CBC and Sportsnet Serve Up Rogers Cup Coverage

This year marks the first that the two Rogers Cup tournaments will be held concurrently, creating a Grand Slam-like atmosphere for those watching at home. CBC and Sportsnet are both the the first year of a new five-year deal to show the two events. Sportsnet will have weekday coverage, while CBC will takeover on the weeekend and show the semi finals and final. It total, the two networks will combine to show approximately 95 and a half hours of coverage between the two events, which will be combined into one broadcast.

Sportsnet and Sportsnet One will show simultaneous coverage during the week, providing viewers with a option of what match to watch (usually an option between men’s and women’s). CBC has spread the four semi finals out to create a Super Saturday where they will be on from 12:30-11:30pm, only breaking for The National at 6pm ET.

Rogers Sportsnet will have Rob Faulds and Jimmy Arias will call the action from Centre Court, with Arash Mandani reporting courtside. RJ Broadhead will provide updates from Court 2. in Toronto, Gerry Dobson and Tracy Austin will call the women’s action, with Evanka Osmask reporting courtside. Brad Fay will host Sportsnet’s coverage live from Montreal with analysts Robert Bettauer and Damien Cox.

Meanwhile CBC will be sending Bruce Rainnie to Montreal to call the men’s tournament, alongside analysts Jimmy Arias and Justin Gimelstob. Jim Van Horne will call the action from Toronto, alongside analyst Tracy Austin. Elliote Friedman will host CBC’s coverage, which totals 16 hours.

Continue after the break for a complete, detailed broadcast schedule.

More Info on TSN Picking up Wimbledon

You can see my full article with most of the details of TSN’s new broadcast deal with Wimbledon here. As I mentioned, TSN will have exclusive English language rights and RDS will have exclusive French language rights in Canada. Here are some other highlights of the deal that have been released since.

• Simultaneous coverage on TSN/TSN2 for the Round of 16 and quarter finals. Much the same as ESPN/ESPN2 do in the United States. It means we will get every single quarter final from Wimbledon on TV in Canada.
• Wimbledon ratings were up 21% from last year on TSN.
• They were up 44% on RDS, with an average of 79, 000 watching the tournament. The men’s final hit 211, 000 (up 76%), and the women’s 140, 000 (up 92%). These increases are spectacular. They may have had something to do with last year’s tournament going head-to-head with the FIFA World Cup.
• TSN will have over 140 hours of coverage between the main channel and TSN2. RDS will have over 100 hours of coverage.
• TSN Radio will have radio coverage of the event. If I had to guess, they will only have the finals and maybe the semi finals.

And a quote from Stewart Johnson, President, TSN:

TSN’s mandate has always been to bring the world’s best athletes and top sporting events to Canadians and we are thrilled to extend our partnership with the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club and add the Wimbledon Finals to our slate of marquee championship events. Acquiring a long-term exclusive agreement for all Wimbledon coverage ensures that Canadian tennis fans will be well-served with exceptional live tennis coverage across multiple TSN platforms over the next decade.

 

TSN Picks Up Wimbledon Through 2021

TSN is now the exclusive Canadian home of complete coverage of all four tennis Grand Slams. Today they signed a new 9 year deal that will see exclusive coverage of The Championships, Wimbledon air on TSN and TSN2 beginning next year. Previously Global Television had aired the ladies and gentlemen’s championship matches. This marks the second deal TSN has signed with a tennis Grand Slam this year, the first was in May when they re-newed their deal with the Roland Garros Championships. The deal is part of a new agreement between The All England Lawn Tennis Club and ESPN. Details on that agreement follow.

ESPN confirmed its new broadcast rights deal with The Championships, Wimbledon this morning. The deal sees the exit of NBC’s coverage, including Breakfast at Wimbledon. As a result of the deal, coverage from the round of 16 through the men’s quarterfinals on Wednesday will air simultaneously on ESPN and ESPN2 to provide fans with double the coverage of past years. TSN and TSN2 could make a similar arrangement here in Canada. It will allow viewers from coast to coast the ability to watch double the amount of matches that were previously available when ESPN2 and NBC split coverage. ESPN will show the semi finals and finals, giving them a higher profile. ABC will also have a 3-hour highlights program on the middle Sunday and they will re-air both finals at 3pm ET on the day they are played.

I’ll have more information from TSN later. For now here are quotes from the All England Club and ESPN. First up, Ian Ritchie, Chief Executive of the All England Lawn Tennis Club

“We are delighted to be extending our partnership with ESPN, in a move which will consolidate our U.S. media rights under the auspices of a single partner. This new agreement will bring increased live coverage of The Championships and ensure that the huge international audience for Wimbledon can now enjoy all the drama and colour of the Fortnight through a sustained narrative delivered with clarity, continuity and consistency across a wide range of platforms.

And from George Bodenheimer, President of ESPN and ABC Sports

We are proud to have been a partner of The All England Club the past nine years and are thrilled to be given continuing responsibility for honoring Wimbledon’s rich tradition. Over the next 12 years, we’ll work closely together to move coverage of this great event forward with live coverage on television and using all the latest technologies and screens.

NBC Out As Wimbledon Broadcaster

There isn’t much news that I would bother breaking into my Canada Day weekend to report, but I feel this is more than noteworthy enough. Sports Business Journal is reporting that NBC is done as the primary US broadcaster of The Championships, Wimbledon. NBC’s last broadcast was today as Novak Djokovic beat Rafael Nadal, ending NBC’s 43 year partnership with the All England Club. NBC introduced the idea of airing sports live from Europe in the morning in the US in 1979 when they began Breakfast at Wimbledon to cover the men’s final live for the first time. They began showing the women’s final live three years later.

