NHL on ABC

NHL on ABC
NHL on ABC logo used from 1999 to 2004
Genre	Hockey telecasts
Presented by	John Saunders Gary Thorne Mike Emrick Al Michaels Bill Clement Jim Schoenfeld John Davidson Al Morganti Barry Melrose Chris Berman Steve Levy Dave Strader Darren Pang Brian Engblom Erin Andrews Sam Ryan
Theme music composer	Bob Christianson
Country of origin	United States
Original language(s)	English
No. of seasons	2 (1992-94 version) 5 (1999-2004 version) 7 (total)
Production
Location(s)	Various NHL stadiums (game telecasts)
Camera setup	Multi-camera
Running time	180 minutes or until end of game
Production company(s)	ABC Sports ESPN
Release
Original network	ABC
Picture format	480i (SDTV), 1080i (HDTV)
Original release	First run: March 27, 1993–May 1, 1994 Second run: February 6, 2000  – June 7, 2004
Chronology
Related shows	ESPN National Hockey Night

The NHL on ABC is the branding formerly used for broadcasts of National Hockey League (NHL) games televised on the American Broadcasting Company (ABC) in the United States. The network first broadcast NHL games during the 1992-93 season under a time-buy agreement with ESPN; ABC resumed regular season game telecasts on February 6, 2000, as part of a joint contract with ESPN that also gave ABC the rights to select games from each round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

History

Before the 1992–93 NHL season

After being dropped by NBC after the 1974–75 season,^[1][2][3] the NHL did not maintain a national television contract in the United States.^[4][5][6] In response to this, the league put together a network of independent stations covering approximately 55% of the country.^[7][8][9]

Games typically aired on Monday nights^[10] (beginning at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time) or Saturday afternoons. The package was offered to local stations without a rights fee.^[11] Profits would instead 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".^[12] Viewers in New York City, Buffalo, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Detroit and Los Angeles received the Game of the Week on a different station 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 ABC affiliates; the idea being that ABC carried NFL football games on Monday nights in the fall and (starting in May 1976) Major League Baseball games on Monday nights in the spring and summer, stations would want the hockey telecasts to create a year-round Monday night sports block; however, very few ABC stations chose to pick up the package.

In 1979, ABC was contracted to televise Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.^[13][14] Since the Finals ended in five games, the contract was void.^[15]

ABC Radio coverage (1989–1991)

In 1989,^[16] the NHL signed a two-year contract (lasting through the 1990–91 season) with ABC Radio for the broadcast rights to the All-Star Game and Stanley Cup Finals.^[17][18] ABC Radio named Don Chevrier and Phil Esposito as their main commentating crew.^{[19][20][21][22]}

Time-buy deal with ESPN (1992–1994)

In the 1992–93^[23] and 1993–94 seasons, ABC televised six weekly regional telecasts^[24][25] on Sunday afternoons beginning in March^[26] (or the last three Sundays^[27] of the regular season). This marked the first time that regular season National Hockey League games were broadcast on American network television^[28] since 1974–75 (when NBC was the NHL's American broadcast television partner). ABC would then televise three weeks worth of playoff games^[29][30] (or the first three Sundays^[31][32] of the playoffs^{[33][34][35][36]}). The network did not televise the Stanley Cup Finals, which instead, were televised nationally by ESPN and by Prime Ticket in Los Angeles (1993) and MSG Network in New York (1994). Games televised on ABC were not subject to blackout.

These broadcasts (just as was the case with the 1999–2004 package) were essentially, time-buys^[37] by ESPN.^[38][39] In other words, ABC would sell three-hour blocks of airtime to ESPN, which in return, would produce, supply broadcasters and sell advertising. The main difference is that the graphics used for the telecasts were those used by ABC Sports, instead of the ones seen on ESPN National Hockey Night. In later years, the roles would be reversed as ESPN's graphical style would be used on the broadcasts with the exception of intermission reports. ABC even used ESPN's theme music^[40] for the 1992–1994 coverage. During ABC's next stint with the NHL, the network used its own theme music.^[41]

Overall, ABC averaged a 1.7 rating^[42] for those two seasons.

When the NHL television contract went up for negotiation in early 1994, Fox (which was in the process of launching its sports division after acquiring the rights to the National Football Conference of the NFL) and CBS (which was hoping to land a major sports contract to replace the NFL rights that they lost to Fox and Major League Baseball rights that they lost to ABC and NBC) competed heavily for the package. On September 9, 1994, the National Hockey League reached a five-year, $155 million contract with Fox for the broadcast television rights to the league's games, beginning with the 1994–95 season,^[43] effectively ending ABC's time-buy deal with ESPN after just two seasons.

