[woodguy]

I was listening to Bettman spin this on the radio and he said that this was a key:

[ QUOTE ]
The deal with Comcast goes beyond just television rights. Comcast will bring the NHL Network to cable systems in the United States, and provide on-demand game broadcasts and computer streaming of live games.

[/ QUOTE ]

In Canada PPV hockey games are good business for the league and they want to do that in the States as well.

That, and ESPN stated publically they wouldn't pay more than $30MIllion for the rights.

If you have a satellite, Roger's Sportnet in Canada carries a ton of games. They have 4 different viewing regions up here and are the rights holders for local broadcasts, so if you get all 4 channels you can often have 3 different games in the same night.

Regards,
Woodguy