The Hockey World According to CBC

CBC has developed a reputation in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs for being so self-absorbed in the series it’s covering that it almost completely ignores the other post-season matchups taking place. Take yesterday, for example, when the public broadcaster issued a press release entitled “Highest Round One Audience in Six Seasons for 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs on CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada”. Apparently, CBC would have us believe that the first round was already over as of yesterday.

But just like it’s not a coincidence that any mention of the Montreal Canadiens has been shunned on CBC ever since the network deliberately lost broadcast rights of the Canadiens-Capitals series to rival TSN, so too is it not a coincidence that CBC selected yesterday to publish its press release – in advance of the two game sevens set to air on TSN and the high ratings they are expected to generate, particularly the aforementioned Canadiens-Capitals tilt. Had the public broadcaster waited until all the first round games were truly over, its numbers would look weaker by comparison.

As can be expected, CBC tried to put a positive spin on its performance, claiming its audience numbers were the highest they’ve been since 2004. The only problem with this claim is that BBM Canada changed the way ratings were calculated in this country on August 31, 2009, and all the networks have been setting so-called ratings records ever since. On April 19 of this year, when TSN published its own press release to promote the “highest NHL playoff audience ever recorded for the network” at 2.1 million for game two of the Canadiens-Capitals series, the release mentioned a difference in reporting techniques as of August 31, 2009. Unlike TSN’s release, no such disclosure was made in CBC’s communiqué.

Also unlike TSN, no “all-time” record was set by CBC. The best the public broadcaster could do was go back six years. I wonder if the absence of the Montreal Canadiens had anything to do with that.

TONIGHT'S GAME:
Canadiens at Capitals - Game 7, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)