Hockey can make or break a Canadian television network. Advertising revenue from CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, for example, subsidizes the majority of other CBC programmes that are money losers. When rumours swirled a few years ago that CBC ran the risk of losing NHL TV rights to rival CTV, industry insiders openly questioned if the public broadcaster could survive such a fatal blow. Although CBC was ultimately able to retain its NHL package, another broadcasting chain has not been so lucky and has slowly succumbed to its wounds.
Télévision Quatre-Saisons (“TQS”) was launched in 1986 as the third French-language television service throughout the Province of Quebec. Sports, particularly hockey, quickly became a staple item on the TQS schedule. Beginning in 1988, the network became the official broadcaster of the Quebec Nordiques. In 1995, when the Nordiques relocated to Colorado as the Avalanche, TQS shifted its hockey focus to the Montreal Canadiens, airing at least one of the team’s games per week. In 1998, to complement the Canadiens coverage, the network introduced a nightly sports debate show entitled 110%. Airing after the games, 110% gave former coaches (like Jean Perron and Michel Bergeron), retired players (such as Enrico Ciccone and Marc Bureau), and active journalists (including Michel Villeneuve and Pierre Rinfret) the opportunity to debate the Canadiens performance and what adjustments the team should make for the next game, the next series, the next season, etc. The show, first hosted by Paul Rivard and later by Jean Pagé, became infamous for having all its guests talking (read: screaming) at the same time and the ambience mirrored the passionate debates that Quebeckers would have about hockey over their office water coolers and home dinner tables. Jean Perron, as an example, is shown here expressing what he believes to be a lack of historical success with Russian players with the Canadiens:
110% was a huge success, so much so that it gave rise to spoof segments on comedy shows, such as this 10% clip from a Radio-Canada New Year’s Eve Special, in which the show was removed from its sports context and placed into a political one:
But the show was not only mimicked in comedy segments – its successful format on TQS gave rise to competing sports debate shows on other networks. In 2005, Radio-Canada launched Au-dessus de la mêlée and, in 2008, RDS premiered L’Antichambre. The rival networks also poached TQS’ talent base, with Radio-Canada taking Michel Villeneuve and RDS grabbing Michel Bergeron. Meanwhile, TQS wasn’t only losing its talent – it was also losing its hockey footprint. The Canadiens announced in 2002 that conventional networks were no longer in the team’s future – the Canadiens would now air exclusively on cable channel RDS.
For TQS, the cable-only announcement was a fatal blow. Without the hockey property, TQS fell into severe financial hardship. In 2007, the network filed for bankruptcy protection. Its new owner, Remstar, changed the network’s name to V and announced that all in-house productions would cease in 2008 – with the only exception being 110%. But even the network’s crown jewel could not avoid fate forever. After all, rival RDS not only had exclusive coverage of the Canadiens, but it also now had its own sports debate show that immediately followed the games. The transition from game to debate on RDS was seamless, with viewers not given much time or reason to change channels. Not surprisingly, 110% suffered in the ratings department and, after a brief name change to L’Attaque à 5, the show aired its last broadcast on Friday – 11 seasons after it first started.
110% will not be the only hockey debating show going off the air for good this spring. Later in June, Radio-Canada’s attempt at the genre will also disappear into television history. La Zone with Michel Villeneuve (also a name change, this time from Au-dessus de la mêlée) has equally been bleeding viewers to RDS and the show will not be renewed next season. This means that the cable channel’s L’Antichambre will run unopposed next fall as the only hockey debate show in town.
The moral to the story is never to underestimate the importance of NHL broadcasting rights in the Canadian television industry. Not only do hockey ratings mean big bucks in advertising revenue during the games themselves, allowing the funds to be spent on more fragile areas of network programming, but the audience can be easily convinced to stick around after the game, boost ratings for complementary shows, and drive a dagger into the heart of the competition. When it comes to leveraging the game of hockey by 110%, no one does it as well as RDS.
TONIGHT'S GAME:
Flyers at Blackhawks - Game 2, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
Monday, May 31, 2010
Friday, May 28, 2010
All about Leverage
Here’s something you don’t read every day: Kudos to Gary Bettman. Unlike previous years in which the NHL schedule was quietly released in mid-July – one of hockey’s few dead months – the league did things very differently this year, choosing instead to leverage the media spotlight of the Stanley Cup Final to announce the key highlights of next year’s campaign.
Although the complete schedule won’t be released until June 22 (also leveraged, this time with the Entry Draft), Gary Bettman’s timing to unveil all the highlights of next year’s schedule earlier this afternoon, on the eve of the Stanley Cup Final, shows that he can make some good business decisions. Just as hockey broadcasters air games at specific times to attract as many eyeballs as possible, the league is right to disseminate its message about next season to as many people as it can, and what better audience magnet could there be to the game of hockey than the Stanley Cup Final?
Next year’s highlights include a pair of doubleheaders to kick off the season on Thursday, October 7: On CBC, the Maple Leafs will host the Canadiens and the Oilers will entertain Calgary, while on U.S. cable the Flyers will play Pittsburgh and Chicago will take on Colorado. The New Year’s Day outdoor Winter Classic will be played between the Penguins and Capitals on NBC. There is also a strong possibility of a second outdoor game, this time featuring the all-Canadian matchup of Montreal in Calgary on Sunday, February 20. CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada, the annual celebration of our country’s “love and devotion to the game” will take place on Saturday, February 12 with Ottawa at Edmonton in the afternoon, followed by Toronto at Montreal and Calgary at Vancouver as the evening games. For the first time, the NHL will also experiment with the idea south of the border with Hockey Day in America on Sunday, February 20. The playoffs will begin on Wednesday, April 13.
The league reached a lot more people by making these announcements today as opposed to two months from now. This, Gary, is how you grow the game. Now, we just have to talk about that Phoenix thing . . .
THIS WEEKEND'S GAMES:
Tonight
No games scheduled
Saturday
Flyers at Blackhawks - Game 1, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
Sunday
No games scheduled
Although the complete schedule won’t be released until June 22 (also leveraged, this time with the Entry Draft), Gary Bettman’s timing to unveil all the highlights of next year’s schedule earlier this afternoon, on the eve of the Stanley Cup Final, shows that he can make some good business decisions. Just as hockey broadcasters air games at specific times to attract as many eyeballs as possible, the league is right to disseminate its message about next season to as many people as it can, and what better audience magnet could there be to the game of hockey than the Stanley Cup Final?
Next year’s highlights include a pair of doubleheaders to kick off the season on Thursday, October 7: On CBC, the Maple Leafs will host the Canadiens and the Oilers will entertain Calgary, while on U.S. cable the Flyers will play Pittsburgh and Chicago will take on Colorado. The New Year’s Day outdoor Winter Classic will be played between the Penguins and Capitals on NBC. There is also a strong possibility of a second outdoor game, this time featuring the all-Canadian matchup of Montreal in Calgary on Sunday, February 20. CBC’s Hockey Day in Canada, the annual celebration of our country’s “love and devotion to the game” will take place on Saturday, February 12 with Ottawa at Edmonton in the afternoon, followed by Toronto at Montreal and Calgary at Vancouver as the evening games. For the first time, the NHL will also experiment with the idea south of the border with Hockey Day in America on Sunday, February 20. The playoffs will begin on Wednesday, April 13.
The league reached a lot more people by making these announcements today as opposed to two months from now. This, Gary, is how you grow the game. Now, we just have to talk about that Phoenix thing . . .
THIS WEEKEND'S GAMES:
Tonight
No games scheduled
Saturday
Flyers at Blackhawks - Game 1, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
Sunday
No games scheduled
Thursday, May 27, 2010
NHL's Tire
With the debut of the Stanley Cup Finals still two days away, hockey fans and broadcasters are no doubt bored with the excessive wait between rounds. For those counting, we’re in the middle of four straight days without any hockey on the tube and it’s starting to get tiring. So, it was with some irony that the NHL announced yesterday that it signed an “Official Tire” agreement. Granted, the deal was signed with Bridgestone Tires – as in the tires on a car – but, given the long wait between rounds, it would have made more sense to ink a deal with a mattress company.
According to the press release, the “Bridgestone brand will serve as the Official Tire of the NHL, NHLPA, and Hockey Hall of Fame for the next five years”. The communiqué goes on to list a plethora of events at which the tires will be featured and for which they will serve as a sponsor. But the real question, on my mind at least, was completely avoided: Why in the world does a hockey league need an Official Tire?
Could it be for the Zambonis? Well, the press release is quite specific with its message “for drivers who want to get the most out of their cars, it’s Bridgestone or nothing”. Cars, the text reads, not Zambonis. It must be for something else.
Maybe it’s for the moving vans when the Phoenix Coyotes finally croak and are relocated to Winnipeg. Again, the press release is quite explicit with the term “car”, but there probably won’t be enough cash left in the team’s $25 million rescue package to hire professional movers. Instead, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman may have to make a few trips with his car in the middle of the night, just like a tenant skipping out on the rent. (It’s worth noting that the Coyotes original lease at Jobbing.com Arena ran through the year 2033.) But I’m not sure Bridgestone would want to associate its brand with the Phoenix Coyotes saga – too controversial and too few people.
