Before the USA Network came to be (1969–1980) Manhattan Cable and HBO (1969–1977) Manhattan Cable (subsequently referred to as the
MSG Network) debuted in the spring of 1969 and did all home events from the
Madison Square Garden:
New York Knicks basketball,
New York Rangers hockey, college basketball, horse shows,
Golden Gloves boxing, tennis, the
Westminster Dog Show, ice capades, professional wrestling, etc. The first reference to the channel as “MSG Network” was sometime around 1971–72, although the name did not become official until 1977. The first televised events were
NHL and
NBA playoffs in the spring of 1969; in those playoffs
Marty Glickman did play-by-play for the
Knicks broadcasts while
Win Elliott did play-by-play for the
Rangers. Meanwhile,
HBO began simulcasting some MSG games in 1972 beginning with the
Rangers/
Vancouver Canucks game on November 8,
1972 (the first ever program televised on HBO, to a few subscribers in
Wilkes-Barre, PA). 1974–75 marked the only year in which HBO used MSG announcers for their feed. Because HBO is a premium cable service, this created a burden on announcers to fill in dead airtime on HBO while commercials aired on MSG Network. HBO did not broadcast Knicks or Rangers games after the 1976–77 season.
UA-Columbia (1977–1980) When the MSG/HBO marriage ended in 1977, Madison Square Garden proceeded to seek a new partner to launch a national network to show off its events. So for several years, beginning with the 1977–78 season, all MSG home events (such as those involving the
Knicks,
Rangers, etc.) were then televised on a fledgling network that would eventually become known as the USA Network. This channel, which debuted on September 22,
1977, was a continuation of the existing MSG Network. The key difference, however, was that it was now nationally syndicated via satellite rather than terrestrially. It was also the first cable channel to be supported by advertising revenues. By this time (as previously alluded to), the channel was officially called the “Madison Square Garden Network” or MSG Network. In , the
National Hockey League replaced their
syndicated coverage package
The NHL Network with a package on USA. At the time, the USA Network was called
UA-Columbia. As the immediate forerunner for the USA Network, UA-Columbia, served as the cable syndicated arm of not only
MSG Network in
New York, but also
PRISM channel in
Philadelphia, and whatever pay/cable outlets were around in
1979.
The formation of the USA Network On April 9,
1980, the Madison Square Garden Network changed its name to the
USA Network. This occurred when the ownership structure was reorganized under a
joint operating agreement by the
UA-
Columbia Cablevision cable system (now known as
Cablevision Systems Corporation) and
MCA (then the parent of
Universal Studios, now owned by
NBC Universal). Things took a step further one year later when
Time Inc. (which eventually merged with Warner Communications to form
Time Warner) and
Paramount Pictures Corp. (then a division of
Gulf+Western, now owned by
Viacom) took minority ownership stakes in the USA. G+W also owned the New York Rangers and the
MSG regional sports television network (both later owned by Cablevision, but spun off in 2010).
Coverage overview (1979–1985) As previously mentioned USA's (or UA-Columbia as it was known at the time) coverage begin in the
1979–80 season as a Monday night series with
Dan Kelly doing play-by-play alongside a variety of commentators including
Pete Stemkowski,
Lou Nanne, and
Brian McFarlane. Scott Wahle was the intermission host.
1980–81 season For the season, some Sunday night games were added. Dan Kelly once again, did most of the play-by-play alongside
Mike Eruzione. Dick Carlson and
Jiggs McDonald also did play-by-play work on occasion. In addition,
Don Cherry was a commentator for at least one game. Meanwhile, Jim West was the host for most games. With USA's coverage of the
1981 Stanley Cup playoffs, it marked the first time that there was "blanket" American television coverage of the NHL playoffs. In other words, more often, whenever a game was played it was televised on a national outlet (whether it was broadcast or cable). USA however, did not televise Game 1 of the playoff series between
Philadelphia Flyers and
Calgary Flames (April 16) because they were instead broadcasting a
baseball game between the
Pittsburgh Pirates and Philadelphia Phillies. Meanwhile, they also skipped Games 2–6 (on April 17, 22, and 24) of the Philadelphia–Calgary series because of their
coverage of the
NBA playoffs. USA also missed Games 2 and 5 of the playoff series between the
Calgary Flames and
Minnesota North Stars (April 30 and May 7 respectively) because of baseball games involving the
Minnesota Twins vs. the
Boston Red Sox and the
Los Angeles Dodgers vs. the
Philadelphia Phillies respectively.
1981–82 season In the season,
Al Trautwig took over as studio host. Dan Kelly did play-by-play with either
Gary Green or
Rod Gilbert on color commentary. For the
playoffs, Dick Carlson and
Al Albert were added as play-by-play voices of some games. Meanwhile,
Jim Van Horne hosted
Stanley Cup Finals games played in Vancouver. In April 1982, USA outbid
ESPN for the NHL's American national television cable package with $8 million (at least $2 million more than what ESPN was offering).
