With NHL lockout, NBC cable sports relives London Games

USATODAY

As long as it lasts, the NHL lockout will create plenty of vacancies in the NBC Sports Network's programming lineup.

Thursday, NBC announced at least a short-term strategy for filling those on-air holes in the cable channel: Resurrect NBC's London Olympic coverage.

Starting Monday, NBCSN will debut Return to London, in prime time on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday nights, to fill in for cancelled NHL games. Here's a stunner: Monday's show will replay women's gymnastics while Tuesday's will feature men's swimming. The channel will also carry a special on the 2012 Paralympic Games on Wednesday, Oct. 24.

Jon Miller, NBC Sports president/programming, says the network, if needed, could go back for more of its 5,000 hours of London coverage, but would need U.S. Olympic Committee approval to re-air NBC coverage of past Games. "We could always have conversations with the USOC about that. But we have access to the entirety of the London Games."

If the lockout persists, he says, NBC could expand its coverage of games from conferences it already covers, such as basketball in the Atlantic-10 conference. "Live programming is the lifeblood of any sports network," the says. "But right now, there's not a lot of live content that's readily available."

NBC is majority-owned by Comcast, which owns the NHL Philadelphia Flyers. What the company's take as a team owner, from a programming side the lockout is bad news. Through a deal with the NHL that started last year that was worth at least $1.8 billion over 10 years, NBCSN this season had planned to carry at least 90 regular-season games with another dozen on NBC.

Ratings-wise, the Olympics might not be a bad replacement if it can even draw a tiny fraction of the original audiences. NBC's London primetime coverage averaged 17.7% of U.S households while NBCSN's regular-season NHL games last season averaged 0.2% of cable/satellite TV homes.

TV ratings p.s. Through six days of MLB playoff coverage, TBS/TNT games are averaging 2.3% of U.S. TV households -- even with last year's comparable coverage.