How about having Bridgestone on hand to replace the slashed tires of sports journalists covering the visiting playoff team in Philadelphia? Too bad for Montreal Gazette sports writer Pat Hickey that the Bridgestone announcement hadn’t been made when his 1999 Honda Accord with a Quebec licence plate was vandalized in Philadelphia after game one of the Flyers series against the Canadiens. Still, I bet there are a few dozen Chicago-area sports reporters who would be very interested in such an offer from Bridgestone. And the good news is that they still have another 48 hours before the Flyers-Blackhawks series gets underway to make arrangements.
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
No games scheduled
According to the press release, the “Bridgestone brand will serve as the Official Tire of the NHL, NHLPA, and Hockey Hall of Fame for the next five years”. The communiqué goes on to list a plethora of events at which the tires will be featured and for which they will serve as a sponsor. But the real question, on my mind at least, was completely avoided: Why in the world does a hockey league need an Official Tire?
Could it be for the Zambonis? Well, the press release is quite specific with its message “for drivers who want to get the most out of their cars, it’s Bridgestone or nothing”. Cars, the text reads, not Zambonis. It must be for something else.
Maybe it’s for the moving vans when the Phoenix Coyotes finally croak and are relocated to Winnipeg. Again, the press release is quite explicit with the term “car”, but there probably won’t be enough cash left in the team’s $25 million rescue package to hire professional movers. Instead, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman may have to make a few trips with his car in the middle of the night, just like a tenant skipping out on the rent. (It’s worth noting that the Coyotes original lease at Jobbing.com Arena ran through the year 2033.) But I’m not sure Bridgestone would want to associate its brand with the Phoenix Coyotes saga – too controversial and too few people.
How about having Bridgestone on hand to replace the slashed tires of sports journalists covering the visiting playoff team in Philadelphia? Too bad for Montreal Gazette sports writer Pat Hickey that the Bridgestone announcement hadn’t been made when his 1999 Honda Accord with a Quebec licence plate was vandalized in Philadelphia after game one of the Flyers series against the Canadiens. Still, I bet there are a few dozen Chicago-area sports reporters who would be very interested in such an offer from Bridgestone. And the good news is that they still have another 48 hours before the Flyers-Blackhawks series gets underway to make arrangements.
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
No games scheduled
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Disjointed Third Round
Of the three rounds played so far in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, the third round has been, by far, the most awkward for viewers and broadcasters – particularly in regards to the Blackhawks-Sharks Western Final. The series lasted the minimum four games but managed to rotate between three different broadcasters and three different start times, of which only one was in prime time. The complete audience ratings haven’t been disseminated yet, but it’s a good bet the numbers will be all over the place.
In terms of broadcasters, TSN had the rights to the first three games of the series and the specialty channel announced that it would use Chris Cuthbert and Pierre McGuire to call the action. But this wasn’t entirely accurate because NBC televised the first game in the U.S. and, for whatever reason, whenever NBC televises a game for which TSN holds the Canadian rights, TSN uses the NBC feed. So viewers in Canada got NBC’s Mike Emrick and Ed Olczyk for game one, TSN’s Chris Cuthbert and Pierre McGuire for games two and three, and then the series shifted to CBC where Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson called the action for game four. Hughson and Simpson would have continued to work the remainder of the series had it not been a sweep but, with the Blackhawks winning in four straight games, the top duo at Hockey Night in Canada was limited to calling only one game in the third round – and it was an afternoon contest to boot - not exactly a ratings bonanza for CBC.
Speaking of afternoon contests, the Blackhawks-Sharks series had two of them. In fact, the series comprised more afternoon games than prime time telecasts: Game one was on a Sunday afternoon (not good for TSN's ratings), game two a late night Tuesday (not good for TSN's ratings), game three a prime time Friday (much better for TSN's ratings), and game four back to a Sunday afternoon (back to poor ratings - this time for CBC). Throw in another afternoon contest for game four of the Canadiens-Flyers series (again, bad for CBC), juxtaposed against prime time starts for its other four contests (much better for CBC), and everyone had to have been scratching their heads as to why there wasn’t more consistency with start times. In all fairness to the NHL, the remainder of the third round was all scheduled to be played in prime time and promised to deliver a string of large audiences – the only problem was that both series were over too quickly for any of these games to actually get played. And so, don’t be surprised if the ratings we see in a few days aren’t quite as strong as those to which we have grown accustom - they certainly won't be consistent.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
No games scheduled
In terms of broadcasters, TSN had the rights to the first three games of the series and the specialty channel announced that it would use Chris Cuthbert and Pierre McGuire to call the action. But this wasn’t entirely accurate because NBC televised the first game in the U.S. and, for whatever reason, whenever NBC televises a game for which TSN holds the Canadian rights, TSN uses the NBC feed. So viewers in Canada got NBC’s Mike Emrick and Ed Olczyk for game one, TSN’s Chris Cuthbert and Pierre McGuire for games two and three, and then the series shifted to CBC where Jim Hughson and Craig Simpson called the action for game four. Hughson and Simpson would have continued to work the remainder of the series had it not been a sweep but, with the Blackhawks winning in four straight games, the top duo at Hockey Night in Canada was limited to calling only one game in the third round – and it was an afternoon contest to boot - not exactly a ratings bonanza for CBC.
Speaking of afternoon contests, the Blackhawks-Sharks series had two of them. In fact, the series comprised more afternoon games than prime time telecasts: Game one was on a Sunday afternoon (not good for TSN's ratings), game two a late night Tuesday (not good for TSN's ratings), game three a prime time Friday (much better for TSN's ratings), and game four back to a Sunday afternoon (back to poor ratings - this time for CBC). Throw in another afternoon contest for game four of the Canadiens-Flyers series (again, bad for CBC), juxtaposed against prime time starts for its other four contests (much better for CBC), and everyone had to have been scratching their heads as to why there wasn’t more consistency with start times. In all fairness to the NHL, the remainder of the third round was all scheduled to be played in prime time and promised to deliver a string of large audiences – the only problem was that both series were over too quickly for any of these games to actually get played. And so, don’t be surprised if the ratings we see in a few days aren’t quite as strong as those to which we have grown accustom - they certainly won't be consistent.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
No games scheduled
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Made for (U.S.) TV
It features neither Alex Ovechkin nor Sidney Crosby, but NBC has to be pretty happy nonetheless with the matchup for this year’s Stanley Cup Final. In fact, this year’s confrontation between the Chicago Blackhawks and Philadelphia Flyers is the third season in a row in which the final round involves two teams from major U.S. hockey markets. And, unlike the past two seasons in which one of the markets (Detroit) straddled the Canadian border and split the local audience with CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada, fans in both Chicago and Philadelphia will have no alternative to the U.S. telecasts.
As in past years, however, NBC will only show five of the potential seven games in the series, with the other two contests available to the American audience via cable only. The problem for NBC is that three of its five games will only be played if necessary, meaning that the network would only have two games to air in the event of a sweep. And should a sweep materialize, NBC would not air the clinching game. Of course, considering NBC’s level of “commitment” to hockey in general – particularly in the coveted prime-time spot in which all of the games will now air – the network may very well consider a short series to be a good thing.
In Canada, although CBC would have much preferred to see the Montreal Canadiens representing the Eastern Conference, the Flyers-Blackhawks matchup should still deliver good ratings – most notably for the first game which is scheduled for the public broadcaster’s traditional Saturday evening timeslot. Look for Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson, and Glenn Healy to work this series. The real loser in all of this is French-language RDS, which had benefited from amazing ratings with the Canadiens, but will now have its numbers plummet back to earth. Of note, Jacques Demers, who has been named to the Canadian Senate, saw his broadcasting career end last night with the elimination of the Canadiens. Demers will not work the final round.
STANLEY CUP FINAL - SCHEDULE:
1 - Sat. May 29 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
2 - Mon. May 31 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
3 - Wed. June 2 at Philadelphia, 8 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
4 - Fri. June 4 at Philadelphia, 8 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
*5 - Sun. June 6 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
*6 - Wed. June 9 at Philadelphia, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
*7 - Fri. June 11 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
*if necessary
As in past years, however, NBC will only show five of the potential seven games in the series, with the other two contests available to the American audience via cable only. The problem for NBC is that three of its five games will only be played if necessary, meaning that the network would only have two games to air in the event of a sweep. And should a sweep materialize, NBC would not air the clinching game. Of course, considering NBC’s level of “commitment” to hockey in general – particularly in the coveted prime-time spot in which all of the games will now air – the network may very well consider a short series to be a good thing.
In Canada, although CBC would have much preferred to see the Montreal Canadiens representing the Eastern Conference, the Flyers-Blackhawks matchup should still deliver good ratings – most notably for the first game which is scheduled for the public broadcaster’s traditional Saturday evening timeslot. Look for Jim Hughson, Craig Simpson, and Glenn Healy to work this series. The real loser in all of this is French-language RDS, which had benefited from amazing ratings with the Canadiens, but will now have its numbers plummet back to earth. Of note, Jacques Demers, who has been named to the Canadian Senate, saw his broadcasting career end last night with the elimination of the Canadiens. Demers will not work the final round.