While NBC has enjoyed a strong relationship with the All England Club, their coverage has been criticized recently because of numerous tape delays. However, it seems these have been fewer and further between in recent years and NBC promised to show everything live coast to coast beginning in 2014 (a good sign for their 2014 Olympic coverage?).

It really seems 2014 is an end of an era for Wimbledon on US TV as long time play-by-play commentator Dick Enberg has called his last Championships as well. Enberg was a part of NBC’s coverage for many years until he left the network in the late 90s. He then joined ESPN to do Wimbledon this decade.

Sports Business Journal’s report says that ESPN will provide live coverage of The Championships from start to finish, with all live coverage on cable. It is possible that weekend highlights will air on ABC though. I expect that ABC will have a first week recap on the middle Sunday, and encores of both championship matches (the ladies at 4pm ET Saturday and the men’s at 3pm ET Sunday), with everything else on ESPN2. It is possible that ESPN airs the championship matches though.

This deal also has ramifications in Canada, where Wimbeldon could end its long run of being the only Grand Slam on over-the-air Canadian TV. Global TV has aired Wimbledon for years. The Sports Business Journal report mentions that part of the new deal includes ESPN retaining rights in Canada (for TSN). It is unclear whether this will include the finals of not. I don’t think that Global would be interested in the finals without simulcast opportunities with NBC. It is also extremely unlikely they’d use the ESPN2 broadcast feed. They could pick up the BBC feed if they do retain rights though.

NBC released this statement following their broadcast this afternoon.

We are proud of our 43-year partnership with the All-England Club and while we would have liked to have continued our relationship, we were simply outbid.

ESPN didn’t release a statement. I think I speak for everyone when I say I’ll miss this song.

Here is one of the best moments of the tournament, one of Dick Enberg’s funniest moments at Wimbledon.
http://videos.sportsgrid.com/embed/player/?r=8841969149652869&content=9NP83D3FCSTZ3QLG&widget_type_cid=svp

You can see the whole report here.

The Championships, Wimbledon Start Monday on TSN

The grass courts at the All England Club are all mowed and ready to go for tennis’ third Grand Slam of the season. The Championships, Wimbledon start Monday in London. Once again TSN will provide coverage in Canada, with over 100 hours of coverage during the fortnight. Global will pick up coverage for the final weekend with the Ladies’ Championship on July 2 and the Gentleman’s Championship on July 3. TSN will pick up their coverage from ESPN2 and NBC. Global will also use the NBC feed for their coverage.

ESPN’s commentators for The Championships will be Dick Enberg, Cliff Drysdale and Chris Fowler calling the action with analysts Patrick McEnroe, Darren Cahill, Brad Gilbert, Mary Joe Fernandez, Pam Shriver and Chris Evert. Fowler will also serve as a studio host, splitting time with Hannah Storm. Tom Rinaldi will provide essays and features. NBC’s commentary team is Ted Robinson, John McEnroe and Mary Carrillo. Jimmy Roberts will host NBC’s coverage.

TSN.ca will also live stream select matches from each round, including both finals. You can see the full broadcast schedule, including nightly repeats on TSN2 here.

TSN Resigns With Roland Garros

One week into the 2011 Roland Garros Tennis Championships, TSN has announced that they have reached a deal with la Fédération Française de Tennis to carry the tournament for the next six years in Canada. The deal builds off TSN’s previous four-year deal that began in 2007. The deal comes only months after Sportsnet took away ATP and Rogers Cup rights from TSN, so it shows that the networks still has great interest in showing high level tennis. The deal includes English-language TV rights for TSN and TSN2, French-language TV rights for RDS and mobile rights for TSN Mobile TV.

Here is a quote from Stewart Johnston, President, TSN

The legendary French Open clay-courts at Roland Garros have shaped some of the tennis world’s most remarkable moments for close to eight decades. We are pleased to continue our more than 25-year relationship with the French Tennis Federation giving Canadian tennis fans complete coverage of one of the sport’s biggest events.

And a quote from Michel Grach, Media & Sponsorship Director, Fédération Française de Tennis

We are proud to celebrate our long partnership with TSN by extending the duration and scope of our relationship. TSN and TSN2 have always delivered high quality coverage, and as technologies and broadcast platforms evolve we look forward to providing even more French Open magic to tennis fans across Canada.

TSN has broadcast the Roland Garros since 1985. The network continues to be the home to all four legs of the Tennis Grand Slam, Australian Open, Roland Garros Championships, the Championships at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

Roland Garros: Starts Sunday on TSN

It is late May and for tennis fans that can only mean one thing, it’s time for the best tennis players in the world to hit the red clay of Paris for the 2011 Roland Garros Tournament, the second Grand Slam on the tennis calendar. TSN and TSN2 will have complete coverage in Canada, combining to air 105 hours of coverage. Most of TSN’s coverage will be a simulcast of the international feed; however, some coverage will come from ESPN and NBC in the United States. Ted Robinson, Mary Carillo and John McEnroe will call both the men’s and women’s finals.

The men’s tournament features favourites Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, who have already met in two of the three clay court Masters 1000 series events this spring. The two also played in the finals of the Masters events in Miami and Indian Wells earlier in the spring. Of course Roger Federer can’t be forgotten either. Canadian Milos Raonic will look to make in run in his first Grand Slam as a seeded player.

