Conception
After being dropped by NHL on NBC, NBC after the season, the NHL had no national television contract in the United States. In response to this, the league put together a network of independent stations covering approximately 55Percentage, % of the country.Coverage summary
Games typically aired on Monday nights (beginning at 8 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET) or Saturday afternoons. The package was offered to local stations with no rights fee. Profits would be derived from the advertising, which was about evenly split between the network and the local station. The Monday night games were often billed as ''The NHL Game of the Week''. Viewers in New York City, Buffalo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Los Angeles got the ''Game of the Week'' on a different channel than their local team's games. Therefore, whenever a team had a “home” game, the NHL Network aired the home team's broadcast rather than their own. Initially, the Monday night package was marketed to American Broadcasting Company, ABC List of ABC television affiliates (by U.S. state), affiliates, the idea being that ABC carried Monday Night Football, Monday-night NFL football in the fall and (starting in May ) Monday Night Baseball, Monday-night Major League Baseball on ABC, Major League Baseball in the spring and summer; as such, stations would want hockey to create a year-round Monday night sports block. But very few ABC stations picked up the package. During the season, the NHL Network showed selected games from the Super Series, NHL Super Series (the big one in that package was 1976 Flyers–Red Army game, Red Army at Philadelphia, but the package did not include Red Army at 1975–76 Montreal Canadiens season, Montreal on New Year's Eve 1975, which was seen only on Hockey Night in Canada, CBC) as well as some playoff games. During the season, the NHL Network showed 12 regular season games on Monday nights plus the 29th National Hockey League All-Star Game, All-Star Game. By (the final season of the NHL Network's existence), there would be 18 Monday night games and 12 Saturday afternoon games covered. The 1979 Challenge Cup (ice hockey), 1979 Challenge Cup replaced the All-Star Game. It was a best of three series between the NHL All-Stars against the Soviet Union national ice hockey team, Soviet Union national squad. Only the third period of Game 2, which was on a Saturday afternoon, was shown on NHL on CBS, CBS as part of ''The CBS Sports Spectacular''. Unfortunately, CBS and their sponsors had a problem with the rink board advertising that the NHL sold at Madison Square Garden, and refused to allow them to be shown on TV. As a result, CBS' viewers were unable to see the far boards above the yellow kickplate, and could only see players' skates when the play moved to that side of the ice. Games 1 and 3 were shown on the NHL Network, where the advertising was no problem.Saturday afternoon coverage
When Saturday afternoon games were added, the NHL said that they would start at 1 p.m. and end by 4 p.m. Eastern Time Zone, ET. Apparently, markets with only three stations were reluctant to give up prime time programming slots. Ultimately, the plan failed, as not only did they not gain new markets, many stations that already carried the Monday game didn't pick up the Saturday one. A few of the markets in the Eastern Time Zone that aired the Saturday afternoon games included WSBK-TV, Boston, WKBW-TV, Buffalo, WWOR-TV, New York, WDCA, Washington and WWLP, Springfield, MA. In addition, the NHL gave stations the option of starting the Saturday afternoon broadcasts at 1 Eastern time or starting at 2 EST, with the full open and a first period summary preceding live action of the final two periods. WDCA (the Washington, D.C. affiliate) and WWLP (the Springfield, MA affiliate) took that option. WPGH-TV, WPGH in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh and WPCH-TV, WTCG in Atlanta, Georgia, Atlanta didn't pick up the Saturday package, leaving their markets without Saturday coverage. WPGH and WTCG also showed the Monday games on broadcast delay, tape delay at midnight and 11:30 p.m. ET, respectively. Meanwhile, by 1977–78 NHL season, 1978, WUAB-TV, WUAB in