STANLEY CUP FINAL - SCHEDULE:
1 - Sat. May 29 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
2 - Mon. May 31 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
3 - Wed. June 2 at Philadelphia, 8 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
4 - Fri. June 4 at Philadelphia, 8 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
*5 - Sun. June 6 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
*6 - Wed. June 9 at Philadelphia, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
*7 - Fri. June 11 at Chicago, 8 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
*if necessary
Friday, May 21, 2010
Last Hurrah for TSN
After more than a month of furious action on TSN, the curtain closes tonight on the specialty channel’s coverage of this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs with game three of the third round Blackhawks-Sharks series from Chicago. This spring has seen the network establish a number of hockey milestones and, even though luck sometimes played a part, those involved with the station should give themselves a pat on the back for a job well done. In chronological order, the network can report these impressive numbers:
- TSN’s coverage of the first round Canadiens-Capital series ranks as the most-watched playoff series ever on the specialty channel with an average audience of 1.8 million viewers over seven games. Game two of this series earned TSN its highest NHL playoff audience ever at 2.1 million viewers . . . that is until this figure was surpassed in game seven of the same series with an audience of 2.8 million.
- The network ranked first, fourth, fifth, and seventh in APH ratings in the first round, despite the fact that TSN selected its series in the third, fifth, seventh, and eighth draft spots.
- The specialty channel’s game seven coverage of the second round Flyers-Bruins series earned the network its highest audience ever recorded for a game not involving a Canadian-based team at 2.1 million.
- TSN’s game one coverage of the third round Blackhawks-Sharks series, which drew an audience of 1.225 million (not including NBC viewers), earned the highest APH for any afternoon game played throughout this year’s playoffs at 0.136 – beating even CBC’s game two afternoon coverage of the Canadiens-Penguins series (again, not including NBC viewers).
The most telling milestone from above was the second bullet point – even though the network selected its first round series from a position of weakness in comparison to rival CBC, the specialty channel was rank ahead of the public broadcaster in many of the APH ratings. In fact, after removing the three first round series in which Canadian teams participated, TSN ranked first, second, and fourth for the remaining all-American matchups with CBC placing third and fifth. So, whereas CBC will always benefit from its near-stranglehold on Canadian teams in the playoffs, viewers appear to prefer TSN when the playing field is levelled and Canadian content is no longer part of the equation. This either means that (a) TSN does a better job than CBC in selecting the all-American series, thereby attracting more viewers than CBC, and/or (b) TSN delivers a better overall broadcast than CBC, thereby attracting more viewers than the public broadcaster. Either way, the NHL on TSN team deserves the credit.
THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES:
Tonight
Sharks at Blackhawks - Game 3, 8 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Saturday
Flyers at Canadiens - Game 4, 3 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
Sunday
Sharks at Blackhawks - Game 4, 3 p.m. (NBC)/(CBC)/(RDS)
Monday (Victoria Day)
Canadiens at Flyers - Game 5, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Thursday, May 20, 2010
A Weekday Afternoon in Europe
Yesterday’s blog took a look at how poorly afternoon hockey games perform on Canadian television in comparison with more traditional evening timeslots. But at least the daytime games we love to hate are weekend games – could you imagine how silly it would be for the NHL to schedule afternoon contests during the work week? And yet, that’s exactly what’s going to happen next season. This time, instead of the villain being U.S. broadcaster NBC, it’s the 2010 Compuware NHL Premiere Games – otherwise known as the league’s annual trip to Europe to open the regular season.
Some background: In 2007, as a way to test the viability of potential expansion franchises in Europe, the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks played a pair of weekend games in London to kick-off the NHL calendar. In 2008, the experiment was expanded to include four games – two in Stockholm between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators, and two in Prague between the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning. The pattern continued in 2009 with another four games on the European slate – two in Stockholm between the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues, and two in Helsinki between the Florida Panthers and Chicago Blackhawks. To open next season, the NHL has its most ambitious plans yet – a trio of two-game series in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Prague – bringing the total to six games.
The problem with all of this is when to schedule the games in light of significant time zone differences between Europe and each of the team’s fan bases in North America. In past seasons, the league opted to play in Europe on Saturday and Sunday evening, meaning that the games would air live on North American television on weekend afternoons. But with next year’s voyage involving three series instead of two, there isn’t enough time to squeeze all the games into a single weekend of coverage. So, if you’re a fan of the Carolina Hurricanes or Minnesota Wild and want to watch your team on television opening its season in Helskini, you’re going to have to tune-in on a Thursday afternoon in October. Game two of the series will go the next day on Friday. And if you’re a fan of the Columbus Blue Jackets or the San Jose Sharks, your series will start on the same Friday afternoon – of course it will be more like Friday morning in California – before concluding the next day on Saturday. The only European visitors that will be spared weekday afternoon games are the Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes (or, as may be the case, Winnipeg Jets), both of which will play in Prague on Saturday and Sunday.
So why should fans of other teams and their broadcasters care about the plight of four teams for one or two days? Because this could easily be your team in a few years – and for more than one or two days per season. If the NHL ever decides to place franchises in European cities, weekend afternoon games for the North American audience would be unavoidable. No matter how great permanent European hockey could be for the NHL (which is something that I seriously dispute), the time zome issue alone would be extremely frustrating and inconvenient for hockey fans on this side of the Atlantic and a complete ratings disaster for North American broadcasters. Let’s hope the NHL arrives at this conclusion while its European adventure is still only in experimentation mode.
TONIGHT'S GAME:
Flyers at Canadiens - Game 3, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Some background: In 2007, as a way to test the viability of potential expansion franchises in Europe, the Los Angeles Kings and Anaheim Ducks played a pair of weekend games in London to kick-off the NHL calendar. In 2008, the experiment was expanded to include four games – two in Stockholm between the Pittsburgh Penguins and Ottawa Senators, and two in Prague between the New York Rangers and Tampa Bay Lightning. The pattern continued in 2009 with another four games on the European slate – two in Stockholm between the Detroit Red Wings and St. Louis Blues, and two in Helsinki between the Florida Panthers and Chicago Blackhawks. To open next season, the NHL has its most ambitious plans yet – a trio of two-game series in Helsinki, Stockholm, and Prague – bringing the total to six games.
The problem with all of this is when to schedule the games in light of significant time zone differences between Europe and each of the team’s fan bases in North America. In past seasons, the league opted to play in Europe on Saturday and Sunday evening, meaning that the games would air live on North American television on weekend afternoons. But with next year’s voyage involving three series instead of two, there isn’t enough time to squeeze all the games into a single weekend of coverage. So, if you’re a fan of the Carolina Hurricanes or Minnesota Wild and want to watch your team on television opening its season in Helskini, you’re going to have to tune-in on a Thursday afternoon in October. Game two of the series will go the next day on Friday. And if you’re a fan of the Columbus Blue Jackets or the San Jose Sharks, your series will start on the same Friday afternoon – of course it will be more like Friday morning in California – before concluding the next day on Saturday. The only European visitors that will be spared weekday afternoon games are the Boston Bruins and Phoenix Coyotes (or, as may be the case, Winnipeg Jets), both of which will play in Prague on Saturday and Sunday.
So why should fans of other teams and their broadcasters care about the plight of four teams for one or two days? Because this could easily be your team in a few years – and for more than one or two days per season. If the NHL ever decides to place franchises in European cities, weekend afternoon games for the North American audience would be unavoidable. No matter how great permanent European hockey could be for the NHL (which is something that I seriously dispute), the time zome issue alone would be extremely frustrating and inconvenient for hockey fans on this side of the Atlantic and a complete ratings disaster for North American broadcasters. Let’s hope the NHL arrives at this conclusion while its European adventure is still only in experimentation mode.
TONIGHT'S GAME:
Flyers at Canadiens - Game 3, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
The "NBC Effect"
It’s long been a running assumption that hockey broadcasters in Canada don’t like having to accommodate U.S. network television with weekend afternoon games in the playoffs – particularly at the expense of the traditional Saturday night timeslot. The numbers through the first two rounds of this year’s playoffs would seem to support this assumption. The below table looks at how each of NBC’s six afternoon games this post-season has performed on Canadian television in comparison with the rest of the respective series:
When the “NBC Effect” is negative, as shown in red, it means that less people were watching the game on CBC or TSN than was the case for the rest of the series. As you can see, there is a lot of red in the table. In fact, of the six broadcasts, five were negative (three significantly so) and only one managed to barely eek out a positive impact of 0.3%. These numbers show that, on average, Canadian broadcasters lose about 15% of their audiences when a game is played on a weekend afternoon. Conversely, the below table shows a sharp increase in viewers when a game is played on a Saturday night:
When the “Saturday Night Effect” is positive, as shown in green, it means that more people were watching the game on CBC or TSN than was the case for the rest of the series. As you can see, there is only green in the table. According to this data, Canadian broadcasters can expect to benefit from double-digit audience growth for Saturday night telecasts. Coupled with the loss from afternoon broadcasts, we can conclude that there is a significant swing when Saturday games are moved around by a few hours.