The women’s draw features Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova, who go in as favourites in a wide open women’s field.

Please visit the Tennis on Canadian TV website to see a complete listing of TSN, TSN2 and NBC’s Roland Garros coverage.

Davis Cup: This Weekend on Sportsnet

As I mentioned a couple weeks back, Rogers Sportsnet has picked up Canadian coverage of the Davis Cup. Sportsnet’s action will begin this weekend with a tie between Canada and Mexico from Mexico City. Canada is led by rising star Milos Raonic, ranked 37th in the ATP singles rankings. One notable absentee will be Daniel Nestor, one of the top doubles players in the world. Nestor was forced to withdraw from the tie because of injury.

Sportsnet One’s coverage on Friday will feature Raonic vs. Manuel Sanchez and Frank Dancevic vs. Daniel Garza. The highlight of Sportsnet’s coverage on Saturday will be a doubles match between Raonic/Vasek Pospisil and Luis Diaz-Barriga/Miguel-Angel Reyes-Varela. On Sunday Sportsnet One will feature Raonic vs. Garza and Dancevic vs. Sanchez. Whatever team wins 3 or more of the five matches will advance to the next round to take on Ecudor. Based on the world rankings, Canada goes in as the strong favourite; however, Mexico has more experience on clay than Canada.

Rob Faulds will call the action, alongside former TSN tennis commentator Robert Bettauer. This combo will also likely call the men’s Rogers Cup in August. On Saturday Daniel Nestor will join them to call the doubles. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of a current member of Team Canada calling a match. We already see enough cheerleading of American players on ESPN’s broadcasts, we don’t need it in Canada too.

The schedule will work like this (all times ET and all coverage streamed on Sportsnet.ca):
Friday 3/4, 12:00pm – Singles Matches
Saturday 3/5, 2:00pm – Doubles Match
Sunday 3/6, 12:00pm – Singles Matches

Sportsnet Adds Davis Cup to Tennis Coverage

Rogers Sportsnet certainly knows how to capitalize on a fast growing sport in Canada. Just weeks after announcing a broadcast agreement with the ATP and Tennis Canada to show ATP Masters 500 and 1000 events, as well as the men’s and women’s Rogers Cup, Sportsnet has announced a new deal with the International Tennis Federation (ITF). The main component of this deal will be for Canadian Davis Cup matches.

Canada opens up their 2011 Davis Cup season in March with matches against Mexico on the weekend of March 4-6. These matches will be played in Metepec, Mexico on clay courts. Team Canada will be lead by Milos Raonic who is coming off a runner-up performance at a 500-series event in Memphis. The matches against Mexico will include two singles matches on Friday March 4, a doubles match on Saturday March 5 and two more singles matches on Sunday March 6. The winner moves on to play Edudor in the next round. Raonic is in Mexico this week to compete in an ATP event to prepare for the Davis Cup matches.

As part of the deal Sportsnet will also air coverage of the Fed Cup Final. The Fed Cup is the women’s version of the Davis Cup. The Fed Cup Final will go November 5 and 6. Italy, Russia, the Czech Republic and Belgium are the remaining teams. Italy are the defending champions after beating the US in the final last year. It also includes the later rounds of the Davis Cup World Group.

Davis Cup is probably one of my favourite international sports events. Much like how people would get behind Team Canada when they are qualifying for the FIFA World Cup, it is just as easy to get behind Canada as they try to qualify for the World Group in Davis Cup. By the way, with Raonic and Nester on the team you would have to think they are the favourites against both Mexico and Ecuador.

Rogers Cup, ATP Coming to Sportsnet

As I first reported on Twitter yesterday, Rogers Sportsnet is very close to signing a deal with the ATP to show Masters 1000 and 500-series tennis events this year. Most coverage will likely come from the international feed and air on Sportsnet One. Sportsnet takes over from TSN, who had aired the ATP events seemingly forever. This is great news for every tennis fan in Canada because it will mean more coverage of tennis on Canadian TV. Sportsnet One should have coverage of more than twenty ATP events. I hope that this coverage will include at least one of the Wimbledon tune-up events. We don’t get to see nearly enough grass-court tennis here in Canada.

Most importantly this deal includes cable rights to the first ever concurrent Rogers Cups in Montreal and Toronto. Sportsnet promises to bring complete coverage of these events and treat them like a Grand Slam. I’ll be honest, I was never the biggest fan of TSN’s coverage of the Rogers Cup, so hopefully Sportsnet can improve. Coverage of most events will air on Sportsnet One; however, the Rogers Cup will air entirely on the regional Sportsnet channels. This is also great news because in the past TSN has had to push coverage over to TSN2 because of things like the PGA Championship and Friday Night Football.

This could lead to something I had predicted quite a while ago, a sudden urge for Rogers to buy rights to events that eat up a lot of hours, like tennis and golf. Canadian rights for the Roland Garros Tennis Championships are also up for grabs this year and at this point I’d almost be surprised if Sportsnet doesn’t win the rights. I’ve always got the feeling that this is the event TSN hates carrying most because ESPN isn’t the primary rightsholder in the United States. As a result, Tennis Channel has live coverage throughout the morning, with ESPN only showing the last couple hours of live coverage and then taped coverage. This forces TSN to pick up the international feed because they refuse to use Tennis Channel’s coverage for whatever reason. I would also like to see Sportsnet pick up the Davis Cup, but I’m not getting my hopes up too high on that. Some WTA events would be nice too.

