CBC Scores On Its Own Net

It used to be that Hockey Night in Canada could waltz into the Stanley Cup Playoffs each year, contractually entitled to broadcast every game involving a Canadian-based team and guaranteed to attract the maximum number of hockey eyeballs to the small screen. But ever since the league introduced a new television deal last season, our public broadcaster is having to make some tough choices to try and fend off rival TSN . . . and it's not doing a very good job.

Under the new deal, broadcast rights for each of the eight opening round series are now distributed via a draft. CBC holds the first and second picks, but then TSN gets to pick third, with CBC selecting fourth, TSN fifth, CBC sixth, and TSN seventh and eighth. What this means is that once three Canadian teams have qualified for the playoffs, CBC risks losing one of them to TSN. This year, with Vancouver, Ottawa, and Montreal all making the post-season, CBC couldn't protect all three teams from TSN's reach. But letting TSN snap-up the Montreal-Washington series could prove to be a ratings disaster for Hockey Night in Canada.

With the Toronto Maple Leafs out of the playoff picture (again!), the public broadcaster gave up its most valuable remaining property in the Montreal Canadiens (sorry Vancouver and Ottawa, but you're just not in the same category when it comes to a national fanbase as the Leafs and Habs). CBC also gave up arguably the most popular player in the league in Washington's Alex Ovechkin. Now I know that Sidney Crosby might have something to say about my last statement, but even if he were to edge out Ovechkin, there is no way that it could compensate for the Canadiens national popularity over the Senators.

I keep using terms like "national fanbase" and "national popularity" because there seems to be this conspiracy floating around on the internet that French-language broadcaster RDS somehow erodes English-language ratings for Canadiens games by such a large margin that it isn't in CBC's interest to broadcast the Habs when other options are available. This is absolute nonsense. With the exception of one game in Nashville, CBC televised each and every Habs contest played on a Saturday night this season. Until the Maple Leafs were eliminated from the playoffs, most of the Hab games were shown in Quebec only, where the competition with RDS is most fierce. Surely, if it made sense for CBC to go head-to-head with RDS all season long in the only region of the country where the latter network is dominant, then it makes sense now for CBC to compete with RDS on the national stage where the latter network is largely a fringe specialty channel. And, again, for a team like the Montreal Canadiens, the national audience brings in big numbers - more than Vancouver playing another west-coast team (read: late night starts on the east-coast for the entire series) and more than Ottawa (read: the Canadian team with the least following).

There is another rumour circulating on-line that says the Habs were shunned because their series with Washington is expected to be over quickly and not in Montreal's favour. So what? If, as expected, the Vancouver Canucks are the only team from Canada that advances to the next round, then CBC will have plenty of opportunities to air games late at night when most of the country has already gone to bed. The broadcaster should make the most of prime-time TV while it can.

TONIGHT'S GAMES:
Senators at Penguins - Game 1, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Flyers at Devils - Game 1, 7:30 p.m. (TSN)/(RIS)
Red Wings at Coyotes - Game 1, 10 p.m. (TSN)/(RIS)
Avalanche at Sharks - Game 1, 10:30 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)