It looks as if CBC and TSN have an empirical reason to complain when they are asked (read: forced) to accommodate their U.S. broadcasting partner.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
No games scheduled
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Canadiens Drive Second Round Stats
Canadian hockey broadcasters have released their viewership numbers from the second round of the playoffs and, like the first round, the Montreal Canadiens continue to produce the highest ratings. Continuing my practice from an earlier post, I calculated the Audience per Household figure (or “APH”) by dividing the average audience per series by the number of households reached by each network. The results are below, with the second round series in bold:
As was the case with the first round, the two English-language networks were blown-away by French-language specialty channel RDS, which posted an APH of 0.582. This means that, of the approximately 3,000,000 households with access to RDS, 58.2% of them had someone watching the channel’s broadcasts of the Canadiens-Penguins series. This was up from the 0.446 figure for the Canadiens first round series against the Capitals.
Over at the English-language networks, CBC earned the highest APH for the second round at 0.211 – also for its coverage of the Canadiens-Penguins. This comes on the heels of TSN winning the first round with an APH of 0.200 – get this, for the Canadiens-Capitals. In fact, all three second round series not involving the Montreal Canadiens had a worse APH than the Canadiens first round series.
A lot was said during the first round about CBC’s controversial decision to go with the Canucks-Kings and Senators-Penguins instead of the Canadiens-Capitals. Using the APH method, I was able to statistically demonstrate that the Canadiens-Capitals would have done better in the ratings department on CBC than the two series that the network had chosen. But the second round allows the cherry to truly be placed on the sundae – even CBC’s second round Canucks-Blackhawks series did worse than the first round Canadiens-Capitals on an APH basis (0.197 versus 0.200). What does all of this mean? Clearly, CBC should rethink any future plans to ditch the Canadiens because another network’s coverage (i.e. that of RDS) would carve-up the viewership pie. The reality is that the Canadiens viewership pie – even when carved-up – provides much larger slices than that of other teams.
As for TSN, the network was not able to reproduce its magic from the first round, as it no longer had the Montreal Canadiens (or any other Canadian team, for that matter) to drive ratings. Nonetheless, its Flyers-Bruins and Red Wings-Sharks series received higher APHs (0.125 and 0.117) than its three first-round series that involved only U.S.-based teams (0.090, 0.086, and 0.061). With its Stanley Cup Playoff coverage drawing to a close on Friday, TSN should be pretty happy with the numbers its posted this year.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
Canadiens at Flyers - Game 2, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Blackhawks at Sharks - Game 2, 10 p.m. (TSN)
Monday, May 17, 2010
Third Round Confirmations
So the third round got underway yesterday and, as expected, broadcasting executives and NHL schedule makers didn’t really throw fans any curve balls (pardon the baseball pun). As anticipated, NBC elected to go with the all-American matchup between San Jose and Chicago twice but was also forced to reluctantly accept one game between Montreal and Philadelphia. CBC, for its part, is covering the entire Canadiens-Flyers series and, as I forecasted, is opting to go with Bob Cole in the booth. As for Jim Hughson, he will work the Sharks-Blackhawks series beginning with game four, after TSN concludes its coverage of the first three games. Now that TSN doesn’t have multiple series to cover, Chris Cuthbert will work alongside Pierre McGuire for the specialty channel’s remaining broadcasts – which just goes to confirm my much earlier belief that it should have been Cuthbert as the network’s top play-by-play man, and not Gord Miller, calling the Canadiens-Capitals in the first round.
The Montreal Canadiens have heavily impacted TSN’s playoff coverage this year. In the first round, it was the presence of the Canadiens on TSN that gave the specialty channel its highest hockey ratings in the network’s history. But the continued presence of the Canadiens – now on CBC – has since had the opposite effect for TSN. The specialty channel has not yet released its ratings for the second round, but one can only imagine that they won’t come close to what CBC has been reporting: A whopping 4.239 million watched game seven between the Canadiens-Penguins on CBC alone, with another 2.417 million watching on French-language RDS – that means there weren’t too many people left to watch game six between the Flyers-Bruins on TSN, which aired at the same time as game seven of the Canadiens-Penguins series on the other networks.
And the news doesn’t get better for TSN. The Canadiens are still alive in the third round and will still continue to rack-up ratings for TSN’s competitors. Even more frustrating for the specialty channel, two of the three games it does get to broadcast in the third round start at non-peak times – a Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock and a Tuesday night beginning afterhours at 10 o’clock. CBC, on the other hand, will have the Canadiens at 7 o’clock each night – except for Saturday, when the game will be played in the afternoon to accommodate U.S. television. Notwithstanding the bad foot on which the playoffs started for CBC, the public broadcaster has to be pretty happy with how things have since turned around.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
No games scheduled
The Montreal Canadiens have heavily impacted TSN’s playoff coverage this year. In the first round, it was the presence of the Canadiens on TSN that gave the specialty channel its highest hockey ratings in the network’s history. But the continued presence of the Canadiens – now on CBC – has since had the opposite effect for TSN. The specialty channel has not yet released its ratings for the second round, but one can only imagine that they won’t come close to what CBC has been reporting: A whopping 4.239 million watched game seven between the Canadiens-Penguins on CBC alone, with another 2.417 million watching on French-language RDS – that means there weren’t too many people left to watch game six between the Flyers-Bruins on TSN, which aired at the same time as game seven of the Canadiens-Penguins series on the other networks.
And the news doesn’t get better for TSN. The Canadiens are still alive in the third round and will still continue to rack-up ratings for TSN’s competitors. Even more frustrating for the specialty channel, two of the three games it does get to broadcast in the third round start at non-peak times – a Sunday afternoon at 3 o’clock and a Tuesday night beginning afterhours at 10 o’clock. CBC, on the other hand, will have the Canadiens at 7 o’clock each night – except for Saturday, when the game will be played in the afternoon to accommodate U.S. television. Notwithstanding the bad foot on which the playoffs started for CBC, the public broadcaster has to be pretty happy with how things have since turned around.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
No games scheduled
Friday, May 14, 2010
The Business of Hockey
Hockey isn’t a game anymore – it’s a business – and today’s brand of hockey journalism extends well beyond the arena all the way to the boardroom. The Hot Stove League, which ran on Hockey Night in Canada from 1939 to 1957 (first on radio and then on television), brought together well-known hockey writers to gab about the evening’s game. Today’s version, renamed The Hotstove, has nothing to do with the game itself and everything to do with the business behind it. Despite valiant efforts, the show’s participants aren’t always up to the task of truly understanding the business behind their sport.
The typical panel consists of Ron MacLean (long-time junior hockey referee and host of Hockey Night in Canada), Glenn Healy (former NHL goaltender and current colour commentator), Mike Milbury (former NHL defenseman and head coach), and Pierre Lebrun (sports reporter with the Canadian Press). Although each of these four gentlemen has secondary experience in the business world, such as Healy’s involvement with the NHL Players Association and Milbury’s time as General Manager of the New York Islanders, their collective background is clearly sports first and business second. Their business knowledge is adequate, but not extensive enough to truly understand the intricate nuances being debated in the boardroom. Why? The boardroom isn’t filled with hockey people who dab in business from time-to-time. Rather, it’s filled with business people who dab in hockey from time-to-time. Let’s take a look at the principal players in the Phoenix Coyotes saga as a typical example:
Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the NHL, is the highest ranking executive in the league. But he didn’t get the job because he was a former player. Bettman’s background includes his study of Industrial and Labour Relations at Cornell University and a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law. He practised at the New York law firm of Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn before serving in the legal and marketing departments of the National Basketball Association. Since joining the NHL in 1993, Bettman expanded the league by four teams, relocated four other teams, and broke the player’s union during the 2004-2005 lockout. He may not be a popular figure in Canada, but Bettman’s business acumen ranks above that of the Hockey Night in Canada panel.
So does that of Jerry M. Reinsdorf, Certified Public Accountant, lawyer, real estate tycoon, owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls, and, if you believe rumours, possible future owner of the Phoenix Coyotes. Then there’s Canadian billionaire David Thomson – as in the Thomson Reuters business information empire kingpin – who, if you believe rumours, could eventually be responsible for landing an NHL team in Winnipeg. Finally, there’s the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based conservative think-tank whose policies of lower taxes, limited government spending, and a reduction in government management of the economy could, if you believe rumours, serve as the catalyst for the Coyotes deserting Arizona for the Manitoba capital.
Now I won’t pretend to be in the same league as these esteemed business veterans and organizations, but my background is very much business-oriented and I can tell you that the Hockey Night in Canada panel – like all the other sports shows heavy on athletic glory but a little low on business savvy – has it wrong when it comes to the Phoenix Coyotes current ownership situation. Specifically, this week’s vote by city council to guarantee a payment of up to $25 million to the NHL does not – I repeat - does not mean the team is safe in Phoenix for at least another year.