I will have the full ATP on Rogers Sportsnet schedule listed in the tennis schedule very soon.

Shaw Media Applies for Sports Channel

The news came out late on Friday afternoon that Shaw Media (owners of Shaw Cable, Global TV etc.) have applied to the CRTC to launch their own mainstream sports channel. Shaw is just the latest media giant to apply to the CRTC for this since the CRTC rules that sports channels could now compete with the first (and for the longest time protected) mainstream sports channel, TSN. Rogers, CBC and MLSE have also applied to the regulator for their own mainstream sports channel; all of those applications have been approved. So far only the Rogers channel, Sportsnet One, has launched. Based on this history, it is expected that the Shaw channel will be approved too and I think it is likely that it will launch within a couple years.

A mainstream sports channel would do many things for Shaw, especially considering they have the only national OTA channel without a sports department and are the only major cable/satellite provider without a mainstream sports channel. By having “Shaw Sports” they would have a bargaining chip when negotiating with the likes of Bell and Rogers. By having a mainstream sports channel they would be able to put the same kind of pressure on Rogers to add their channel as Rogers did when Sportsnet One launched back in the summer. Of course as much as this makes great business sense, it could turn out ugly for the average Canadian sports fan.

This will also give Global a cable partner when buying rights to certain sports events. Shaw could be the exclusive home to events like The Masters, Wimbledon and the PGA TOUR. As of now Global owns OTA rights to all of those events, but TSN has cable rights largely because Global doesn’t have a cable channel to buy cable rights. This could also put Global back into open-wheel racing with the IndyCar Series. Imagine the Toronto and Edmonton races back on Global, likely with Canadian production backed by Shaw, while the other IndyCar events all get live coverage on Shaw Sports instead of being pushed to tape delay because of NASCAR as often happens on TSN. In this scenario it would also make sense for the Indianapolis 500 to air on Global. Of course all of this could lead to other the other golf majors airing on Shaw/Global and maybe even the same for the other tennis Grand Slams and the Rogers Cup. I think that Shaw would be more interested in these individual sports than Rogers seems to be, which would offer TSN more competition in bidding.

Of course Shaw would also be extremely interested in regional NHL rights for the Flames, Oilers and Canucks, all of whom are within Shaw Cable’s territory. Not to mention events like curling and the CFL, where they could probably really give TSN a run for their money. This could also be Global’s way back into airing the NFL. I would expect Shaw to make a run at one of the Sunday afternoon packages, as well as Sunday Night Football if this channel is approved.

The most interesting aspect of this story is the timeline for when the channel will be approved. The CRTC will hear, and likely approve, the application in early April. It is also expected that the IOC will accept bids on the 2014/2016 Olympic Games in Sochi and Rio in the spring. I think that this channel could be setting up a possible CBC/Shaw bid on those Olympic Games. This would work well because Shaw has the money, while CBC has the on-air talent. They would be going up against the Olympic consortium of CTV-Rogers in all likely and I think both CBC and Shaw know this is their only chance of winning Olympic rights. Personally I’d love to see CBC win Olympic rights back. CTV did a great job in 2010, but the Olympics on CBC just seem more special.

Meanwhile the Financial Post reported just a couple weeks ago that TSN will be looking for higher rates fees from providers (and as a result consumers) when they negotiate new deals in the coming months. This is likely a result of Rogers asking a premium for Sportsnet One. I’ve read figures that put Sportsnet One’s monthly rate above that of TSN, TSN2 and the regional Sportsnet channels even though it doesn’t have anywhere near the amount of quality programming of any of those channels. As a result, Rogers has set a precedent for an asking fee for sports channels and it will almost certainly result in consumers spending a lot more money in future years.

