King Broadcasting’s grudge against hockey

It’s nice to see a local team with a chance to win our first major sports championship in my lifetime (basketball is not a sport). That local team is the Vancouver Canucks. That’s right. I’m a Washingtonian who views Vancouver, BC as local.

I’m not alone. I don’t know anybody, yet I have met my share of hockey fans here in the Puget Sound region. With the closest hockey team making it to the Stanley Cup Finals, the local media hasn’t been able to ignore the sport… for the most part. NBC had the rights to air game 1. KING demoted the game to their sister station, KONG. Despite having hockey appearing on their website’s front page, they refuse to allow these games to interfere with the news and filler programming.

This is the largest American market within the influence of the Canucks and the closest American station to the favorites to win the Stanley Cup, and we can’t get decent local coverage. KING is insulting the sport, the fans, and the entire region. Add this to the station’s tendency to support NBC’s blatant mistreatment of the Pacific Northwest, and you should understand why I don’t care for this station.

Perhaps KING has a good excuse. American hockey coverage is absolutely pathetic. Here in the Puget Sound region, we have an alternative. All of the local cable providers carry CBC’s Vancouver affiliate, CBUT. I didn’t even realize KING’s embarrassing decision at first because I knew better than to watch the NBC/Versus nightmare. I was watching the game on CBUT. It’s possible that KING simply knew that they couldn’t compete with Canadian television. Why try?

Regardless of whatever excuse they can think of to treat potential viewers like dirt, I am certainly not going to support King Broadcasting any time soon. I’m sure they won’t mind. NBC hasn’t had any good shows in decades. The only local programming that has ever stood out on that channel was Almost Live. Since they cancelled that show and moved Saturday Night “Live” up a half hour, what’s left? I’m not going to watch any of their programming in the near future, but that’s not a change for me.