After hockey fans let out a collective groan during Game 1 of the Winnipeg Jets-St. Louis Blues series because TNT Sports did not send broadcasters to the game, more disappointment is on the horizon.
According to a report from Rob Rossi of The Athletic, TNT Sports will call three additional first-round games remotely from the network’s Atlanta headquarters. Games 3 and 4 of the Los Angeles Kings-Edmonton Oilers series and Game 4 of the Toronto Maple Leafs-Ottawa Senators series will be called without on-site announcers. Any elimination game, barring a series sweep for the Oilers or Senators, will have announcers on-location.
Predictably, the decision was primarily made for financial reasons. Per Rossi, “Fully covering a game on-site — particularly in smaller Canadian cities — requires a significant financial investment, including the presence of a mobile production truck with technicians, plus the travel costs for on-air talent.”
TNT Sports also cited a busy spring schedule as a determining factor. The network is in the midst of its NBA playoff schedule, as well as its regular season MLB package.
The NHL’s other U.S. broadcast partner, ESPN, is sending full production crews and announcing teams to all playoff games, despite also carrying a busy spring programming lineup that includes NBA and MLB.
“Turner Sports’ view, according to the source, is that, outside of Toronto and Montreal, travel to some Canadian markets presents logistical challenges, especially given the volume of other games its networks broadcast for three North American leagues,” Rossi writes. “Instead of deploying a production truck and a full crew to Winnipeg, Edmonton and Ottawa, the company has partnered with Canada’s Sportsnet to assign 10 to 12 Canadian-based technicians to deliver a ‘world’ video feed of these games.”
While it seems that remote broadcasts have been limited to just four games throughout the playoffs, it’s still a bad look for TNT. No network should be calling playoff games from a “Big 4” North American sports league from thousands of miles away. It’s a disservice to fans and to the league itself.