Other News & Notes

• I thought that ESPN’s coverage of the Australian Open was better than usual this year. The lack of a bottomline and Mary Carillo were pluses in my opinion. Chris Fowler has really developed as a play caller, but he is still nowhere near as good as Dick Enberg. ESPN should have Enberg call the men’s final for a few years before he retires.
• ESPN’s coverage of Winter X Games was excellent, as usual, too. The only downside in Canada was that coverage got delayed on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night because TSN2 was airing programming that ran over its allotted time. I know that Winter X Games is only a microcosm of the Olympics, but I’d like to use them, along with the tennis Grand Slams and World Cup, as proof that ESPN would do a fine job broadcasting the Olympics.
• The NHL All Star Draft (I refuse to use the word “fantasy” because it wasn’t a fantasy draft) on Friday night was a lot better than I expected. TSN handled the broadcast very well, even though James Duthie seemed a bit awkward interviewing players who were drafted. I think that it would have been a good idea to have a flamboyant NHL player, like Alex Ovechkin, interview the players as they were drafted.
• Brian Burke showed how much of a hypocrite he is on Saturday when he said that the last draft pick was overblown by the media and isn’t a big deal, only to follow it up with his thoughts that next year the end of the draft should be handled differently so the last draft pick isn’t know. My idea is to have the last two picks flip a coin and whoever wins gets to choose what team he wants to be on.
• As for CBC’s coverage of All Star Weekend, I found the Skills Competition to be a bit all over the place. Instead of putting the bug in the top right corner they put it in the bottom right where it was in the way of the  graphics half of the time. There also seemed to be a lack of co-ordination between Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson and Glenn Healy in the booth and Scott Oake and John Forslund who were on the ice hosting the broadcast for CBC and Versus.  I don’t think that CBC even aired their panel discussion on the NHLPA Player Poll after the SuperSkills, which was promised. Instead they found it more important to be off the air at 10pm sharp to show the CBC premiere of the American movie Crash. Now Crash is a fine movie, but CBC certainly should have stuck around until 10:30pm for their promised panel discussion.
• CBC also ran into some trouble on Sunday when the BDO Canadian Open curling match ran well past its scheduled end time of 4pm ET and into the All Star Game broadcast by almost 20 minutes. As I watched the 8th end just before Glenn Howard sent it to an extra end I could almost feel the CBC execs sweating in Toronto as curling was one shot away from running into their precious All Star Game broadcast. At least they made the right decision to stick with the curling until it finished. I didn’t watch much of the All Star Game, but it seems like CBC did a fine job. One benefit was that Gary Bettman declined to appear because he didn’t want to put up with the asshole that can be Ron MacLean take away attention from the players on their weekend. It seems that the replacement, the NHL Guardians Project, was even worse though. CBC made another bad decision at the end of the game when they hurried off-air to air an episode of Heartland. I remember when they used to treat All Star Weekend like it was really special, but considering how quickly they ended their broadcasts on Saturday and Sunday it seems it isn’t as important to them anymore. This is just part of how Hockey Night in Canada has really gone downhill lately. I was only half paying attention to the broadcast, but I don’t think they even showed the MVP presentation or many post-game interviews.
• The Super Bowl is coming this weekend. Later in the week I will have a post that will include highlights of the weekend for Fox, CTV, TSN, NFL Network etc. I will also have a post on who will be able to watch Fox’s coverage without a CTV simsub. I’m looking for reader contribution on this, so if you were able to watch the Fox feed (by a legal means, so no American satellite or streams) last year then post your city and provider in the comments section.

CTV, Global Both Make Mistakes Last Night

Two weeks ago I came to the defense of CTV. After last night, I need to call them out on a mistake. The AFC Championship Game between the Steelers and Jets ended around 10pm ET. CTV went to commercial and then had Jay Onrait come on and end the broadcast, telling viewers to tune in two weeks from now to watch the Super Bowl. The mistake that CTV made was choosing to not show the Lamar Hunt Trophy presentation, which is a major part of the Conference Championship Game broadcasts. CBS aired the trophy presentation and post-game interviews for 15 minutes after CTV ended their broadcast, until about 10:15pm ET.

Now, you may be wondering, what was so important to CTV that they had to rush off-air at exactly 10pm ET? The answer is The Big Bang Theory repeats. Now, The Big Bang Theory is a fine show, probably my favourite sitcom, but the choice of airing repeats after a high rated broadcast has to be questioned in itself. The AFC Championship will be one of the highest rated primetime programs on CTV this year. They would have been well advised to show a new episode of a show, like maybe a new episode of Flashpoint for example. It would have generated interest in the show and given Flashpoint a boost in the ratings. If I was CTV, I’d air a new Flashpoint after the AFC Championship and the Super Bowl. Whoever makes these programming decisions at CTV needs to be replaced.

Amazingly, there was a decision in Canadian broadcasting last night that was worse than the decisions that CTV made. Global decided to air 15 minutes (that is half of an episode for those wondering) of a repeat of The Simpsons from 10 until 10:15pm ET last night. They did this to insure that they got to simulcast the all new episode of Hawaii 5-0 that aired after the football finished on CBS. There was absolutely no reason they had to wait for CBS, they just decided they would. As a  result of this horrendous decision local news got delayed in the east and only part of Bob’s Burgers was aired in the west. Nobody can say that Global really cares about local news after they delayed it because they wanted a few thousand more viewers for Hawaii 5-0. I don’t think that any other broadcaster anywhere in the world would do something like this.

I will usually stand up for the Canadian broadcasters, but both made some bad decisions last night, especially as far as public relations are concerned in Global’s case. I’m sure there were lots of angry 5-0 viewers who tuned into Global expecting the episode even though CBS was still airing football and even more angry viewers who wanted their local news at 11:00. The sad thing is, whatever viewers Global gained for 5-0, they probably lost for local news. Anyone who wanted news probably flipped over to CTV or simply turned the TV off and went to bed.

On the US side of things, CBS’s broadcast was absolutely first class, as usual. I don’t know what it is, but an NFL playoff game on CBS seems like a big event, while one on Fox just seems like another game. It could be the simple fact that Fox’s broadcast crew and production values aren’t as good as those of CBS. Jim Nantz and Phil Simms are also probably my second favourite NFL commentary crew, only after NBC’s Al Michaels and Cris Collingsworth. They do a better job of conveying the atmosphere in the stadium than Fox’s Joe Buck and Troy Aikmen. Of course we will have to deal with Fox’s coverage of the Super Bowl this year, which is far worse than the Super Bowl coverage that NBC and CBS put out for many reasons.

