[sureLoss]

NBC says screw you to NHL: will not show any NHL games on any NBC platform during the Olympics

http://nypost.com/2017/09/23/nhls-de...embarrassment/

The NHL is refusing to send its athletes to the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea, because the league does not want to go dark for nearly three mid-winter weeks. But you know that by now.

What you probably are not aware of, however, is the NHL nevertheless will go dark across all NBC platforms between Feb. 7-26, during the Games. Last season, NBC and NBCSN combined to telecast 20 NHL games over the comparable period.

This is a network decision that several industry sources in touch with Slap Shots over the past two weeks interpret as nothing less than the league’s U.S. national television rights-holder giving a symbolic middle finger to Gary Bettman and the Board of Governors for withholding its players from one of NBC’s most important properties.

The gap between the above-cited dates did exist in the telecast schedule released by NBC in July. But it had been assumed the network would announce added games at a later date. That is certainly the premise under which the NHL was operating, as you learn in a moment.

But not so. NBC Sports Group VP of communications Chris McCloskey wrote in an email exchange that the agreement with the league allows the network to add games but that, “As of now, there are no changes.”