Schedules

1993-94

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)
March 27[44][45][46][47][48]	Boston at Washington Detroit at Chicago New York Rangers at Winnipeg Los Angeles at Vancouver	1:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 2:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
April 3[49]	Boston at Pittsburgh Dallas at Washington St. Louis at Detroit Edmonton at Los Angeles	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 4:00 p.m.
April 10[50][51][52][53]	New York Rangers at New York Islanders Boston at Philadelphia Los Angeles at Chicago Dallas at St. Louis	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.

April 17,^[54][55] 24, May 1: Playoffs

Stanley Cup playoff commentator crews

1993

Round	Series	Games covered	Play-by-play	Color commentator(s)
Division semifinals	Pittsburgh vs. New Jersey	Games 1, 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement
	Chicago vs. St. Louis	Games 1, 4[56]	Mike Emrick	Jim Schoenfeld
	Calgary vs. Los Angeles	Games 1, 4	Al Michaels[57]	John Davidson
Division finals	Pittsburgh vs. New York Islanders	Game 1[58]	Gary Thorne[59]	Bill Clement
	Toronto vs. St. Louis	Game 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement
	Vancouver vs. Los Angeles	Game 1	Mike Emrick[60]	John Davidson
Conference finals	Montreal vs. New York Islanders	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement

1994

Round	Series	Games covered	Play-by-play	Color commentator(s)	Ice level reporter(s)
Conference quarterfinals	New York Rangers vs. New York Islanders	Games 1, 4	Tom Mees (Game 1) Gary Thorne (Game 4)	Darren Pang (Game 1) Bill Clement (Game 4)	Bob Neumeier (Game 1) Al Morganti (Game 4)
	Dallas vs. St. Louis	Games 1, 4[61]	Gary Thorne (Game 1) Tom Mees (Game 4)	Bill Clement (Game 1) John Davidson (Game 4)	Al Morganti (Game 1)
Conference semifinals	New Jersey vs. Boston	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Al Morganti

The NHL returns to ABC (1999–2004)

In August 1998, ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 signed a five-year television deal with the NHL, worth a total of approximately US$600 million^[62][63] (or $120 million per year). The $120 million per year that ABC and ESPN paid for rights dwarfed the $5.5 million that the NHL received from American national broadcasts in the 1991–92 season.^[64] As previously mentioned, as was the case with the 1992-1994 deal, ABC's subsequent NHL coverage was in reality, made up of time–buys from ESPN. This was noted in copyright beds at the conclusion of the telecasts, i.e. "The preceding program has been paid for by ESPN, Inc." ESPN then signed a similar television rights contract in 2002 so it could produce and broadcast National Basketball Association games on ABC.

This time around, ABC televised four to five weeks worth of regional games on Saturday afternoons beginning in January. ABC also televised the National Hockey League All-Star Game^[65] and Games 3–7 of the Stanley Cup Finals^[66] in prime time. In the league's previous broadcast television deal with Fox, the network split coverage of the Stanley Cup Finals with ESPN. Games 1, 5 and 7 were usually scheduled to be televised by Fox; Games 2, 3, 4 and 6 by ESPN. However, from 1995 to 1998, the Finals were all four-game sweeps; 1999 ended in six games. The consequence was that – except for 1995, when Fox did televise Game 4 – the decisive game was never on network television.

2003 was the only year that ABC broadcast both the NBA and the Stanley Cup Finals that involved teams from one city in the same year, as both the New Jersey Nets and the New Jersey Devils were in their respective league's finals. During ABC's broadcast of Game 3 between the San Antonio Spurs and the Nets in New Jersey on June 8, Brad Nessler, Tom Tolbert and Bill Walton said that ABC was in a unique situation getting ready for both that game and Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals between the Devils and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim the following night, also at Continental Airlines Arena. Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and John Davidson mentioned this the following night, and thanked Nessler, Tolbert and Walton for promoting ABC's broadcast of Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.^[67]

Following the 2003–04 season, ESPN was only willing to renew its contract for two additional years at $60 million per year.^[68] ABC refused to televise the Stanley Cup Finals in prime time, suggesting that the Finals games it would telecast be played on weekend afternoons (including a potential Game 7). Disney executives later conceded that they overpaid for the 1999–2004 deal, so the company's offer to renew the television rights was lower in 2004.^[69]

Schedules

1999–2000

^[70]

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator crews
March 18	Pittsburgh at Boston New York Rangers at Philadelphia Dallas at Chicago Detroit at Colorado	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement
March 26	Pittsburgh at Philadelphia New York Rangers at Detroit St. Louis at Chicago Colorado at Dallas	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne and Bill Clement
April 1	New York Rangers at Boston Philadelphia at Pittsburgh Detroit at St. Louis Anaheim at Los Angeles	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
April 9	Philadelphia at New York Rangers St. Louis at Chicago Phoenix at Dallas Detroit at Colorado Los Angeles at Anaheim	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.