Other News & Notes

• Sky Sports presenter Richard Keys and pundit Andy Gray were caught saying sexist remarks on-air during Saturday’s Wolves-Liverpool match. The two agreed that female officials don’t know the offsides rule and there there would “be a big [mistake] today” as far as offsides are concerned. Keys and Gray believed that their microphones were off at the time of the incident, which doesn’t excuse it in any way. The ironic thing was that the official they were referring to, Sian Massey, made the correct call on a close play, saying that it wasn’t offside. This led to a Liverpool goal.  Keys and Gray are suspended for tonight’s Bolton-Chelsea match while Sky decides if there will be any further punishment. This is the second case of sexism by well known commentators this year. ESPN’s football commentator Ron Franklin has already been fired for sexist remarks directed at a sideline reporter during a production meeting. You can hear Keys’ response to the remarks here.
• The TSN Curling Skins Game took place this past weekend. Unfortunately my favourite team, David Murdoch, couldn’t defend the title they won last year. Kevin Martin won the 2011 title. The skins game is one of the most exciting curling events to watch on TV. Last week I mentioned that Russ Howard is the best curling analyst ever. One thing he needs to do more often is be quiet when the curlers are discussing strategy. David Murdoch and Kevin Martin both see the game better than just about anyone else and they can tell us what’s going on just as well as Howard can.
• I have to give credit to ESPN2 for airing much of the Milos Raonic match last night. Raonic is the first Canadian player to reach the round of 16 in the Open era at the Australian Open.  It’s too bad that Canadians have to rely on an American broadcaster (or the internet, TSN streamed the entire match at TSN.ca) to watch our top athletes, but at least ESPN gave us the opportunity to see him. I honestly don’t think that the ESPN commentators know that their coverage is aired in Canada though.
• A funny moment happened at the Australian Open last week when former tennis player and  Channel 7 reporter Todd Woodbrige interviewed Kim Clijsters after a match at the Australian Open. Clijsters brought up a text that Woodbrige had sent to another former Aussie tennis player, Rennae Stubbs, saying that he thought Clijsters was pregnant because she looks grumpy and has bigger boobs. Needless to say it was one of the funniest sports related moments on TV this year. I have to give her some big time credit for taking it in stride and joking about it, some might have been really offended. That is why Clijsters is one of my favourite tennis players.

Hockey Day in America Information

NBC will broadcast the inaugural Hockey Day in America on Sunday February 20 from noon until 6pm ET. At face value this seems like a scaled-down, American version of CBC’s annual staple Hockey Day in Canada, but to American hockey fans it could prove to be more. This will give hockey the kind of exposure that it rarely gets south of the border and it will also give hockey fans on both sides of the border an amazing day of hockey action. NBC’s coverage will start at noon ET with a half hour pregame show live from Millennium Park in Chicago, which will serve as the hub of the day’s activities on NBC. There will be regional coverage from 12:30pm-3:30pm ET, with three games facing-off at 12:35, 12:40 and 12:45pm ET. These three games will be Red Wings @ Wild, Flyers @  Rangers and Capitals @ Sabres. The exact start times and commentators for these games haven’t been determined yet. However, with NBC’s recent takeover of Comcast, it has been speculated that Versus and CSN commentators may be used. I expect Dave Strader and Darren Pang, who have worked for NBC occasionally over the past couple years, to do the game in Minneapolis. Then at 3:30pm ET everyone will get a blockbuster matchup between two of the most exciting young teams in hockey, the Penguins and Blackhawks. This game will be called by Mike Emrick, Ed Olczyk and Pierre McGuire.

I have to say that I really like the commitment NBC is putting into the NHL with Hockey Day in America. Of course it won’t be as big, or as long, as CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada, but that is expected considering NBC doesn’t have the time to put into hockey that CBC does. Like CBC, NBC will have various specials that will air throughout the afternoon. These will include an update on the US Pond Hockey Championships and a feature on inner-city hockey in Washington, DC. By staggering the start times of the early games NBC will be able to show continuous hockey because they will have live look-ins of other games during the intermissions.

Hockey Day in America means that there will be two straight weekends of all-day hockey for fans across North America. On Saturday February 12, CBC and NHL Network (US) will air Hockey Day in Canada live from Whitehorse. Coverage of Hockey Day in Canada will air from noon ET Saturday afternoon until 1:30am ET the next morning. Along with the usual features on amateur hockey throughout the day, the traditional all-Canadian tripe-header will feature the Senators traveling to Edmonton to face the Oilers at 2pm ET, the Maple Leafs in Montreal to face the Habs at 7pm ET and the nightcap will feature the Flames and Canucks from Vancouver, exactly one year after the first day of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games. Then on Sunday February 20, Hockey Day in America will air on NBC (and possibly TSN2) from noon-6pm ET and the Heritage Classic game between the Canadiens and Flames from McMahon Stadium in Calgary will air from 6-9pm ET on CBC and Versus.