Cleveland, Ohio, Cleveland and WBFF in Baltimore, Maryland, Baltimore dropped hockey coverage completely (Cleveland lost its NHL team, the Cleveland Barons, that 1977–78 Cleveland Barons season, year after just three seasons in that city, which may have led WUAB to drop the package). Also in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo, the Saturday afternoon games during the months of January and February were on WGRZ-TV, WGR. Meanwhile, the Saturday games during the month of March were on WUTV. WUTV carried the ''Monday Night Hockey'' package, while WGR was the Terrestrial television, over-the-air station for the Buffalo Sabres. In New York, WWOR-TV, WOR did not carry Saturday games in the months of January or February. Meanwhile, WNYW, WNEW (also in New York) carried the March Saturday games (at 2 p.m.). In both Buffalo and New York, college basketball and World Championship Tennis knocked the NHL off its usual Monday night carrier. In , KBJR-TV, KBJR in Duluth, Minnesota, Duluth picked up the Saturday afternoon package and dropped the Monday night games. In that same season, WHMB-TV, WHMB in Indianapolis, Indiana, Indianapolis joined the network with Saturday afternoon games at 2 p.m. and Monday night games at 11 p.m. In addition, the Iowa PBS stations had dropped the NHL by this point.Playoff coverage
The 1976 Stanley Cup Finals on the NHL Network marked the first time that the NHL's championship series was nationally televised in its entirety in the United States. When the NHL Network broadcast playoff games in 1976, Marv Albert split play-by-play duties with an announcer from one of the participating teams. For instance, on April 18, 1976 (1975–76 Montreal Canadiens season, Montreal at 1975–76 Chicago Black Hawks season, Chicago), it was Brad Palmer (who was the intermission host for Chicago Black Hawks telecasts on WFLD-TV, WFLD 32) who split the play-by-play duties with Albert. Albert did play-by-play for the first and third periods while did Palmer the second. Starting in the 1978 Stanley Cup playoffs, 1978 playoffs, the NHL Network began simulcasting many games with ''Hockey Night in Canada''. In these games, Dan Kelly (sportscaster), Dan Kelly, who was the NHL Network's lead play-by-play announcer, was assigned to do play-by-play along with ''HNIC'' color commentators. This for example, happened in Game 7 of the quarterfinal series between the 1977–78 Toronto Maple Leafs season, Toronto Maple Leafs and 1977–78 New York Islanders season, New York Islanders (April 29), where Kelly teamed up with Brian McFarlane. The entire 1978 Stanley Cup Finals between the Bruins–Canadiens rivalry, Montreal Canadiens and Boston Bruins and the entire 1979 Stanley Cup Finals between the 1978–79 Montreal Canadiens season, Montreal Canadiens and 1978–79 New York Rangers season, New York Rangers were both simulcasted as well. However, had that final gone to Game 7, then that game would have been broadcast on NHL on ABC, ABC.Stanley Cup playoffs commentary crews
Stanley Cup Final commentary crews
Affiliates
In most U.S. NHL cities, the Hughes NHL affiliate was the Historical NHL over-the-air television broadcasters, same one that aired the local team's games. About a couple of dozen other stations carried the games. The network had 47 stations for the season. Despite the presence of the Minnesota North Stars, there was no NHL Network affiliate in the Minneapolis, Minnesota, Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota, St. Paul area.Ratings
By the time that NHL on NBC, NBC’s contract with the NHL ended after the , they were getting a 3.8 Nielsen ratings, rating. Meanwhile, the ratings for the NHL Network in its first month of existence were a 3.1 in WWOR-TV, New York, 1.9 in KCAL-TV, Los Angeles, and a 1.3 in WSNS-TV, Chicago. By , the Monday night games were seen by about 1 million viewers; 300,000 of which were in the WSBK-TV, Boston area. Also in 1978–79, the 2 p.m. ET version of the Saturday broadcasts (with the first period cut out) was picked up by all participating affiliates except WSBK-TV Boston (which carried the entire game), and often, the cities whose local teams were playing if the local station aired the NHL Network version of a game instead of a locally produced broadcast.Announcers