To make a fortune – and continue to hold on to that fortune – business people have to adapt to the changing environment in which they find themselves. A few years ago, having a $25 million insurance policy underwritten by a large U.S. municipality would have probably been sufficient for Gary Bettman and the NHL. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? If Reinsdorf walks away and no one else (i.e. Ice Edge Holdings) expresses interest in purchasing the Coyotes for retention in Phoenix, the NHL would just pocket its $25 million and move the team the following year. Right? Wrong!
The 2008 financial meltdown was all about credit and defaulting on that credit. Institutions thought they were adequately protected against nightmare scenarios because they had taken out the appropriate “insurance policies” – both literally and figuratively – only to find out at their time of need that underwriters weren’t liquid enough to pay. The lesson? A guarantee may not be worth the paper on which it’s written. I believe that’s the case with the so-called $25-million “guarantee” made to the NHL this week - and not just because the municipality is in dire financial straits - and I’m pretty sure that Gary Bettman does too.
This week’s financial “commitment” to the Phoenix Coyotes was nothing more than a political stunt – both by city council and the NHL – because neither party wants to be held directly responsible for the team’s potential departure. Yes, there is always a chance that the $25 million could be paid out, but in the absence of finding a credible buyer committed to keeping the team in Phoenix, it is far more likely that one of two scenarios will emerge: Either the Goldwater Institute will file a lawsuit to block payment to the NHL, claiming the move is illegal under state law – an argument that doesn’t need to be won but just needs to take months to resolve – or the city will refuse to pay outright, once it realizes that the team’s relocation is inevitable.
Let’s do a little situation analysis. Let’s say that, before the start of next season, Reinsdorf agrees to buy the team and keep it in Phoenix. Under such a situation, activation of the $25 million insurance policy wouldn’t be requested by the NHL. It’s only if a buyer isn’t found by then that the NHL would want council to pay. But if council knows there aren’t any buyers, it also knows that the team won’t stay in Phoenix, so why would it pay the NHL and commit political suicide – particularly if the Goldwater Institute’s argument provides an easy way out?
I find it hard to believe that a business person like Gary Bettman hasn’t thought this through and realized there is no probable outcome under which the insurance policy could be practically put into play. I find it equally sad that Hockey Night in Canada – or any sports show for that matter – can’t find the right business people to see three or four moves ahead and give viewers a more thorough understanding of what is going on behind closed doors. Far from guaranteeing the Coyotes presence in Phoenix next season, all the insurance policy does is buy the NHL more time to discuss relocation plans with Thomson for the Winnipeg option and, potentially, have the same discussion with other business moguls representing the Kansas City and Las Vegas markets (uggh!). But make no mistake - the NHL isn't interested in paper contracts - it wants its money. So if Reinsdorf doesn’t buy the team, Phoenix can kiss the Coyotes goodbye – at least that’s my “guarantee”.
THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES:
Tonight
Flyers at Bruins – Game 7, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Saturday
No game scheduled
Sunday
Blackhawks at Sharks – Game 1, 3 p.m. (NBC)/(TSN)/(RDS)
Canadiens at Flyers/Bruins – Game 1, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
The typical panel consists of Ron MacLean (long-time junior hockey referee and host of Hockey Night in Canada), Glenn Healy (former NHL goaltender and current colour commentator), Mike Milbury (former NHL defenseman and head coach), and Pierre Lebrun (sports reporter with the Canadian Press). Although each of these four gentlemen has secondary experience in the business world, such as Healy’s involvement with the NHL Players Association and Milbury’s time as General Manager of the New York Islanders, their collective background is clearly sports first and business second. Their business knowledge is adequate, but not extensive enough to truly understand the intricate nuances being debated in the boardroom. Why? The boardroom isn’t filled with hockey people who dab in business from time-to-time. Rather, it’s filled with business people who dab in hockey from time-to-time. Let’s take a look at the principal players in the Phoenix Coyotes saga as a typical example:
Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the NHL, is the highest ranking executive in the league. But he didn’t get the job because he was a former player. Bettman’s background includes his study of Industrial and Labour Relations at Cornell University and a Juris Doctor degree from New York University School of Law. He practised at the New York law firm of Proskauer Rose Goetz & Mendelsohn before serving in the legal and marketing departments of the National Basketball Association. Since joining the NHL in 1993, Bettman expanded the league by four teams, relocated four other teams, and broke the player’s union during the 2004-2005 lockout. He may not be a popular figure in Canada, but Bettman’s business acumen ranks above that of the Hockey Night in Canada panel.
So does that of Jerry M. Reinsdorf, Certified Public Accountant, lawyer, real estate tycoon, owner of the Chicago White Sox and Chicago Bulls, and, if you believe rumours, possible future owner of the Phoenix Coyotes. Then there’s Canadian billionaire David Thomson – as in the Thomson Reuters business information empire kingpin – who, if you believe rumours, could eventually be responsible for landing an NHL team in Winnipeg. Finally, there’s the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix-based conservative think-tank whose policies of lower taxes, limited government spending, and a reduction in government management of the economy could, if you believe rumours, serve as the catalyst for the Coyotes deserting Arizona for the Manitoba capital.
Now I won’t pretend to be in the same league as these esteemed business veterans and organizations, but my background is very much business-oriented and I can tell you that the Hockey Night in Canada panel – like all the other sports shows heavy on athletic glory but a little low on business savvy – has it wrong when it comes to the Phoenix Coyotes current ownership situation. Specifically, this week’s vote by city council to guarantee a payment of up to $25 million to the NHL does not – I repeat - does not mean the team is safe in Phoenix for at least another year.
To make a fortune – and continue to hold on to that fortune – business people have to adapt to the changing environment in which they find themselves. A few years ago, having a $25 million insurance policy underwritten by a large U.S. municipality would have probably been sufficient for Gary Bettman and the NHL. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? If Reinsdorf walks away and no one else (i.e. Ice Edge Holdings) expresses interest in purchasing the Coyotes for retention in Phoenix, the NHL would just pocket its $25 million and move the team the following year. Right? Wrong!
The 2008 financial meltdown was all about credit and defaulting on that credit. Institutions thought they were adequately protected against nightmare scenarios because they had taken out the appropriate “insurance policies” – both literally and figuratively – only to find out at their time of need that underwriters weren’t liquid enough to pay. The lesson? A guarantee may not be worth the paper on which it’s written. I believe that’s the case with the so-called $25-million “guarantee” made to the NHL this week - and not just because the municipality is in dire financial straits - and I’m pretty sure that Gary Bettman does too.
This week’s financial “commitment” to the Phoenix Coyotes was nothing more than a political stunt – both by city council and the NHL – because neither party wants to be held directly responsible for the team’s potential departure. Yes, there is always a chance that the $25 million could be paid out, but in the absence of finding a credible buyer committed to keeping the team in Phoenix, it is far more likely that one of two scenarios will emerge: Either the Goldwater Institute will file a lawsuit to block payment to the NHL, claiming the move is illegal under state law – an argument that doesn’t need to be won but just needs to take months to resolve – or the city will refuse to pay outright, once it realizes that the team’s relocation is inevitable.
Let’s do a little situation analysis. Let’s say that, before the start of next season, Reinsdorf agrees to buy the team and keep it in Phoenix. Under such a situation, activation of the $25 million insurance policy wouldn’t be requested by the NHL. It’s only if a buyer isn’t found by then that the NHL would want council to pay. But if council knows there aren’t any buyers, it also knows that the team won’t stay in Phoenix, so why would it pay the NHL and commit political suicide – particularly if the Goldwater Institute’s argument provides an easy way out?
I find it hard to believe that a business person like Gary Bettman hasn’t thought this through and realized there is no probable outcome under which the insurance policy could be practically put into play. I find it equally sad that Hockey Night in Canada – or any sports show for that matter – can’t find the right business people to see three or four moves ahead and give viewers a more thorough understanding of what is going on behind closed doors. Far from guaranteeing the Coyotes presence in Phoenix next season, all the insurance policy does is buy the NHL more time to discuss relocation plans with Thomson for the Winnipeg option and, potentially, have the same discussion with other business moguls representing the Kansas City and Las Vegas markets (uggh!). But make no mistake - the NHL isn't interested in paper contracts - it wants its money. So if Reinsdorf doesn’t buy the team, Phoenix can kiss the Coyotes goodbye – at least that’s my “guarantee”.
THIS WEEKEND’S GAMES:
Tonight
Flyers at Bruins – Game 7, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Saturday
No game scheduled
Sunday
Blackhawks at Sharks – Game 1, 3 p.m. (NBC)/(TSN)/(RDS)
Canadiens at Flyers/Bruins – Game 1, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Thursday, May 13, 2010
Fog Clears on Third Round
Last night’s stunning Canadiens victory in game seven over the defending Stanley Cup Champion Pittsburgh Penguins confirms the third of four participants in the next round of the playoffs. Although the NHL schedule makers will have to wait until Friday night’s game seven between Philadelphia and Boston before publishing the dates and start times for the third round games, we already have a pretty good idea of what the schedule will look like and what the implications will be for the various broadcasters.
