247...Big Opportunity For CBC/HNIC

That's a big opportunity for Hockey Night In Canada. Seems that the American rights holder to the NHL Stanley Cup Final telecasts, NBC, is none too happy with the fact that both the Pittsburgh Penguins and the Detroit Red Wings have been holding viewing parties in and around their respective arenas when their teams are on the road.

Here is a cut and paste from the Detroit News morning edition:

There will be no Joe Vision broadcast of Tuesday night's Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Finals because NBC would not rescind its exclusive rights to the telecast.The game will not be shown at Pittsburgh's outdoor plaza either. At issue is television ratings, and a large crowd at Joe Louis Arena could be hundreds -- if not thousands -- of television sets not tuned in to NBC. "It is certainly something we wanted to show but were unable to secure the rights," said Steve Violetta, Senior Vice President of Business Affairs for the Wings. NBC representative Brian Walker did not immediately return a phone message for comment, but NHL media relations vice president Frank Brown confirmed the situation while expressing sympathy to Red Wings fans. "We are very much in tune and very sensitive to the great experience that fans have by coming to a great venue and watching a great hockey game," Brown said. "That said we need to be sensitive to the business end of things and that business is ratings driven."

Shortsighted, very, on the part of NBC but this is where CBC could and should step up to the plate, probably won't, but should. The Windsor station, channel 9 CBET, comes in nicely both over the air and on cable in the [former] Motor City so, iffen they wanted to, Joe Vision [referring to the Joe Louis Arena] could still come off.

A bit tricky dicky for certain but it could happen.

WFDS