the valiant effort
settle down, bud
- Apr 17, 2017
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I will celebrate the end of the Rogers deal with much vigour, but then wake up the next day knowing we’re going to get effed in the a no matter what.
CBC could do a game a week thing and maybe a playoff round but the full package? No way.
CBC needs to just go away. Waste of money
Can we get a CBC/TSN deal please? Screw Rogers.
What gets me is that, like...there's sports that are on the table that the CBC can buy into if they want to get back into the sports game on a budget. I'm sure the CPL would rather deal with a weekend prime time game during the summer months on the CBC then literal peanuts on OneSoccer. Ditto for the CEBL. But they just...don't.I caught some of the Vanier Cup last weekend on CBC Gem and it's just a shadow of what it used to be.
Not to say that they couldn't bring in some talent to improve things if they ever landed the NHL again, but I certainly don't expect that to happen. It feels like the NHL has gotten much bigger while the CBC has gotten smaller.
I agree, those could be the sweet spot for the CBC... relatively popular, could probably pull in a decent number of viewers, fairly inexpensive rights, but they don't touch it. CPL, CEBL, CHL, USports, I'm sure there are others.What gets me is that, like...there's sports that are on the table that the CBC can buy into if they want to get back into the sports game on a budget. I'm sure the CPL would rather deal with a weekend prime time game during the summer months on the CBC then literal peanuts on OneSoccer. Ditto for the CEBL. But they just...don't.
I’ve seen track and field, swimming, skiing, figure skating on weekends.I agree, those could be the sweet spot for the CBC... relatively popular, could probably pull in a decent number of viewers, fairly inexpensive rights, but they don't touch it. CPL, CEBL, CHL, USports, I'm sure there are others.
That is one unfortunate aspect of the sports broadcasting market in Canada... the top pro teams get blanket coverage (basically NHL, CFL, Jays, Raptors) but it drops off fast once you get beyond that.
What gets me is that, like...there's sports that are on the table that the CBC can buy into if they want to get back into the sports game on a budget. I'm sure the CPL would rather deal with a weekend prime time game during the summer months on the CBC then literal peanuts on OneSoccer. Ditto for the CEBL. But they just...don't.
Yeah, that's fair. To the extent that CBC still does their own sports production (as opposed to showing Rogers' product), it is focused mainly on amateur Olympic-type sports.I’ve seen track and field, swimming, skiing, figure skating on weekends.
At some point though, you kind of have to throw out that amateurism ideal to see what works, and more importantly, survive. Again, i'm sure both the CEBL and CPL would *love* to have more solid options for getting their leagues out there other then Z-list add-on channels that are getting blocked by Rogers from being put on their cable providers, and the ass end of TSN weekly.CBC views itself as having a very specific mandate of being a "public broadcaster". It is more interested in what it thinks Canadians should be watching, or what isn't being shown on private networks. Thus (to the extent it shows sports at all) it focuses on purely amateur sports like track or skiing. CPL / CEBL are still private, for-profit enterprises and likely just don't fit with what the CBC sees as its mandate. I'm not convinced they'd get a whole bunch of viewers either, but that's not so much of a concern for the CBC.
Never going to happen.
First of all - TSN is owned by Bell - which also owns CTV. If Bell does a deal and wants to put hockey on a broadcast network they'll just put games on CTV.
CBC itself - just doesn't have the in-house money or talent to go back to broadcasting hockey. All those people were let go. The existing HNIC games on CBC really are Rogers productions that CBC allows to be broadcast on their airwaves. The only thing the CBC gets is A: Canadian content that brings in ratings and B: the opportunity to advertise its own shows during HNIC games.
The issue with Bell and CTV is that they'll have issues putting playoff games on CTV due to commitments to show US programming in prime time. CBC is free to show playoff hockey any time.
TSN can do the same deal with CBC that Rogers is now and have CTV replace the games that Rogers shows on CITY.
Rogers has been terrible. Blackout all Canadian team to show you Boston and Utah. Brought in some of the worst play by play and colour commentators. I'm not sure what they have tried to do since they canned Coach's corner, but it's not very good.Rogers overpromised and underdelivered. The product has progressively gotten worse as the deal has passed, and they've brought nothing new to the landscape. If anything, they have bastardized what was.
I seriously hope TSN isn't the exclusive provider either. Better production, sure. But a lot of those personalities would get stale really fast if we were to see them all the time.
Ideally, TSN, SportsNet and CBC split the deal. CBC does HNiC. The other two networks split the other six days, with them each pushing for one exclusive night (ie. Wednesday for SportNet, Tuesday or Thursday for TSN). That way they all have to up their productions.
Plus, would Rogers even be able to satisfy the NHL's number after blowing a big amount of money on the current deal?
What day are you talking about.Rogers has been terrible. Blackout all Canadian team to show you Boston and Utah.
Trying not to get too political here...
CBC views itself as having a very specific mandate of being a "public broadcaster". It is more interested in what it thinks Canadians should be watching, or what isn't being shown on private networks. Thus (to the extent it shows sports at all) it focuses on purely amateur sports like track or skiing. CPL / CEBL are still private, for-profit enterprises and likely just don't fit with what the CBC sees as its mandate. I'm not convinced they'd get a whole bunch of viewers either, but that's not so much of a concern for the CBC.
HNIC is a glaring exception to that - but that's really just a matter of history. No one at CBC is daring enough to voluntarily pull out of Saturday night hockey on CBC. I had to look it up - HNIC has been on CBC television since 1952 (and earlier than that on radio).
CBC not televising the final 2 games of the Western final involving a Canadian team for the Canadian screen awards and a reality show is the writing on the wall. CBC is moving towards the amateur level which is great exposure for the Olympics. The sports department at CBC will never be the same again. Rogers I think will continue using the CBC since they reached a greater audience, City TV just doesn't have the same presence, but it does seem like they could be used as an alternative to fit scheduling.I think that there is much more of an anti-sports feeling within the CBC that has been manifesting itself for decades now. The focus on amateur sports helps because the CBC can act as a producer for those international events on behalf of the governing bodies. When you look at the CBC covering such events outside of Canada, they rely on the host nations feed and what announcers are often provided. We see this in the Olympics when the CBC offloads certainly coverage to TSN and SN and they used the provided feed and announcers. Sometimes that's to CBC detriment if a Canadian becomes successful.
There are certainly a lot of execs at CBC who would like to see HNIC come to an end. We saw how they walked away from the CFL even though the Grey Cup offered the ability to project to a national audience.
I still remember when they let Chris Cuthbert go and used the excuse that he wasn't doing anything meaningful for CBC Sports. This was BS since he got hired by TSN and did the same things he did at the CBC (Hockey, CFL, Olympics) but the CBC doubled down on their excuses.
The CPL and CEBL (if the latter moves to a fall/winter setup) have the ability to provide the CBC a good package to work with, but the execs seem to want to move away from sports. They seem more focused on program diversity and the expansion of CBC Gem.
As @Masked pointed out, the only thing the CBC has going for it is the ability to have their schedule adapt to the NHLs needs, especially during the playoffs. CTV is bound by the broadcasting contracts they signed to make such a switch.