Obviously, CBC will be showing the entire Canadiens series – regardless which team they face – and the ratings promise to be huge. However, because game 7 of the Flyers-Bruins series goes Friday night, the eventual winner of that tilt will not be able to begin the next series against Montreal until at least Sunday, meaning CBC won’t get the Habs for the traditional Saturday night timeslot. The other series between Chicago and San Jose – which will be split between CBC and TSN – also can’t get underway until at least Sunday because the San Jose arena has a prior commitment on Saturday. Thus, there will be no Saturday night hockey this weekend.
NBC resumes its playoff coverage on Sunday afternoon after a long hiatus and then continues coverage the following weekend with games on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. So, unless the NHL schedules the Blackhawks-Sharks on back-to-back afternoons (which is highly unlikely given the travel distance between the two cities), there won’t be any Saturday night hockey next weekend either. Of the three NBC telecasts, the U.S. network will probably have to take the Canadiens series at least once because of the back-to-back phenomenon, meaning that CBC will have to cope with a minimum of one afternoon game for the marquee series.
It could go either way – but look for Bob Cole to call the Canadiens series for the public broadcaster with Jim Hughson working the Blackhawks-Sharks. Cole, who rarely travels to the west coast, has done a great job covering the Canadiens – particularly the games in Montreal – and it would certainly make financial sense for him to stay out east, given that he lives in Newfoundland. Jim Hughson calls British Columbia home – only a short distance from San Jose.
Meanwhile, before TSN gets to its limited third round coverage, it has the privilege of televising game seven between the Flyers and Bruins. With the Flyers looking to win the series after trailing 3-0, the specialty network may very well be in for another ratings bonanza . . . but nothing like what the network's sister station RDS is going to attract for the Canadiens third round presence.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
No games scheduled
Obviously, CBC will be showing the entire Canadiens series – regardless which team they face – and the ratings promise to be huge. However, because game 7 of the Flyers-Bruins series goes Friday night, the eventual winner of that tilt will not be able to begin the next series against Montreal until at least Sunday, meaning CBC won’t get the Habs for the traditional Saturday night timeslot. The other series between Chicago and San Jose – which will be split between CBC and TSN – also can’t get underway until at least Sunday because the San Jose arena has a prior commitment on Saturday. Thus, there will be no Saturday night hockey this weekend.
NBC resumes its playoff coverage on Sunday afternoon after a long hiatus and then continues coverage the following weekend with games on both Saturday and Sunday afternoon. So, unless the NHL schedules the Blackhawks-Sharks on back-to-back afternoons (which is highly unlikely given the travel distance between the two cities), there won’t be any Saturday night hockey next weekend either. Of the three NBC telecasts, the U.S. network will probably have to take the Canadiens series at least once because of the back-to-back phenomenon, meaning that CBC will have to cope with a minimum of one afternoon game for the marquee series.
It could go either way – but look for Bob Cole to call the Canadiens series for the public broadcaster with Jim Hughson working the Blackhawks-Sharks. Cole, who rarely travels to the west coast, has done a great job covering the Canadiens – particularly the games in Montreal – and it would certainly make financial sense for him to stay out east, given that he lives in Newfoundland. Jim Hughson calls British Columbia home – only a short distance from San Jose.
Meanwhile, before TSN gets to its limited third round coverage, it has the privilege of televising game seven between the Flyers and Bruins. With the Flyers looking to win the series after trailing 3-0, the specialty network may very well be in for another ratings bonanza . . . but nothing like what the network's sister station RDS is going to attract for the Canadiens third round presence.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
No games scheduled
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
CBC Grills Bettman . . . Well, Not Really
Last night’s second intermission between the Canucks and Blackhawks provided the perfect stage for a dramatic interview with Gary Bettman, Commissioner of the NHL. The topic of the interview was the future of the Phoenix Coyotes and the team’s potential relocation from Glendale, Arizona to its original home in Winnipeg. As luck would have it, the man conducting the interview for Hockey Night in Canada was none other than Winnipeg resident Scott Oake.
Now a little background is needed here. As rumours of the Jets return to the Manitoba capital have intensified over the past few months and weeks, Oake said on one broadcast that he, like countless Winnipeggers, had been hurt before when rumours of the team’s return surfaced in the past and that he didn’t think it was wise to get too emotionally attached this time around until it was a done deal. He also didn’t appreciate the league using Winnipeggers as bargaining chips. So when news came last night that the Winnipeg name may have been used only to leverage a deal with Glendale’s City Council, Oake’s segment with Bettman promised to be juicy.
The interview begins at the 3:00 mark of the below video clip. When Oake starts to talk about Winnipeg’s arena and proposed ownership structure at the 4:43 mark, only to have Bettman interrupt with “you say that’s true, but nobody has confirmed that in Winnipeg for sure,” Oake gave such an emotional facial expression at 5:00 that I was sure fireworks were going to explode between the two. Unfortunately for those of us wanting to watch Bettman squirm for a bit, Oake quickly regained his composure and an explosion was averted.
Instead, Bettman playfully adds at 5:25 “you’re from Winnipeg?” (as if he didn’t know this ahead of time) and then, my personal favourite at 5:45, “you are a very good journalist the way you phrase that,” to which Oake turns to the camera and grins. It took about one minute for Oake to transform from Bettman’s inquisitor to his patsy – even less time than it took for the City of Winnipeg to have its hopes of an NHL team dashed – at least for now.
I’m still betting the Jets will be in Winnipeg next year.
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
Canadiens at Penguins – Game 7, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Bruins at Flyers – Game 6, 8 p.m. (TSN)
Now a little background is needed here. As rumours of the Jets return to the Manitoba capital have intensified over the past few months and weeks, Oake said on one broadcast that he, like countless Winnipeggers, had been hurt before when rumours of the team’s return surfaced in the past and that he didn’t think it was wise to get too emotionally attached this time around until it was a done deal. He also didn’t appreciate the league using Winnipeggers as bargaining chips. So when news came last night that the Winnipeg name may have been used only to leverage a deal with Glendale’s City Council, Oake’s segment with Bettman promised to be juicy.
The interview begins at the 3:00 mark of the below video clip. When Oake starts to talk about Winnipeg’s arena and proposed ownership structure at the 4:43 mark, only to have Bettman interrupt with “you say that’s true, but nobody has confirmed that in Winnipeg for sure,” Oake gave such an emotional facial expression at 5:00 that I was sure fireworks were going to explode between the two. Unfortunately for those of us wanting to watch Bettman squirm for a bit, Oake quickly regained his composure and an explosion was averted.
Instead, Bettman playfully adds at 5:25 “you’re from Winnipeg?” (as if he didn’t know this ahead of time) and then, my personal favourite at 5:45, “you are a very good journalist the way you phrase that,” to which Oake turns to the camera and grins. It took about one minute for Oake to transform from Bettman’s inquisitor to his patsy – even less time than it took for the City of Winnipeg to have its hopes of an NHL team dashed – at least for now.
I’m still betting the Jets will be in Winnipeg next year.
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
Canadiens at Penguins – Game 7, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Bruins at Flyers – Game 6, 8 p.m. (TSN)
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Networks Hold Their Breath
Will Canadian television see the return of the Jets next season? Will CBC get Canadian content in the third round of this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs? Will TSN get any content? Will NBC be shutout from its marquee player? Answers to these and other questions could begin to appear as early as tonight.
On the ice, the Vancouver Canucks host Chicago in game six of their second round playoff series. A win by the Blackhawks would eliminate Vancouver and produce an all-American Western Conference Final between Chicago and San Jose. Under such a scenario, TSN would be contractually permitted to air a handful of third round games and NBC would have the luxury of not having a Canadian team drain ratings – at least for one series. But should the Canucks force and eventually win game seven, and should the Canadiens win the game seven they’ve already forced in their series against Pittsburgh, both Conference Finals would involve Canadian teams. Under this scenario, CBC would have exclusive coverage of both third round series, TSN’s playoff coverage would be over for the year, and NBC would have to choose between two series it doesn’t want – both absent of star players Sidney Crosby and previously eliminated Alex Ovechkin – before having to possibly consider the network’s worst nightmare: An all-Canadian Stanley Cup Final. This evening’s action will go a long way in determining if such a scenario could ultimately prevail.
But the action is not only limited to the rink. About 30 minutes after tonight’s opening faceoff between Chicago and Vancouver, another high drama event is scheduled to get underway in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. On the agenda at tonight’s city council meeting is the NHL’s demand that the municipality cover the Coyotes operating losses for next season. Should the city refuse, a likely albeit not guaranteed outcome, the stage would be set for the return of the Winnipeg Jets. Montreal and Vancouver may be the only Canadian teams still alive in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the biggest street party of all may be elsewhere in the Great White North.
Whatever the results of this year’s playoff bracket, both this country and its broadcasters have reason to be optimistic about the future.
