NBC Strikes Again; Relegates USA-Canada Hockey Game To MSNBC

Apparently Comcast has not helped NBC brass get their heads out of their ass. I'm in the process of writing a paper so I don't have much time to elaborate or go into much commentary, but the incompetent morons at NBC have struck again. Instead of putting the big February 21 showdown between USA and Canada on NBC, they have instead pulled their collective heads together and decided what on earth could be a bigger draw than one of the biggest hockey rivalries today. Their answer: Men's giant slalom, women's speedskating, men's freestyle skiing, and the ever popular ice dancing! THIS IS GENIUS! Puck Daddy actually got in contact with NBC and they gave him a couple of bullshit excuses explanations for dumping a huge hockey game for garbage, er, ice dancing.

So we reached out to NBC for comment and context, and found out who gets the blame for this malarkey: American women.

According to the network, there are three major sporting events that have more female viewers than male viewers: the Kentucky Derby, the Summer Olympics and the Winter Olympics. Turning three hours of prime-time coverage on the East Coast over to a hockey game isn't exactly catnip to those casual female viewers, despite Sidney Crosby's(notes) pouty lips.

Ice dancing, like figure skating, is a demographic draw; it's the hook for a night of coverage that appeals to a broader audience than hockey does. But it's not the only reason USA/Canada was shifted to the home of Keith Olbermann's foaming mouth.

In essence, committing to a hockey game is committing to a three-hour programming block that can't be interrupted. Imagine the outrage if NBC cut away during the second period of USA/Canada because someone was taking a historic bobsled run. Ice dancing allows for drop-ins at other events, which is another reason NBC believes it's the best option in East Coast prime time.

Now, aside from the indignation of having hockey shuffled off to cable, there's been some concern from hockey fans about the quality of that coverage: namely, that MSNBC may not have the HD hockey coverage that NBC would have had.

MSNBC's HD station was rolled out last summer, and one of the last major holdouts finally came around this week: Verizon FiOS, which added the network to its digital HD tier. Chances are the U.S./Canada tilt will be in HD in your area, if you have digital cable or satellite with an HD package.

NBC told us with pride that it's offering an enormous amount of hockey on its networks; a full schedule of games is here, and the majority of them are on cable – although the Russia/Czech game scheduled before Canada/USA will be on NBC that afternoon on the East Coast.

The bronze-medal game for men's hockey is scheduled for 10 p.m. EST on Saturday, Feb. 27, on MSNBC, with the gold-medal game on NBC the following day. (Keep in mind NBC told us there is some flexibility in moving games from network to network if there's a reason to – such as, perhaps, Team USA playing for the bronze.)

If you're interested in watching games on the Web, NBC is streaming hockey while dropping the hammer on sites that stream live TV.

Uhhh.....you do realize that while not a broader audience, that you would actually get more viewers with the USA-Canada hockey game? Right? Am I right?

Sigh.

Complete idiocy. And these idiots wonder why they are projecting a $200 million dollar loss. Frankly, Conan O'Brien described NBC brass better than I ever could, so I'll give him the final words, get back to my paper, and I'll talk to you later.