NHL Net/NHL Radio Early Season Plans

From a release given out by the league:

NHL Radio

NHL Live!, the daily radio show that is broadcast from noon-2 p.m. ET on Sirius XM radio, simulcast on NHL Network and streamed on NHL.com, resumes Sept. 27.

Don LaGreca and E.J. Hradek will be the most-often deployed among a collection of hosts and analysts who interact daily with fans who call in and the League’s newsmakers. Regular appearances will be made by NHL insiders Eddie Olczyk, Ken Hitchcock, Bobby Holik, Bob McKenzie and Mike Milbury.

NHL Hour, the weekly radio show hosted by Commissioner Gary Bettman, will return for the 2010-11 season.

NHL Network

NHL Network’s signature show “NHL On The Fly” returns to the airwaves for nightly programming on opening night, October 7.

Special 2010-11 preview shows are scheduled for:

Monday, October 4: 8 p.m. – 9 p.m. ET – On The Fly Preview: Eastern Conference

Tuesday, October 5: 8 p.m. – 9 p.m. ET – On The Fly Preview: Western Conference

Wednesday, October 6: 8 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. ET – On The Fly Preview: Premiere Special

Despite difficult economic conditions, in 2009-10 the NHL posted its fourth consecutive year of strong business growth, engaging with a record number of fans. A recap of the success in each of the NHL’s key business segments:

Television – The NHL delivered record viewership

NBC: Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final was watched by 8.28 million viewers, the most-watched NHL game in the U.S. since 1974 (4.7 rating and 8 share).

· Broadcasts of NBC’s four Stanley Cup Final games averaged 6.1 million viewers, the best NHL network-TV series average in 13 years, and up 9 percent vs. 2009.

CBC: Game 6 of the Final averaged more than 4 million viewers (its highest audience ever for a U.S.-only final).

· Averaged 2.1 million viewers for playoffs, up 62 percent from 2009.

VERSUS: 2010 Playoffs were the most watched in network history and the best on cable since 2002

· The first two rounds on VERSUS delivered the best cable viewership on record (dating back to 1994).

TSN: Averaged more than 1.11 million viewers in 38 playoff games – 70 percent higher than 2009.

· Saw its highest audience ever (2.8 million) with Washington-Montreal Game 7.

RDS: Averaged 759,000 viewers for 65 telecasts, up 84 percent from 2008-09.

· Canadiens-Penguins Game 7 was the most-watched NHL telecast in the network’s history with 2.69 million viewers.

Regional Sports Networks: Viewership for 14 U.S. team RSNs was improved over 2008-09.

· Game 4 of the Conference Final between the Bruins and Flyers drew more viewers in Boston than competing coverage of the Celtics-Cavaliers NBA playoff game and a Yankees-Red Sox game.

· In Chicago, Game 4 of the Blackhawks’ first-round series vs. Nashville attracted more viewers than competing coverage of the Bulls-Cavaliers NBA playoff matchup, the Cubs’ game vs. the Mets and the NFL draft.

Digital – The NHL generated record online buzz

NHL.COM: Unique visitors to NHL.com were up 17 percent over last year’s record number.

· Page views were up 56 percent.

· Mobile page views were up 181 percent.

· More than 26.6 million unique visitors through the post season.

· Video starts on NHL.com finished up 161 percent over last year for the entire playoffs.

Google: Stanley Cup-related searches were five of Google’s top 20 on June 9 and 10.

Social media: More than 2.3 million total impressions for four Stanley Cup posts on Facebook. #StanleyCup was the No. 1 trending topic on Twitter during Game 6.

Winter Classic: Revenue from big event platforms, led by the Bridgestone NHL Winter Classic, was up 22 percent.

Sponsorship and Advertising: Sponsorship and advertising revenues were up 66 percent, despite continuing uncertain economic conditions.

Sales: The NHL drove record sales of merchandise and products:

· In-arena Stanley Cup Final merchandise sales were up 129 percent compared to 2009.

· Total playoff sales were up 22 percent.

· June 10 was Shop.NHL.com’s biggest day in its history and first million-dollar day.

Attendance: Arenas were filled to 102.3 percent capacity for the postseason, with an average of more than 19,000 fans. NHL teams played to nearly 93 percent of arena capacity, the third-highest regular season attendance figure ever.

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In Which I Finally Get My Paul Bissonnette Moment on Twitter

Now, I’m sure you’ve all heard about Paul Bissonnette and his Twitter handle “BizNasty“. I enjoy the man’s thoughts about the homeless and he seems like a genuinely fun, twisted human being with a ton of aggression. So I point out the brief argument I got into with him on Twitter is in mere jest, because I like the guy and because it wasn’t even an argument. He throttled me.

It was all stemmed from tweet he made earlier:

Wanna say hey to all my biznatches out there. Tomorows Friday, get ur nails & hair did, trim ur unit, look good for the weekend.

I noticed that it was similar to the Drake song, “Fancy”, in lyrical tone and personal desire, so I pointed out that – being from Ontario, as Drake is – perhaps he swindled it from Aubrey. He was not thrilled:

@stevelepore stole what u monson [sic].

I was medium, but I was kidding I embraced the nerds. Had to get my homework done somehow. Bing bang boom.

They invented so the cool kids in class could throw at the @stevelepore of the class.

What’s disturbing is that he’s totally right. I am a nerd. I didn’t know I was a monsoon (that’s what he meant, right? A monsoon?) I’m kind of honored. So I ask that Mr. BizNasty please understand that it was all in a good fun, and embrace me sometime. Not in a nasty way, but, you know, maybe let’s have a beer next time the Yotes are in Jersey? You have more than one on me if you want.

And, you know, you could always follow me on Twitter if you need some homework done.