Comcast "violated blackout rules" in carrying the Avalanche’s first round-robin game on its NHL Center Ice platform Sunday, according to Chambers & Singer of the DENVER POST. The game against the Blues also was shown on the NBC Sports app, which was "subject to black out as well." Comcast owns NBCUniversal and is in a "highly publicized business feud with Altitude Sports, which had exclusive rights to Sunday’s game in the Denver area." Comcast said that "carrying Sunday’s game was 'human error' with entering blackout restriction codes." An NBC exec in a statement wrote, "We are taking appropriate measures to prevent this from happening again" (DENVER POST, 8/4).
WELCOME BACK: The NHL's return over the weekend delivered NBC a healthy increase over the season average before the shutdown. Saturday's Canadiens-Penguins Game 1 delivered a TV+streaming audience of 1.57 million viewers -- the second-best game this season to date, behind only 1.97 million viewers for Predators-Stars in the Winter Classic. NBC on Sunday drew 1.45 million for the Flyers-Bruins seeding game -- the third-best audience this season (Austin Karp, SBJ Media).
