High-definition television images are luring more American eyeballs to professional hockey and invigorating the NHL's prospects in the U.S., say leading sports industry experts.

"HDTV will have a greater impact on hockey than any other sport," says Matthew Pace, a lawyer with prominent sports law firm Herrick, Feinstein in New York. "You can follow the puck much easier (on HDTV broadcasts). The action is clearer. I think the television future of the NHL is bright."

The holy grail of professional sports – routine access to 115 million American television households– has long eluded the NHL despite efforts dating back to the infamous glowing puck of the 1990s.

While the NHL has built a national U.S. footprint that includes hockey-tepid cities across the sunbelt, major U.S. broadcast deals still haven't come.

And without the billions of dollars in revenues that come with a major TV deal, the league is left to contend with financial basket cases in cities such as Phoenix, Florida and Nashville, which have no cultural connection to hockey.

Many Americans complain the game doesn't translate well onto a television screen where the untrained hockey eye, unaccustomed to the flow of the world's fastest game, struggles to follow the puck.

Currently, the league's primary U.S. television deal is with cable firm Versus (reaching just over 70 million U.S. households) along with the occasional game on NBC.

But a more ambitious role for hockey in the U.S. is unfolding, says Neal Pilson, former president of CBS Sports and founder of his own television consulting firm.

"Because hockey is probably the most difficult of the major sports to follow on television, HDTV has helped hockey more than the other sports."Much is riding on that technology-mediated assistance.

Professional hockey's long-term growth ultimately lies south of the border, Pilson says.

"I have great respect for cities like Hamilton and the idea of a second club in Toronto. But if hockey retreats back to Canada, that would begin to diminish the game here in the United States and the future of hockey is with the 300 million who live here, not the 30 million who live in Canada."

Hockey ratings in the U.S. are actually better than many Canadians might think.

Yesterday, the league announced buoyant new regional TV numbers across the U.S., including ratings above or level with last season for 19 of the 24 U.S. NHL teams and triple-digit growth for the Anaheim Ducks, Florida Panthers and New Jersey Devils in the first two weeks of the season.

Versus, now in its fifth year broadcasting the NHL nationally, reported a 21 per cent viewership growth for the 2008-09 regular season compared to the year before, reaching 32.9 million total viewers.

The networks' hockey viewership this season is up another 16 per cent from the same point last season.

"We see that as HD gets more prevalent and more people get it hooked up ... our growth in hockey has been amazing," says Marc Fein, executive vice-president of programming with Versus. "We're seeing very nice ratings from all the hardcore hockey markets but we wouldn't be seeing the growth we're seeing if we didn't have the other markets coming along as well."

All Versus games are available in high definition. And a dramatically growing number of Americans are able to take advantage of that crystal-clear image.

HDTV penetration in the U.S. has gone from 34 per cent of households last year to "slightly under half" today, says Bruce Leichtman, president of television research firm Leichtman Research Group.

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While hockey's current viewership doesn't warrant national TV deals with the likes of baseball or basketball, continued growth could put the league in a stronger bargaining position when agreements come up for renewal, experts say.

"The key in generating significant revenue growth isn't just ratings, it's competition," says Pilson. "If there's only one guy bidding, the value of the painting is determined by the one person willing to buy."

The best prospect for the NHL, say experts, would be interest from ESPN as a competitor to Versus or even adding ESPN to the stable, experts say.The Fox Network's now infamous FoxTrax (also referred as the glow puck), the last major technological attempt at making the game more accessible to Americans, streaked across U.S. TV screens between 1996 and 1998.

Steve Solomon, who was the NHL's chief operating officer then and now a leading U.S. television consultant, was instrumental in bringing the idea to the screen at a time when the league saw some of its best ever U.S. TV ratings.

He says hockey played in crisp HDTV detail on a wide-angle screen will have a meaningful impact on the game's place in the U.S.

"The brilliance of the picture makes it more authentic and no sport competes with the in-arena experience of hockey."

The fragmentation of the television market in North America has also opened new opportunities for the league, Solomon says.

No longer do a handful of national networks hold all of the cards in the age of personal electronic devices like mobile phones and digital devices capturing more and more market share.

"As a content owner and provider, the NHL is in a very good position."

rcribb@thestar.ca