NHL Latest League to Launch Niche Network, But Who Will Watch?

The National Hockey League becomes the latest sports entity to start an in-house television network, joining the National Football League, the National Basketball Association, plus the golf and tennis worlds.

The NHL Network is launching this month in the United States on Cablevision, Comcast, Cox Communications, DIRECTV, DISH Network and Time Warner Cable. The all-pucks outlet will be available in 75 million of the 112.8 million U.S. households with televisions, but it will cost customers a few extra dollars a month for the digital tier on which it will be placed.

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Will viewers tune in? The NHL has been hard-pressed to garner viewership through free TV (on NBC) and on cable (Comcast's Versus).

Now the NHL Network, which has been in Canadian homes since 2001, will require fans to pay that additional cost. Even sports fans may draw the line at an ever-increasing cable bill.

"The NHL makes it more difficult and hurts themselves when fewer people are exposed through a deal like this,'' Marc Ganis, a Chicago-based sports industry consultant, says ``Then again, the NHL on free TV isn't generating much revenue. There's no question that the NHL is great live, but probably translates the worst of any sport to television."