Two sports that don't receive much talk, the NHL and Major League Soccer, are finally receiving great support from their TV partners. The NHL is getting two weekend dates on NBC during the playoffs, which included coverage Saturday of the Penguins' victory in Game 2 in Ottawa. MLS gets its own night on ESPN on Thursday, and Fox Soccer Channel on Saturdays.

This is important for the leagues to continue to grow. ESPN buried the NHL at the end of their contract and it really set the league behind. Now the NHL has NBC and Versus, who seem to be interested in growing the sport, and dedicating talented broadcasters to bring it to you. Like I have written before, the intensity of the NHL playoffs can not be matched by any other sport.

With MLS, both networks are adding pre- and postgame shows, and in those shows, they are including information on soccer around the world. With the increase in immigrants in the United States, soccer has an informed fan base that is only going to grow. So it makes sense to have more information than just about the game in America. Expect with David Beckham coming to the Galaxy for more coverage of the league.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 14th, 2007 at 4:37 pm and is filed under NHL, Soccer, TV. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.