TONIGHT'S GAME:
Blackhawks at Canucks - Game 6, 9:30 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
On the ice, the Vancouver Canucks host Chicago in game six of their second round playoff series. A win by the Blackhawks would eliminate Vancouver and produce an all-American Western Conference Final between Chicago and San Jose. Under such a scenario, TSN would be contractually permitted to air a handful of third round games and NBC would have the luxury of not having a Canadian team drain ratings – at least for one series. But should the Canucks force and eventually win game seven, and should the Canadiens win the game seven they’ve already forced in their series against Pittsburgh, both Conference Finals would involve Canadian teams. Under this scenario, CBC would have exclusive coverage of both third round series, TSN’s playoff coverage would be over for the year, and NBC would have to choose between two series it doesn’t want – both absent of star players Sidney Crosby and previously eliminated Alex Ovechkin – before having to possibly consider the network’s worst nightmare: An all-Canadian Stanley Cup Final. This evening’s action will go a long way in determining if such a scenario could ultimately prevail.
But the action is not only limited to the rink. About 30 minutes after tonight’s opening faceoff between Chicago and Vancouver, another high drama event is scheduled to get underway in the Phoenix suburb of Glendale, Arizona. On the agenda at tonight’s city council meeting is the NHL’s demand that the municipality cover the Coyotes operating losses for next season. Should the city refuse, a likely albeit not guaranteed outcome, the stage would be set for the return of the Winnipeg Jets. Montreal and Vancouver may be the only Canadian teams still alive in this year’s Stanley Cup Playoffs, but the biggest street party of all may be elsewhere in the Great White North.
Whatever the results of this year’s playoff bracket, both this country and its broadcasters have reason to be optimistic about the future.
TONIGHT'S GAME:
Blackhawks at Canucks - Game 6, 9:30 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Monday, May 10, 2010
Coyotes-Jets: Not A Zero-Sum Game
If reports from Phoenix are accurate, it looks like Winnipeg could be on the verge of getting its beloved Jets back. CBC did a good job dedicating most of its second intermission during Saturday night’s Canadiens-Penguins telecast to reviewing the latest developments from Arizona:
Although we will have to hold our breath to see whether the Coyotes move to Winnipeg in time for next season, logic dictates that NHL hockey will return to the Manitoba capital sooner or later (and I’m betting on sooner) – either in the form of the Phoenix Coyotes or one of the other half-dozen teams in the U.S. sunbelt that are burning cash. And when this happens, Canadian television networks will be grinning from ear to ear.
CBC may need to hire an additional play-by-play crew, but the addition of a seventh Canadian team would be like a gift from above for the public broadcaster. Over the past few regular seasons, Hockey Night in Canada has increased its Saturday night audience at 7 o’clock by offering more regional content – usually from both Montreal and Ottawa – and the addition of Winnipeg to the line-up would provide a greater interest in the early game to viewers west of Ontario. What’s more, given the “draft” system used to divide playoff assignments between CBC and TSN, both networks would have a greater chance of televising an additional series involving a Canadian team. And let’s not forget Rogers Sportsnet, which has regional weekday rights to five of the six currently existing Canadian teams and would be a logical broadcast partner for the reincarnated Jets.
But this is not a zero-sum game. American networks do not need to lose in order for Canadian networks to win. Whereas the presence of the Jets would give a boost to the NHL’s northern broadcast partners, the absence of the Coyotes would go pretty much unnoticed on U.S. network television. NBC hasn’t exactly made a habit of showing games from Phoenix and it’s hard to believe the broadcaster would miss having the Coyotes as an option. It’s equally hard to believe that any of the other 23 U.S.-based teams would suffer – either at the gate or via their regional television deals – by not having Phoenix as an opponent.
Although CBC’s Ron MacLean raised a valid point in the above video by suggesting that the Boston Bruins, as a typical U.S. example, wouldn’t get excited about a visit by the Winnipeg Jets, the fact remains that none of the U.S. teams can possibly view the Coyotes as a better draw. But it would sure be a better draw for the Calgary Flames . . . and the Edmonton Oilers . . . and Hockey Night in Canada . . . and 32 million hockey fans in this country . . . and the overall financial health of the game.
Let’s hope the NHL does the right thing – and sooner rather than later.
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
Flyers at Bruins – Game 5, 7 p.m. (TSN)
Penguins at Canadiens – Game 6, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Although we will have to hold our breath to see whether the Coyotes move to Winnipeg in time for next season, logic dictates that NHL hockey will return to the Manitoba capital sooner or later (and I’m betting on sooner) – either in the form of the Phoenix Coyotes or one of the other half-dozen teams in the U.S. sunbelt that are burning cash. And when this happens, Canadian television networks will be grinning from ear to ear.
CBC may need to hire an additional play-by-play crew, but the addition of a seventh Canadian team would be like a gift from above for the public broadcaster. Over the past few regular seasons, Hockey Night in Canada has increased its Saturday night audience at 7 o’clock by offering more regional content – usually from both Montreal and Ottawa – and the addition of Winnipeg to the line-up would provide a greater interest in the early game to viewers west of Ontario. What’s more, given the “draft” system used to divide playoff assignments between CBC and TSN, both networks would have a greater chance of televising an additional series involving a Canadian team. And let’s not forget Rogers Sportsnet, which has regional weekday rights to five of the six currently existing Canadian teams and would be a logical broadcast partner for the reincarnated Jets.
But this is not a zero-sum game. American networks do not need to lose in order for Canadian networks to win. Whereas the presence of the Jets would give a boost to the NHL’s northern broadcast partners, the absence of the Coyotes would go pretty much unnoticed on U.S. network television. NBC hasn’t exactly made a habit of showing games from Phoenix and it’s hard to believe the broadcaster would miss having the Coyotes as an option. It’s equally hard to believe that any of the other 23 U.S.-based teams would suffer – either at the gate or via their regional television deals – by not having Phoenix as an opponent.
Although CBC’s Ron MacLean raised a valid point in the above video by suggesting that the Boston Bruins, as a typical U.S. example, wouldn’t get excited about a visit by the Winnipeg Jets, the fact remains that none of the U.S. teams can possibly view the Coyotes as a better draw. But it would sure be a better draw for the Calgary Flames . . . and the Edmonton Oilers . . . and Hockey Night in Canada . . . and 32 million hockey fans in this country . . . and the overall financial health of the game.
Let’s hope the NHL does the right thing – and sooner rather than later.
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
Flyers at Bruins – Game 5, 7 p.m. (TSN)
Penguins at Canadiens – Game 6, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Friday, May 7, 2010
Hockey Night Regains Its Shine
CBC did a solid job with last night’s telecast from Montreal. Unlike the earlier broadcasts in the series (particularly those from Pittsburgh), which were filled with awkward pauses, mispronounced names, and an overall sense of disjointedness, last night’s show brought CBC’s strong points to the forefront and transformed its weaker links into mere footnotes.
Part of this had to do with luck, part with guts, and part with pure talent. On the lucky side, the network does its best with a fast game such as last night in which whistles are rarities. The quick pace means that there’s plenty of action to describe and analyst sidekicks Garry Galley and Glenn Healy have fewer opportunities to interrupt the flow. When they do add their two cents, the gap between comments usually means they’ve had enough time to prepare something intelligent. In terms of guts, both Glenn Healy and first intermission star Don Cherry were right on the mark for taking the officiating crew to the cleaners for inconsistent penalty calls throughout the game. And as far as sheer talent goes, last night was just another reminder that no one does a better job than play-by-play man Bob Cole when the game is on the line and the energy level through the roof (“It's out! IT – IS – OUT!!!”).
Time will only tell if CBC’s strong performance was an exception to the rule or a sign of things to come.
THIS WEEKEND'S GAMES:
Tonight
Bruins at Flyers - Game 4, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Blackhawks at Canucks - Game 4, 9:30 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Saturday
Canadiens at Penguins - Game 5, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Red Wings at Sharks - Game 5, 10 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Sunday
Canucks at Blackhawks - Game 5, 8 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Part of this had to do with luck, part with guts, and part with pure talent. On the lucky side, the network does its best with a fast game such as last night in which whistles are rarities. The quick pace means that there’s plenty of action to describe and analyst sidekicks Garry Galley and Glenn Healy have fewer opportunities to interrupt the flow. When they do add their two cents, the gap between comments usually means they’ve had enough time to prepare something intelligent. In terms of guts, both Glenn Healy and first intermission star Don Cherry were right on the mark for taking the officiating crew to the cleaners for inconsistent penalty calls throughout the game. And as far as sheer talent goes, last night was just another reminder that no one does a better job than play-by-play man Bob Cole when the game is on the line and the energy level through the roof (“It's out! IT – IS – OUT!!!”).
Time will only tell if CBC’s strong performance was an exception to the rule or a sign of things to come.
THIS WEEKEND'S GAMES:
Tonight
Bruins at Flyers - Game 4, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Blackhawks at Canucks - Game 4, 9:30 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Saturday
Canadiens at Penguins - Game 5, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Red Wings at Sharks - Game 5, 10 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Sunday
Canucks at Blackhawks - Game 5, 8 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Momentum Shifts from TSN
One week ago today, TSN was sitting pretty. The specialty channel had just aired game seven of the Canadiens-Capitals series and had cemented its best first round ratings performance ever. What’s more, the network had lined-up two promising series for the second round – both expected to be long and hard-fought, featuring a pair of evenly-matched combatants that could easily go the distance and continue to drive ratings.