2000-01

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator crews
March 10	New Jersey at Philadelphia Detroit at St. Louis Colorado at Dallas	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 17	New York Rangers at Philadelphia Detroit at Colorado San Jose at Los Angeles	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose
March 24	Detroit at New York Rangers Colorado at Boston Anaheim at Los Angeles	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 31	New York Rangers at New Jersey Detroit at Philadelphia St. Louis at Pittsburgh Colorado at Los Angeles	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Dave Strader and Jim Schoenfeld
April 7	Pittsburgh at Philadelphia Colorado at Detroit Dallas at San Jose New York Rangers at Florida	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Dave Strader and Jim Schoenfeld Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose

2001-02

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator crews
January 5	Detroit at Colorado Pittsburgh at New York Rangers Washington at Boston	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang
January 12	New York Rangers at Philadelphia St. Louis at Pittsburgh Detroit at Dallas	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose Steve Levy and Darren Pang
March 2	New York Rangers at Philadelphia Detroit at Pittsburgh Dallas at Colorado	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
March 9	Pittsburgh at New York Rangers Detroit at St. Louis Colorado at Los Angeles	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Joe Micheletti Gary Thorne and Bill Clement Mike Emrick and Barry Melrose
March 16	Boston at Detroit New York Rangers at New Jersey Colorado at Philadelphia	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.

2002-03

^[71]

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator crews
January 11	Colorado at Dallas Detroit at Philadelphia New York Rangers at Pittsburgh	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.
February 8	Pittsburgh at Boston Colorado at Detroit New York Rangers at Philadelphia	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
March 15	Colorado at Detroit New York Rangers at New Jersey Philadelphia at Pittsburgh	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.
March 22	New York Rangers at Philadelphia Chicago at Colorado Detroit at St. Louis	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Brian Engblom
March 29	Detroit at St. Louis New York Rangers at Boston Phoenix at Colorado	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 12:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and John Davidson Steve Levy and Darren Pang Mike Emrick and Brian Engblom

2003-04

Date	Teams	Start times (All times Eastern)	Commentator crews
January 10	Detroit at Boston Colorado at Dallas New York Rangers at New York Islanders	1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m. 1:00 p.m.	Mike Emrick and Brian Engblom
February 14	New York Rangers at Philadelphia Colorado at Detroit Boston at Chicago	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and John Davidson Mike Emrick and Brian Engblom
March 13	Dallas at Detroit New Jersey at Philadelphia Los Angeles at San Jose	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and John Davidson Steve Levy and Darren Pang Mike Emrick and Brian Engblom
March 20	New York Rangers at Philadelphia St. Louis at Dallas	3:00 p.m. 3:00 p.m.	Steve Levy and Darren Pang Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and John Davidson
March 27	Colorado at Detroit New York Rangers at Philadelphia Los Angeles at Calgary	1:00 p.m. 1:30 p.m. 6:00 p.m.	Gary Thorne, Bill Clement and John Davidson Steve Levy and Darren Pang Mike Emrick and Brian Engblom

