Half way through year 1. Everyone's thoughts of Sportsnets "Monopoly"?

[robertsfanatic]

Originally Posted by MrMastodonFarm

Nick Kypreos has shockingly emerged as a legit broadcasting star. He's been great this season. The end of HNIC with him, Hrudey and Elliotte Friedman is consistently the best part of the evening.

I am in the minority on this board then because I can't stand Kypreos...and most people I talk to agree.

Oh well, to each their own.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by robertsfanatic

I am in the minority on this board then because I can't stand Kypreos...and most people I talk to agree.

Oh well, to each their own.

Well to be fair kyper is clearly benefitting from some incredibly low expectations, so not like it was that hard for him to exceed them

[combustiblefuel]

Originally Posted by TorqueDog

I'm with AC in that the picture quality is really bad.

Its easy to fix yourself tho. You shouldn't have to but its self fixable. I just change the settings(brightness,contrast Hue,colour temps...) I save the setting and just change to it to that for the games. Problem solved.

[AC]

Originally Posted by combustiblefuel

Its easy to fix yourself tho. You shouldn't have to but its self fixable. I just change the settings(brightness,contrast Hue,colour temps...) I save the setting and just change to it to that for the games. Problem solved.

Not quite, there's a distinct loss of detail in the Sportsnet broadcasts.

Look at the ice in particular, its a blurry mess.

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Well to be fair kyper is clearly benefitting from some incredibly low expectations, so not like it was that hard for him to exceed them

You can argue that RSN has benefited by most Canadian fans in general having low expectations. It's not as bad as I feared but really Flames fans opinions are a little clouded due to the new talent on the regional broadcasts. If Kerr and Simmer were still calling the games I would argue that fans wouldn't be nearly as happy with the overall product. Oilers broadcasts in comparison still stink like they did last year with the same crew.

[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by Aleks

How are you guys watching more games than before? As a Telus subscriber I haven't noticed a single bit of difference in terms of availability. I still get the same stupid blackouts, I can watch warmups and pregame and then boom regional restriction. Its been frustrating as I expected more broadcasts. Saturday nights is still CBC anyhow, I still think the whole thing is exactly the same. So count me in the thumbs down pile

There are by far more games on national television than ever. There is a major increase on the Sat. games. The regional blackouts happen on the non national days and very few on Sun. and Wed.

Check this out for the amount of games for canadian teams, http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpost.php?p=4942441&postcount=70

[Tsawwassen]

It has been terrific having Sportsnet take over TSN and CBC. Not perfect but refreshing to not have Aaron Ward and Darren Dreger. Healy sucks too, Cox seems clueless, and undecided on Strombo. Love the extra games and that national Flames games are not pre-empted because of a stupid Leaf game going into the SO. The SN channels that SN owns are used when a game goes longer than expected. TSN could never figure that out.

[HotHotHeat]

I've found myself watching the other teams broadcast a lot. Just can't deal with the bad production quality. AC's post is a perfect example. 11.5 more years.

[StrykerSteve]

Rogers Gamecenter is different than NHL GameCenter?

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Tsawwassen

There are by far more games on national television than ever. There is a major increase on the Sat. games. The regional blackouts happen on the non national days and very few on Sun. and Wed.

Check this out for the amount of games for canadian teams, http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showpost.php?p=4942441&postcount=70

Yeah, that is one of the few real positives out of Rogers. Because HNIC is considered national, you were SOL if you wanted to watch the Canadiens, Habs or Jets when CBC split the network and gave us Toronto. All of those games were blacked out on centre ice, even though they weren't actually available in our region.

[The_Future]

Originally Posted by StrykerSteve

Rogers Gamecenter is different than NHL GameCenter?

Rogers Game Center is Canadian based, if you live in the US you subscribe to NHL Game Center. It's only confusing on some devices like Roku where you can't sign in. Even on NHL.com you can't directly sign in you need to sign in on the Rogers site first. I don't know if there is a difference but it cost me some confusion in the beginning.

[Stay Golden]

Less the CBC and their hub of CBC self promoted programs during hockey games the better.
Also their extreme bias coverage over the years has become just the CBC, simply a dose of rhetoric.

[combustiblefuel]

Originally Posted by AC

Not quite, there's a distinct loss of detail in the Sportsnet broadcasts.

Look at the ice in particular, its a blurry mess.

I've never seen the difference .my feeds usually just seem a little darker then I prefer. It seems excellent on my t.v. and Xbox.

