Each of the NHL's 30 teams can have a up to, and no more than, 50 players contracted in the clubs system. With a maximum of 23 of those assigned to the NHL team there has to be somewhere else for all the other players to play, providing they are signed to a two-way contract. This is where the AHL (American Hockey League) & ECHL (East Coast Hockey League) come in. The vast majority find themselves playing for their NHL's AHL affiliate team compared to a handful who play in the ECHL. One problem the NHL teams find is the location of AHL teams. As the premier minor league for player development it is staggeringly lopped sided geographically. With 20 of the 30 AHL teams playing in the East and Central timezones plus St Johns who are in Newfoundland time.
Saturday 10 January 2015
NHL loses court motion to dismiss TV rights lawsuit
Two years ago 6 NHL fans filed the lawsuit in New York. The lawsuit centres on the relationship between the NHL's TV broadcast rights, nationally and locally, and the NHL Centre Ice package. The aim of the case is allow NHL teams to sell broadcast rights to stations outside of their local market.
NHL Centre Ice is a subscription service offered by cable and satellite providers in the United States and Canada that allows viewers to watch out of market NHL games for $179 a season. Primarily aimed at fans, like one of the plaintiffs Thomas Laumann, who lives in Florida and is a fan of the New York Islanders. His argument in the case is that if he wants to watch Islanders games he has to pay the fee for a Centre Ice subscription but in market games are not broadcast on Centre Ice meaning he has to pay $10 a month for access to the local TV station that broadcasts either Tampa Bay Lightning or Florida Panthers games. The claim that the restrictions on broadcasting are inappropriately driving up the price of sports cable TV packages.
NHL Centre Ice is a subscription service offered by cable and satellite providers in the United States and Canada that allows viewers to watch out of market NHL games for $179 a season. Primarily aimed at fans, like one of the plaintiffs Thomas Laumann, who lives in Florida and is a fan of the New York Islanders. His argument in the case is that if he wants to watch Islanders games he has to pay the fee for a Centre Ice subscription but in market games are not broadcast on Centre Ice meaning he has to pay $10 a month for access to the local TV station that broadcasts either Tampa Bay Lightning or Florida Panthers games. The claim that the restrictions on broadcasting are inappropriately driving up the price of sports cable TV packages.
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