News release
13 December 2007
Senior Vice President of Marketing/Business Development
Leading Satellite Service Carries 16th Annual Game Third Straight Year
PRINCETON, N.J. The ECHL announced that the 2008 Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game presented by Bud Light and Jackson Rancheria will be broadcast live by XM Satellite Radio, marking the third consecutive year that the nations leading satellite radio service has carried the game.
The ECHL All-Star Game will be broadcast on NHL Hockey Play-by-Play (XM Channel 206) at 10 p.m. ET on Jan. 23 in the United States on XM Radio and in Canada through XMs partner, Canadian Satellite Radio. In addition to its broadcast of the All-Star Game, XM Radio regularly features the Premier AA Hockey League on Hockey This Morning with Scott Laughlin heard each weekday morning on HOME ICE XM 204.
The 2007-08 National Hockey League (NHL) season marks XMs third season of NHL coverage and its first season as the exclusive satellite radio provider of the League. XM and the NHL have a long-term broadcast partnership, through 2015. In addition to live coverage of every game for every team in the NHL, XM is the exclusive carrier of the 24-hour hockey talk radio channel NHL Home Ice which provides hockey fans with the latest hockey news, commentary, call-in shows, interviews and other special programming, 365 days a year. XM Satellite Radio also broadcasts the NHL All-Star Game, the Stanley Cup Playoffs and the Stanley Cup Finals.
ECHL began in 1988-89 with five teams in three states and has grown to be a coast-to-coast league with 25 teams playing in 17 states and British Columbia in 2007-08.
The ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League in 2007-08, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.
There have been 335 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including a record 47 in 2005-06. There have been 190 players who have played in the NHL after the ECHL in the past five seasons.
The ECHL has affiliations with 25 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League in 2007-08 and for the past 17 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion.