Taking over for
ESPN, SportsChannel's contract paid US$51 million ($17 million per year) over three years, more than double what ESPN had paid ($24 million) for the previous three years SportsChannel America managed to get a fourth NHL season for just $5 million. The SportsChannel America deal was in a sense, a power play created by
Charles Dolan and
Bill Wirtz. Dolan was still several years away from getting control of
Madison Square Garden, and Wirtz owned 25% of
SportsChannel Chicago.
NHL president John Ziegler convinced the
board of governors that SportsChannel America was a better alternative than a proposed NHL Channel backed by
Paramount and
Viacom that had interests in the
MSG Network and
NESN.
SportsChannel's availability Unfortunately,
SportsChannel America was only available in a few major markets (notably absent though were
Detroit,
Pittsburgh, and
St. Louis) and reached only a 1/3 of the households that
ESPN did at the time. SportsChannel America was seen in fewer than 10 million households. In comparison, by the
1991–92 season, ESPN was available in 60.5 million homes whereas SportsChannel America was available in only 25 million. As a matter of fact, in the first year of the deal (), SportsChannel America was available in only 7 million homes when compared to ESPN's reach of 50 million. When the SportsChannel deal ended in
1992, the league returned to ESPN for another contract that would pay US$80 million over five years. SportsChannel America took advantage of using their
regional sports networks' feed of a game, graphics and all, instead of producing a show from the ground up, most of the time. Distribution of SportsChannel America across the country was limited to cities that had a SportsChannel regional sports network or affiliate. Very few cable systems in non-NHL territories picked it up as a stand-alone service, with many only taking it on a
pay-per-view basis during the
Stanley Cup Final. In addition to the SportsChannel regional networks,
Maryland-based
Home Team Sports and
Minneapolis-based
Midwest Sports Channel (independently owned and operated despite the similar sounding name) carried the games. In 1991, two
Prime Sports networks,
KBL (
Pittsburgh) and
Prime Sports Northwest agreed to carry the playoff package, expanding it reach to an additional 2.6 million homes.
Philadelphia Since
SportsChannel Philadelphia did not air until January
1990,
PRISM (owned by Rainbow Media, the owners of SportsChannel, at the time) picked up the
1989 Stanley Cup Final. Other than that, there was no NHL television coverage in Philadelphia except for the
Flyers for the first half of the original deal.
Lawsuit As previously mentioned, the NHL would return to ESPN following the
1991–92 season. Shortly after the ESPN deal was signed, SportsChannel America would contend that its contract with the NHL gave them the right to match third-party offers for television rights for the
1992–93 season. SportsChannel America accused the NHL of violating a nonbinding clause. SportsChannel America argued that it had been deprived of its contractual
right of first refusal for the 1992–93 season.
Appellate Division of New York State Supreme Court justice Shirley Fingerwood would deny SportsChannel America's request for an
injunction against the NHL. Upholding that opinion, the
appellate court found the agreement on which SportsChannel based its argument to be "too imprecise and ambiguous" and ruled that SportsChannel failed to show irreparable harm. In the aftermath of losing the NHL, SportsChannel America was left with little more than outdoors shows and
Canadian Football League games. For SportsChannel, the deal was a disaster overall. While the cable channel three years later, was available in 20 million homes (as previously mentioned), the broadcaster lost as much as $10 million on the agreement, and soon faded into obscurity. Some local SportsChannel stations – which carried NHL games in their local markets – were not affected. ==Coverage overview==