Play-by-play
*Marv Albert *Fred Cusick *Ted Darling (primarily in games involving Buffalo) *Don Earle *Jim Gordon (sportscaster), Jim Gordon *Gene Hart *Dan Kelly (sportscaster), Dan Kelly *Jiggs McDonald – In , McDonald split play-by-play and analyst duties with Tim Ryan (sportscaster), Tim Ryan during Games 3 and 4 of the 1976–77 Montreal Canadiens season, Montreal Canadiens-1976–77 New York Islanders season, New York Islanders playoff series (April 28 and 30) *Sam Nover *Brad Palmer *Tim Ryan (sportscaster), Tim Ryan Marv Albert was the lead play-by-play man during the 1975–76 NHL season, first season. During this particular period, he was paired with a local guest announcer. They typically, would split play-by-play duties. As previously mentioned, for Game 4 of the 1976 quarterfinal playoff series between the 1975–76 Montreal Canadiens season, Montreal Canadiens and 1975–76 Chicago Black Hawks season, Chicago Black Hawks (April 16), Marv Albert and Brad Palmer called the game. Albert handled play-by-play for the first and third period while Palmer, the Black Hawks' TV host, handled play-by-play for the second period. They in the process, acted as analysts for each other. Played at Chicago Stadium, the game was Blackout (broadcasting), blacked out in the Chicago area. Meanwhile, Marv Albert also during the 1976 playoffs, teamed with Tim Ryan (sportscaster), Tim Ryan (who split play-by-play duties with Albert) and George Michael (sportscaster), George Michael for Game 1 of the 1975–76 New York Islanders season, New York Islanders-1975–76 Buffalo Sabres season, Buffalo Sabres series (April 11) and Terry Crisp for Game 7 of the 1975–76 Toronto Maple Leafs season, Toronto Maple Leafs-1975–76 Philadelphia Flyers season, Philadelphia Flyers series (April 25). Terry Crisp also worked alongside play-by-play men Gene Hart and Don Earle on Game 4 of the aforementioned Toronto-Philadelphia series (April 17).Color commentary
*Don Awrey *Curt Bennett *Bill Chadwick *Terry Crisp *Phil Esposito *John Ferguson Sr. *Eddie Giacomin – In , Giacomin worked with Dan Kelly (sportscaster), Dan Kelly on Game 3 of the 1977–78 Philadelphia Flyers season, Philadelphia Flyers-1977–78 Buffalo Sabres season, Buffalo Sabres playoff series (April 22) *Bobby Hull *Steve Jensen – In , Jensen worked with Marv Albert on Game 4 of the 1976–77 Philadelphia Flyers season, Philadelphia Flyers-1976–77 Toronto Maple Leafs season, Toronto Maple Leafs playoff series (April 17) *George Michael (sportscaster), George Michael – In , Michael worked with Marv Albert and Tim Ryan (sportscaster), Tim Ryan (who split play-by-play duties) on Game 1 of the 1975–76 New York Islanders season, New York Islanders-1975–76 Buffalo Sabres season, Buffalo 1976 Stanley Cup playoffs, playoff series. *Stan Mikita *Lou Nanne *Bobby Orr *Chico Resch *Garry Unger The analysts for the 1976 Stanley Cup Finals were active players and each game featured a different color commentators. These players were Stan Mikita, Garry Unger, Chico Resch and Curt Bennett. This format continued in 1977 Stanley Cup Finals, 1977 with Stan Mikita, Garry Unger, Chico Resch, Don Awrey replacing Curt Bennett, who instead worked with Marv Albert and Dan Kelly (sportscaster), Dan Kelly on Game 4 of the Bruins–Flyers rivalry, Philadelphia Flyers-Boston Bruins playoff series (May 1).Other
*Stan Fischler *Jim Simpson (sportscaster), Jim Simpson *Dick Stockton *Scott Wahle Dick Stockton served as host for a season. Scott Wahle was the studio host for the 1978–79 NHL season, 1978–79 and 1979–80 NHL season, 1979–80 seasons. Meanwhile, Stan Fischler was on the broadcasts as an intermission analyst.References
{{DEFAULTSORT:NHL Network, The (1975 Tv program) Television channels and stations established in 1975 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1979 1975–76 NHL season 1976–77 NHL season 1977–78 NHL season 1978–79 NHL season 1975 establishments in the United States 1979 disestablishments in the United States Defunct television networks in the United States Hughes Television Network National Hockey League on television Simulcasts Sports television networks in the United States Television syndication packages