Other News & Notes

• NBC’s bid to acquire Comcast, which includes Versus, Golf Channel and the regional CSN Sportsnets, has been approved. What exactly this will mean for sports on television is still unclear; however, it puts NBC on a closer-to-level playing field with ESPN. It will certainly give NBC the financial backing to win the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games. We could also see the Indianapolis 500 and possibly more college football or basketball on NBC in the near future as a result of the merger. This could also mean that NBC will use more NHL on Versus commentators, and Golf Channel could use more NBC commentators.
• Credit goes to ESPN for upgrading their Australian Open coverage this year. First off they are airing coverage from the time they go on the air (which varies depending on college hoops commitments) until play ends around 8am ET the next morning. The coverage is also absent of the bottomline; hopefully ESPN continues to remove the bottomline from the big events that they air.
• Speaking of the Australian Open, if anyone is wondering where Mary Carillo is this year, she has quit her job at ESPN. There are conflicting reports on the reason for this. Some say that she simply wanted time to do other things, while others say that she didn’t agree with ESPN’s policy to not be too hard on top tennis players, especially top American tennis players. She will still be working for CBS and NBC this season.
• Also of note, it looks like Damien Cox is leaving The Star to join TSN fulltime. Cox currently works for TSN appearing on That’s Hockey and The Reporters. If he joins TSN full-time, he will have a hockey role similar to former Globe & Mail employee Dave Naylor’s CFL role. This would mean that more than half of TSN’s Reporters regulars would be full-time TSN employees. It would also mean that it will be harder to avoid Cox.
• Russ Howard showed curling fans why he isn’t only the best curling analyst in the business, but one of the best analysts covering any sport during the Continental Cup on the weekend. His knowledge of curling is unmatched, even by legendary TSN analyst Ray Turnbull. Howard his foresight that simply amazes me. He was one of the best shotcallers when he played, which has translated great into his new job in the broadcast booth. Howard, along with Vic Rauter and Linda Moore will call the TSN Skins Game from Rama, Ontario this Saturday and Sunday.
• Sportsnet deserves credit for their coverage of the CHL/NHL Top Prospects Game tonight. They had a full half hour pregame show, and a post-game show too. Plus the game itself was in HD, which I believe is a first for a non-Memorial Cup CHL game on the network. Of course it would be great if regular season CHL games were at least broadcast in 16:9, or preferably in HD. In this aspect, Sportsnet still lags well behind TSN and CBC.
• The BBC has announced that Formula One play-by-play Jonathan Legard will not be back for the network’s coverage of the 2011 World Championship. Analyst Martin Brundle will move to the role of play-by-play, while former studio pundit David Clouthard will takeover Brundle’s former role of analyst in the booth. Legard was not very popular among fans in his two year tenure as play-by-play since BBC took back F1 rights from ITV. I have to question how well Brundle will do as play-by-play. This will either work out really good, or really bad. BBC’s Formula 1 commentary is heard on TSN in Canada.

Sports on TV: Week in Review

Sorry everyone, I just haven’t had the time to post what I’ve wanted to post over the past ten days. So, here is everything I have wanted to write over the past ten days.

• ESPN’s coverage of the BCS football games was great. A lot of people like to complain about ESPN, but I think most can agree that they do a great job at college football. They gave the games a big game feel, without overhyping them (during the broadcast at least, I’m sure they were overhyped on SportsCenter).
• TSN does get credit for airing all five games between the main network and TSN2; however, they decided that going to SportsCentre at 12:20 was more important than sticking around for the the BCS trophy presentation. This would be like not showing the Stanley Cup, Grey Cup, Super Bowl, World Series or World Cup trophy presentation. Everyone knows that I usually think TSN does a great job at almost everything, but they simply screwed this up. It is unacceptable.
• Setanta Sports picked up the Setanta Ireland feed for three FA Cup games last weekend. They deserve credit for this because it resulted in Canadian viewers getting pre and post game studio coverage for these three games. I think that many agree that it would be nice if Setanta picked up the Setanta Ireland feed for the Saturday 10am ET Premier League games.
• I haven’t  really taken the time to talk about TSN’s coverage of the World Juniors. As usual I thought it was great; overhyped, but great. Gord Miller does his best work at the World Juniors and I believe that Pierre McGuire is the best hockey analyst around. Ryan Rishaug has really grown as a rinkside reporter over the past year covering big events like the World Juniors (in 2010 and 2011) and hockey at the 2010 Olympic Games in Vancouver. TSN’s new scorebar looks like a square version of CTV’s Olympic hockey scorebar, as I mentioned a couple weeks ago. TSN has yet to bring this graphic into their NHL broadcasts, so I’m still betting that we see a completely new TSN graphics package in April.
• The Australian Open begins tomorrow on TSN2, with overnight and early morning coverage every day over the next two weeks on TSN and TSN2. TSN will once again be picking up ESPN’s coverage, and it is expected that ESPN will introduce a new tennis graphics package for this tournament, to fall in line with their football, basketball and baseball graphics.
• TSN2 is airing NCAA hoops games every Saturday afternoon again this season. Conferences highlighted include the Big East, ACC and Big 12 on most Saturdays. They had a doubleheader last week, will have a singleheader today and a tripleheader next week. There should be 2-3 games every Saturday on TSN2.
• Sportsnet is also airing CHL games again this season, culminating with the Memorial Cup in May. There is just something about all Sportsnet broadcasts, including the Memorial Cup, that makes them seem unimportant. This is especially true of regular season CHL games where games are produced in 4:3 SD. I understand that there aren’t enough HD trucks in Canada to cover all NHL teams, the Raptors and the CHL, but there is no excuse to not produce coverage in 16:9 SD at least. I’m trying to remember the last time that I saw any TSN produced (or US produced) coverage in 4:3.

New Year’s Sports Ratings

NHL
Tuesday 1/4, Red Wings @ Oilers on TSN: 517, 000

World Juniors
Sunday 1/2, Canada vs. Switzerland on TSN: 3.1 million
Monday 1/3, Sweden vs. Russia on TSN: 1.25 million
Monday 1/3, Canada vs. USA on TSN: 6.03 million
Wednesday 1/5, USA vs. Sweden on TSN: ~1 million
Wednesday 1/5, Canada vs. Russia on TSN: 6.23 million

Unfortunately I still haven’t came across numbers for the Winter Classic on CBC or last weekend’s NFL playoff games on CTV. If anyone has, let me know.

2011 Australian Open on TSN

Now that it is the New Year, tennis is back underway after the winter break. The first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open from Melbourne, is just a week away. TSN and TSN2 will once again have coverage in Canada, simulcasting ESPN2’s coverage. RDS will also provide coverage in French. Here is TSN and TSN2’s schedules. All times ET.