Stanley Cup playoffs

Year	Round	Teams	Games	Play-by-play	Color commentator(s)	Ice level reporter(s)
2000	Conference quarterfinals	Washington-Pittsburgh	Game 2	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Daryl Reaugh
		St. Louis-San Jose	Games 2, 6	Dave Strader (Game 2) Gary Thorne (Game 6)	Brian Hayward Bill Clement (Game 6)	Brian Engblom (Game 6)
		Colorado-Phoenix	Game 2	Mike Emrick	Barry Melrose	Joe Micheletti
		Detroit-Los Angeles	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
	Conference semifinals	Philadelphia-Pittsburgh	Games 2, 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom and Darren Pang (Game 5)
		Colorado-Detroit	Game 2	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Daryl Reaugh
	Conference finals	Philadelphia-New Jersey	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
		Dallas-Colorado	Game 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
2001	Conference quarterfinals	Washington-Pittsburgh	Games 2, 5	Dave Strader (Game 2) Gary Thorne (Game 5)	Jim Schoenfeld (Game 2) Bill Clement (Game 5)	Chris Simpson Brian Engblom (Game 5)
		Philadelphia-Buffalo	Games 2, 6	Steve Levy (Game 2) Mike Emrick (Game 6)	Darren Pang (Game 2) Barry Melrose (Game 6)	Mickey Redmond (Game 2) Joe Micheletti (Game 6)
		Detroit-Los Angeles	Games 2, 5	Mike Emrick (Game 2) Dave Strader (Game 5)	Barry Melrose (Game 2) Jim Schoenfeld (Game 5)	Joe Micheletti (Game 2) Chris Simpson (Game 5)
		St. Louis-San Jose	Games 2, 6	Gary Thorne (Game 2) Steve Levy (Game 6)	Bill Clement (Game 2) Darren Pang (Game 6)	Brian Engblom (Game 2) Mickey Redmond
	Conference semifinals	Buffalo-Pittsburgh	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy (Game 2) Gary Thorne (Game 5)	Darren Pang (Game 2) Bill Clement	Joe Micheletti (Game 2) Brian Engblom
		Colorado-Los Angeles	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
	Conference finals	New Jersey-Pittsburgh	Game 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
		Colorado-St. Louis	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
2002	Conference quarterfinals	Boston-Montreal	Game 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
		Carolina-New Jersey	Game 6	Mike Emrick	Barry Melrose	Chris Simpson
		Toronto-New York Islanders	Game 2	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
		Colorado-Los Angeles	Games 2, 6	Gary Thorne (Game 2) Steve Levy (Game 6)	Bill Clement (Game 2) Darren Pang (Game 6)	Brian Engblom (Game 2) Joe Micheletti (Game 6)
		San Jose-Phoenix	Game 2	Dave Strader	Jim Schoenfeld	Tony Granato
		St. Louis-Chicago	Game 2	Mike Emrick	Barry Melrose	Chris Simpson
	Conference semifinals	Detroit-St. Louis	Games 2, 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
		Colorado-San Jose	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
	Conference finals	Detroit-Colorado	Games 1, 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Brian Engblom
2003	Conference quarterfinals	Tampa Bay-Washington	Game 2	Mike Emrick	Brian Engblom
		Philadelphia-Toronto	Game 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Chris Simpson
		Detroit-Anaheim	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Chris Simpson
		Colorado-Minnesota	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang
	Conference semifinals	Ottawa-Philadelphia	Game 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Joe Micheletti
		New Jersey-Tampa Bay	Game 2	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement	Chris Simpson
		Dallas-Anaheim	Games 2, 5	Steve Levy (Game 2) Gary Thorne (Game 5)	Darren Pang (Game 2) Bill Clement and John Davidson (Game 5)	Chris Simpson (Game 5)
	Conference finals	Ottawa-New Jersey	Game 4	Steve Levy	Darren Pang and John Davidson	Joe Micheletti
		Minnesota-Anaheim	Game 1	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Brian Engblom
2004	Conference quarterfinals	Tampa Bay-New York Islanders	Game 2	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Erin Andrews
		Philadelphia-New Jersey	Game 5	Steve Levy	Darren Pang	Erin Andrews
		Detroit-Nashville	Games 2, 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson
		San Jose-St. Louis	Game 2	Mike Emrick	Brian Engblom
		Colorado-Dallas	Game 5	Mike Emrick	Brian Engblom
	Conference semifinals	Detroit-Calgary	Games 2, 5	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson
		San Jose-Colorado	Games 2, 5	Mike Emrick (Game 2) Steve Levy (Game 5)	Brian Engblom (Game 2) Darren Pang (Game 5)	Erin Andrews
	Conference finals	Tampa Bay-Philadelphia	Games 1, 4	Gary Thorne	Bill Clement and John Davidson	Sam Ryan (Game 1) and Joe Micheletti (Game 4)

On-air staff

Studio hosts

• John Saunders (1993–1994 and 1999–2004)
• John Davidson – analyst (1999–2002)
• Barry Melrose – analyst (2002–2004)

Stanley Cup Finals hosts

• Chris Berman (2003-2004)
• Al Michaels (2000–2002)

Play-by-play announcers

• Mike Emrick (1993–1994 and 1999–2004)
• Steve Levy (1999–2004)
• Al Michaels (1993–1994)^[72]
• Tom Mees (1993–1994)
• Bob Miller (1993–1994)
• Sam Rosen (1993–1994)^[73]
• Dave Strader (1999–2004)
• Gary Thorne (1993–1994 and 1999–2004)^[74]

Color commentators

• Bill Clement (1993–1994 and 1999–2004)
• John Davidson (1993–1994 and 2002–2003)
• Brian Engblom (2002–2004)
• Barry Melrose (1999–2002)
• Darren Pang (1993–1994 and 1999–2004)
• Jim Schoenfeld (1993–1994)

Reporters

• Brenda Brenon (1993–1994)^[75]
• Mark Jones (1993–1994)
• Tom Mees (1993–1994)
• Al Morganti (1993–1994)
• Bob Neumeier (1993–1994)

Nielsen ratings

National Hockey League coverage on ABC owned-and-operated television stations

Team	Stations	Years
Philadelphia Flyers	WPVI-TV 6	1983-1986
San Jose Sharks	KGO-TV 7	1991-1994

References

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External links

• Official site at the Wayback Machine (archived August 15, 2004)
• NHL, ESPN-ABC Seek Viewers
• Sports Media Watch: How Disney outfoxed the NHL.