1982–83 and 1983–84 seasons Things pretty much remained the same for USA during the season. Dan Kelly and Gary Green called most games, while Al Albert did play-by-play or hosted on several
playoff games, including two games of the
Stanley Cup Finals from
Nassau Coliseum. USA didn't cover any playoff games on April 7, 1983, because they were
broadcasting second-round highlights of
The Masters. This was followed by a
West Coast NBA telecast. In the season, USA covered over 40 games including the
playoffs. While Gary Green did all games, Dan Kelly and Al Albert did roughly 20 games each. Meanwhile, Jiggs McDonald helped broadcast at least one game. Because the USA Network was airing
Masters highlights, Game 1 of the 1984 playoff series between the
Minnesota North Stars and
St. Louis Blues (April 12) and Game 2 of the playoff series between the
New York Islanders and Washington Capitals (April 13) were aired on
tape delay at 10 p.m.
Eastern Time.
1984–85 season For USA's final full season of NHL coverage in , Dan Kelly and Gary Green once again, did most games, while Al Albert and Green called the rest. In all, the USA Network covered about 55 games, including 33 in the regular season. Also,
Hartford Whalers goaltender
Mike Liut was added as a studio analyst for the
Stanley Cup Finals. Meanwhile, for increased publicity opportunities, the
Stroh Brewing Company turned to such sports as hockey—which had been overlooked by
Anheuser and
Miller—and sponsored broadcasts of National Hockey League games on the USA cable network. Seldom during the early rounds of the playoffs did USA carry an away game of one of the three New York-area teams (
New York Rangers,
New York Islanders, or
New Jersey Devils) since
WOR-TV New York, at the time available on most of the nation's cable television systems, often carried that away game of the New York-area team both locally in New York and on its "superstation" feed. One exception was a playoff game between two of the New York-area clubs, since WOR was usually barred from carrying it since the home team's cable-television contract superseded the visiting club's over-the-air television deal.
Between 1985 and 2015 After the 1984–85 season, the
NHL Board of Governors chose to have the USA Network and
ESPN submit sealed bids. ESPN won by bidding nearly $25 million for three years, about twice as much as the USA Network had been paying. The contract called for ESPN to air up to 33 regular season games each season, the NHL All-Star game, and the Stanley Cup playoffs. After the USA Network lost the rights to the NHL to ESPN, they largely abandoned sports after the early 1990s as the
channel shifted almost exclusively to scripted entertainment. Beginning in 2006, USA began carrying some coverage of top level hockey by cooperating with
NBC's coverage of
ice hockey at the Winter Olympics in
2006,
2010, and
2014; these games were mostly
daytime contests that would not preempt the network's increasingly popular prime time programs.
Selected early-round playoff games, 2015–2021 As part of a 2011 contract renewal,
Comcast's properties earned exclusive national rights for all
Stanley Cup playoffs through 2021. Because NBC and
NBC Sports Network cannot carry all of the games on those two outlets alone, other Comcast properties would need to be used; USA was initially not used, due to the risk of preempting its popular prime time lineup, and the company instead used
CNBC and
NHL Network as the overflow channels for the first four years of the contract. In 2015, Comcast announced that the USA Network would carry some games in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, mainly on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, returning the NHL to USA Network for the first time since 1985. On January 22, 2021, an internal memo sent by NBC Sports president Pete Bevacqua announced that NBCSN would cease operations by the end of the year, and that
USA Network would begin "carrying and/or simulcasting certain NBC Sports programming," including the Stanley Cup playoffs and
NASCAR races, before NBCSN's shutdown.
Peacock, NBCUniversal's new streaming service, will also carry some of the network's former programming starting in 2022. The move was cited by industry analysts as a response to the impact of the
COVID-19 pandemic on the
sports and
television industries, the acceleration of
cord-cutting, as well as formidable competition from rival sports networks such as
ESPN and
Fox Sports 1. But with the NBC Sports contract expiring at the end of the
2020–21 season, the league desired to split its U.S. national media rights between multiple broadcasters. On March 10, 2021, the NHL announced that
ESPN/
ABC would serve as one of the new rightsholders under a seven-year contract. Its deal included 25 regular season games for
ESPN and
ABC (including opening night, the All-Star Game, and other special events), 75 exclusively telecasts and all out-of-market games on
ESPN+, rights to half of the Stanley Cup playoffs, first choice of Conference Finals, and four Stanley Cup Finals over the length of the contract. On April 26, 2021,
Sports Business Journal reported that NBC had officially pulled out of bidding for future NHL rights. The next day,
Turner Sports announced that they had agreed to a seven-year deal to be the other NHL rightsholder, including up to 72 regular season games including the
Winter Classic, the other half of the Stanley Cup playoffs, and three Stanley Cup Finals. Analysts believed that once ESPN obtained not only more Stanley Cup Finals (four out of three) than NBC desired but also overall hockey content, it was not worth spending more money on a smaller package in contrast to what they were last paying the NHL. ==List of commentators==