[browna]

For the Flames, which is all i watch, great upgrade. I'll take inconsistent picture and the odd sound glitch and Ball and Hrudey over what we had the last two years, any day. Really really fortunate to have that team doing the regional broadcasts, especially the amateur hour we had to deal with the past two years. Ball has a great delivery, sounds like he enjoys what he's doing and enjoys the Flames style, and while not getting too homerish, the big moments sound like the big moments. He keeps up, in addition to inserting relevant points without taking over, and Hrudey then doesn't have to cover for him (as Simmer had to for Kerr) and that allows Hrudey to add some great color and background to the game. Overall, that upgrade in crew alone makes watching/listening (if eyes cant be on the TV full time) to the game enjoyable again.

The intermissions are decent; you can tell they're trying as opposed to last years where it seemed that having to talk about the Flames was interrupting discussion they were having about the Leafs, and Leah Hextall is a great host to get decent discussion out there.

Saturday nights, and all I've watched really are the games and then the post game, is really well done too. The whole crew seem to have a decent chemistry, even if you have a guy like Cox on there which dumbs things down. George S. does a good job and gets decent dialogue going (unlike McLean the last few years who had to take over the conversation before it got started) and Kypreos, Friedman, and Hrudey work well off each other.

I think a big part of that is that they have an extended amount of time...not having to rush to throw opinions in there in the 20 seconds you have in a 2 minute segment like all the intermissions try to cram in. They get a few player/coach interviews post game, and again, the dialogue is more organic than scripted, and that sort of casualness lends to more interesting things/stories coming out.

Those who watch mainly the Flames (as I said, don't watch much if any hockey other than the Flames) and are still complaining about little things here and there, are far too picky/have real short memories over what had to be dealt with the last couple years on the play by play which IMO is the biggest part of watching/following the game when you sit down in front of the TV.

[Vulcan]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Yeah, that is one of the few real positives out of Rogers. Because HNIC is considered national, you were SOL if you wanted to watch the Canadiens, Habs or Jets when CBC split the network and gave us Toronto. All of those games were blacked out on centre ice, even though they weren't actually available in our region.

I wasn't SOL. If you have Bell TV you could watch CBC Montreal, Ottawa or Winnipeg to get the games. CBC also streamed the games IIRC.

[cral12]

Hockey coverage could use a little less (i.e a lot less) Damien Cox...

[Resolute 14]

Originally Posted by Vulcan

I wasn't SOL. If you have Bell TV you could watch CBC Montreal, Ottawa or Winnipeg to get the games. CBC also streamed the games IIRC.

I paid for Centre Ice, so it was stupid to expect me to pay for time shifted channels too. The web was nice, but likewise inconvenient.

[Resolute 14]

Anyway, All-Star Game ratings were down right across the board. The draft was down over 60% from 2012, the last time the game was held. Rogers blames Numeris for it, even though it is the same system today as in 2012.

Of particular note is that the skills comp outdrew the game itself. Ouch.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh...170220354.html

It also appears the sponsors aren't terribly impressed with the monopoly...

David Pagnotta ‏@TheFourthPeriod Ratings for ASG without a doubt another concern for broadcast sponsors, who are already upset and already receiving make-goods.

https://twitter.com/TheFourthPeriod/...98763257122816

[Beatle17]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Anyway, All-Star Game ratings were down right across the board. The draft was down over 60% from 2012, the last time the game was held. Rogers blames Numeris for it, even though it is the same system today as in 2012.

Of particular note is that the skills comp outdrew the game itself. Ouch.

https://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/eh...170220354.html

It also appears the sponsors aren't terribly impressed with the monopoly...

https://twitter.com/TheFourthPeriod/...98763257122816

Maybe the ratings were off because it was a crap display of hockey and nobody wanted to watch. You may be able to sell non-hockey fans in different markets the hype but Canadian fans usually won't watch that garbage. I don't think it had anything to do with the RSN broadcast itself.

[driveway]

I watch hockey exclusively on international NHL Gamecenter and I find myself avoiding the Sportsnet broadcasts like the plague. Originally it started because I prefer to hear what the other team's announcers have to say about the Flames, but as I've watched more and more games of other teams, I find myself steering clear of Sportsnet pretty much completely.

A couple of reasons for this: I don't know what it is, but Sportsnet broadcasts are the ones that are the most buggy on Gamecenter, the most likely to freeze, enter into buffering hell, etc. Also, I don't know what the hell they are doing but the sound is garbage with SN. Either they do something, or they FAIL to do something to the crowd noise that NBC does, but games on NBC sound so much better, regardless of the building or the game situation.

It's shameful that games in New Jersey sound like the crowd is bigger and more engaged than games in Calgary, Edmonton, or Vancouver. Well, actually, hearing the dead silence in Rexall is pretty awesome.
NBC has become an excellent hockey broadcaster, I'm always stoked to watch one of their broadcasts.

And, for the record I watch at least one, if not two complete games everyday and the "condensed" game for everything else, so I'm watching piles and piles of hockey. I'm seriously glad I have the international gamecenter. If I moved back to Canada, I'd keep it and route my browser through a VPN just to avoid Sportsnet.