Sunday 1/16, 6:30pm-3:00am – Early Rounds: Day #1 on TSN2
Monday 1/17, 3:00am-8:00am – Early Rounds: Day #1 on TSN2
Monday 1/17, 12:00pm-5:00pm – Early Rounds: Day #1 on TSN (encore)
Monday 1/17, 9:00pm-3:00am – Early Rounds: Day #2 on TSN
Tuesday 1/18, 3:00am-8:00am – Early Rounds: Day #2 on TSN2
Tuesday 1/18, 12:00pm-5:00pm – Early Rounds: Day #2 on TSN (encore)
Tuesday 1/18, 10:00pm-3:00am – Early Rounds: Day #3 on TSN
Wednesday 1/19, 3:00am-8:00am – Early Rounds: Day #3 on TSN2
Wednesday 1/19, 12:00pm-5:00pm – Early Rounds: Day #3 on TSN (encore)
Wednesday 1/19, 11:00pm-3:00am – Early Rounds: Day #4 on TSN2
Thursday 1/20, 3:00am-8:00am – Early Rounds: Day #4 on TSN2
Thursday 1/20, 12:00pm-6:00pm – Early Rounds: Day #4 on TSN (encore)
Thursday 1/20, 11:00pm-3:00am – Early Rounds: Day #5 on TSN
Friday 1/21, 3:00am-8:00am – Early Rounds: Day #5 on TSN2
Friday 1/21, 12:00pm-5:00pm – Early Rounds: Day #5 on TSN (encore)
Friday 1/21, 9:00pm-3:00am – Early Rounds: Day #6 on TSN
Saturday 1/22, 3:00am-7:30am – Early Rounds: Day #6 on TSN2
Saturday 1/22, 10:00am-1:00pm – Early Rounds: Day #6 on TSN (encore)
Saturday 1/22, 10:00pm-3:00am – Early Rounds: Day #7 on TSN2
Sunday 1/23, 3:00am-8:00am – Early Rounds: Day #7 on TSN2
Sunday 1/23, 4:00pm-6:00pm – Early Rounds: Day #7 on TSN (encore)
Sunday 1/23, 7:00pm-3:00am – Round of 16 on TSN
Monday 1/24, 3:00am-8:00am – Round of 16 on TSN2
Monday 1/24, 12:30pm-5:00pm – Round of 16 on TSN (encore)
Monday 1/24, 9:30pm-2:00am – Quarterfinals on TSN
Tuesday 1/25, 3:00am-8:00am – Quarterfinals on TSN
Tuesday 1/25, 12:30pm-5:00pm – Quarterfinals on TSN (encore)
Tuesday 1/25, 9:00pm-2:00am – Quarterfinals on TSN2
Wednesday 1/26, 3:30am-8:00am – Quarterfinals on TSN
Wednesday 1/26, 12:30pm-5:00pm – Quarterfinals on TSN (encore)
Wednesday 1/26, 10:00pm-2:00am – Women’s Semifinals on TSN
Thursday 1/27, 3:30am-6:00am – Men’s Semifinal #1 on TSN
Thursday 1/27, 2:30pm-5:00pm – Men’s Semifinal #1 on TSN (encore)
Friday 1/28, 3:30am-6:00am – Men’s Semifinal #2 on TSN
Friday 1/28, 2:30pm-5:00pm – Men’s Semifinals #2 on TSN (encore)
Saturday 1/29, 3:00am-5:30am – Women’s Championship on TSN
Saturday 1/29, 3:30pm-6:00pm – Women’s Championship on TSN (encore)
Sunday 1/30, 3:00am-6:30am – Men’s Championship on TSN
Sunday 1/30, 12:30pm-3:00pm – Men’s Championship on TSN (encore)

And now here is the RDS schedule. It is quite likely that RDS will use the international video feed. Their commentators will be Yvan Pontan and Helene Pelletier.

Samdei 1/22, 14:00-16:30 – rond de 32
Dimanche 1/23, 24:00-2:30 – rond de 32
Dimanche 1/23, 12:30-3:00 – rond de 32
Dimanche 1/23, 22:00-0:30 – rond de 16
Lundi 1/24, 9:00-12:00 – rond de 16
Lundi 1/24, 15:00-18:00 – rond de 16 (rediffusion)
Mardi 1/25, 9:00-12:00 – quarts de finale
Mardi 1/25, 15:00-18:00 – quarts de finale (rediffusion)
Mecredi 1/26, 9:00-12:00 – quarts de finale
Mecredi 1/26, 15:00-18:00 – quarts de finale (rediffusion)
Mecredi 1/26, 21:30-1:30 – Demis-finales Femmes
Jeudi 1/27, 9:00-12:00 – Demi-finale Hommes #1
Jeudi 1/27, 15:00-18:00 – Demi-finale Hommes #1 (rediffusion)
Vendredi 1/28, 9:00-12:00 – Demi-finale Hommes #2
Vendredi 1/28, 15:00-18:00 – Demi-finale Hommes #2 (rediffusion)
Samdei 1/29, 9:00-11:00 – Finale Femmes
Samdei 1/29, 23:00-1:00 – Finale Femmes (rediffusion)
Dimanche 1/30, 7:00-10:00 – Finale Hommes
Dimanche 1/30, 23:00-2:00 – Finale Hommes (rediffusion)