I'm quite fond of hockey moms. It's interesting, the amount of attention that Sarah Palin has generated" for opening dropping pucks to open recent games. "To me I don't think it was a political statement," he said. "My guess is if the McCain-Palin ticket wins, hockey will get a slightly higher profile." And yet, he was careful to make it clear he wasn't endorsing either candidate. "Interestingly enough, the first time I met John McCain was at a hockey game. He's a hockey fan as well."-- Subscriptions: Bettman didn't give many specifics, but said the league has sold tens of thousands of subscriptions for its new Game Center Live streaming package—and that's in line with the's forecasts. He also said that existing deals with TV and satellite providers prevent the league from making the same content available online through a single subscription. He admitted that the league's own product does generate more revenue per subscription. Lockout: "Our approval rating on the management side never dipped below 60 percent in support of what we were doing." And that's something unheard of in the sports world during a lockout, he added. "Our fans are so connected to the game; they knew why we were doing it and supported it… I don't think there's ever been a business … that's been able to shut its doors for a year … and then come back to record revenues and record customers, which is what we did."-- Switching from ESPN to Versus: As the lockout winded down three years ago, Bettman decided it was in the league's best interest to go another way. "Coming back from the work stoppage we may have lost our place in their rotation… I felt we needed to be more important to whoever our national programmer was." Being careful not to criticize ESPN (NYSE: DIS), Bettman pointed out that the number of games carried by the network was dwindling for years. "We got less and less. In fact there wasn't a game every night." Three years later, ratings have returned to pre-lockout levels. "By the end of last season, our ratings during the playoffs began to look like what we got with ESPN and ESPN2… They've gotten excellent at covering hockey games and fans have been able to find their way to Versus… I think people are respecting the quality of coverage that we get." On October 29 at the Edison Ballroom in New York City, EconSports will delve into everything: the complicated economics of league rights, data business, syndication, exclusivity, premium and more. Register for Econsports: http://econsports.eventbrite.com Source
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