But things can change quickly in the world of hockey. TSN’s two second round series have been exciting but one-sided, and both risk ending in sweeps. And if the Red Wings and Flyers do exit these playoffs over the next 48 hours, TSN may end-up exiting with them.
Contractually, TSN only has rights to a select number of third round games that do not involve Canadian teams. But with the Vancouver Canucks and Montreal Canadiens still alive – at least for now – both third round series could potentially involve Canadian content. If that were to happen, TSN would be shutout from the third round. Combined with a pair of potential sweeps in the second round, the specialty network may be done just as it was getting started.
CBC has to be licking its chops – not only would it benefit from high ratings with Canadian teams in action, but its telecasts would run without competition from the other hockey broadcaster. But stay tuned . . . things can change quickly in the world of hockey.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
Penguins at Canadiens - Game 4, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Sharks at Red Wings - Game 4, 7:30 p.m. (TSN)
But things can change quickly in the world of hockey. TSN’s two second round series have been exciting but one-sided, and both risk ending in sweeps. And if the Red Wings and Flyers do exit these playoffs over the next 48 hours, TSN may end-up exiting with them.
Contractually, TSN only has rights to a select number of third round games that do not involve Canadian teams. But with the Vancouver Canucks and Montreal Canadiens still alive – at least for now – both third round series could potentially involve Canadian content. If that were to happen, TSN would be shutout from the third round. Combined with a pair of potential sweeps in the second round, the specialty network may be done just as it was getting started.
CBC has to be licking its chops – not only would it benefit from high ratings with Canadian teams in action, but its telecasts would run without competition from the other hockey broadcaster. But stay tuned . . . things can change quickly in the world of hockey.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
Penguins at Canadiens - Game 4, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Sharks at Red Wings - Game 4, 7:30 p.m. (TSN)
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Cue the Goosebumps
Sure, his best years may be behind him. Yes, sometimes he fumbles player names or penalty calls. And, without a doubt, CBC has been wise to prepare its broadcasting landscape for the day he can’t continue. But in the meantime, no one – absolutely no one – calls a hockey game better than Bob Cole. His legendary voice and trademark cadence transform a simple game into a magical experience. When it’s all on the line and the atmosphere thick with tension, there’s no one I’d rather having calling the action. Today's blog is dedicated to some memorable moments from his career to-date:
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
Bruins at Flyers – Game 3, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Blackhawks at Canucks – Game 3, 9:30 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
TONIGHT’S GAMES:
Bruins at Flyers – Game 3, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Blackhawks at Canucks – Game 3, 9:30 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Good News and Bad at NBC
NBC posted some impressive numbers for a U.S. hockey broadcaster over the weekend, earning 1.6 overnight ratings for both its Flyers-Bruins telecast on Saturday and Canadiens-Penguins game on Sunday. With the exception of the outdoor Winter Classic, this weekend’s numbers represent the largest audiences for NBC this season . . . which must make the network’s upcoming hockey hiatus all the more frustrating for those trying to grow the game south of the border.
There will be no hockey on NBC this upcoming weekend because the network is committed to The Players Championship (golf) on both Saturday and Sunday beginning at 2 o’clock for five hours each day. Now, far be it for me to tell network executives how to optimize their schedules, but couldn’t they have arranged to broadcast a hockey game at noon and commence golf coverage at 2:30? Wouldn’t that have made more sense than having a two hour hole for network affiliates to plug with local and paid programming? And wouldn’t continued hockey coverage help nurture the growing ratings that NBC has enjoyed this post-season?
To make matters worse, the network will again be absent from the hockey scene the following Saturday, this time because of the Preakness Stakes (horse racing). NBC’s pre-race coverage begins at 4:30 – why the network couldn’t schedule a game earlier in the day is beyond logic. Instead, hockey fans in the U.S. will have to wait until Sunday, May 16 to get their next dose of NHL action on over-the-air television. By that time, the casual hockey viewer who has contributed to NBC’s recent ratings run will have moved on to something else and a number of valuable U.S. hockey markets for the broadcaster will have seen their teams eliminated from the playoffs. Not a good combination. But then again, as history has shown time after time, neither necessarily is hockey and U.S. television.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
Penguins at Canadiens - Game 3, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Sharks at Red Wings - Game 3, 7:30 p.m. (TSN)
There will be no hockey on NBC this upcoming weekend because the network is committed to The Players Championship (golf) on both Saturday and Sunday beginning at 2 o’clock for five hours each day. Now, far be it for me to tell network executives how to optimize their schedules, but couldn’t they have arranged to broadcast a hockey game at noon and commence golf coverage at 2:30? Wouldn’t that have made more sense than having a two hour hole for network affiliates to plug with local and paid programming? And wouldn’t continued hockey coverage help nurture the growing ratings that NBC has enjoyed this post-season?
To make matters worse, the network will again be absent from the hockey scene the following Saturday, this time because of the Preakness Stakes (horse racing). NBC’s pre-race coverage begins at 4:30 – why the network couldn’t schedule a game earlier in the day is beyond logic. Instead, hockey fans in the U.S. will have to wait until Sunday, May 16 to get their next dose of NHL action on over-the-air television. By that time, the casual hockey viewer who has contributed to NBC’s recent ratings run will have moved on to something else and a number of valuable U.S. hockey markets for the broadcaster will have seen their teams eliminated from the playoffs. Not a good combination. But then again, as history has shown time after time, neither necessarily is hockey and U.S. television.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
Penguins at Canadiens - Game 3, 7 p.m. (CBC)/(RDS)
Sharks at Red Wings - Game 3, 7:30 p.m. (TSN)
Monday, May 3, 2010
CBC Scores On Its Own Net . . . Again
To the surprise of many, Hockey Night in Canada regular Greg Millen was nowhere to be found on CBC’s coverage of the first two games of the Canadiens-Penguins series. Instead, veteran play-by-play broadcaster Bob Cole was paired with analyst Garry Galley in the booth, with third man Glenn Healy providing commentary from behind one of the nets. Although this trio was used together during the first round Senators-Penguins matchup, it was thought that Galley was only there because of his regional assignments with the Ottawa Senators during the regular season. Once the Senators were eliminated, he was supposed to cede his place to Greg Millen, who is Cole’s regular broadcast partner. So why didn’t this happen?
Sports media columnist William Houston suggests that Millen “appears to have fallen out of favour” at CBC and that it was the network’s decision not to use the “once presumed successor to Harry Neale” beyond the first round. But could the story be the other way around? Is it possible that Millen, tired at being given second tier assignments and regional telecasts, told CBC where to go? After all, Millen spent years slowly climbing the ladder at Hockey Night in Canada and must resent being relegated to back-up duties.
From his early days working as the “junior” alongside the likes of Dick Irvin – Millen was there in 1995 when Patrick Roy had his meltdown against the Detroit Red Wings – the young analyst eventually graduated to work the late game of the doubleheader with Chris Cuthbert. In 2007, Millen worked his first Stanley Cup Final alongside Bob Cole and Harry Neale. The next year, with Neale out of the picture, Millen was the sole analyst with Cole. But that was it. Craig Simpson – who arrived at the network in 2007 – called last year’s Final with Jim Hughson, and the two are expected to do the same this year and well into the future. Whereas it took Millen 12 years to receive his first Stanley Cup assignment, Simpson was handed the reins after only two seasons – and at Millen’s expense. It would be understandable if Millen were more than a little ticked-off. The respective parties are keeping pretty quiet on the issue: When columnist William Houston asked the executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada why Millen was no longer being used, her response was “because Garry Galley is”. As for Millen, his only comment was “have a good summer”.
Whether the public broadcaster was thrown a curve ball by Millen’s sudden departure, or whether the network itself was responsible for pulling the plug, the larger short-term question is why pick Garry Galley as Millen’s replacement? The highest ranking analyst after Simpson and Millen, based on assignment frequency during the regular season, wasn’t Galley – it was Kevin Weekes. Should we be reading anything into the fact that Weekes was overlooked? Is CBC trying to alienate its entire stable of commentators or just the television viewers that have to watch a first-rate series picked apart by a fourth-tier analyst?
I have nothing against Garry Galley personally, but the whole setup that CBC has going for this series is wrong. Galley is an Ottawa Senators guy – he hasn’t been assigned to another team all season long, and it isn’t fair to either him or the viewers at home that he be thrust into the spotlight of the Canadiens-Penguins matchup, trying to analyze two teams with which he isn’t very familiar. And then there is this whole business about having Glenn Healy behind one of the nets, providing sporadic commentary during the game from his “unique vantage point”. I know CBC elected not to cover the Canadiens first round series against Washington, but didn’t the public broadcaster realize that Montreal was getting badly outshot in these playoffs and that posting an analyst behind the other team’s net for two of the three periods may not be the best move? How, exactly, can Healy contribute to the telecast when all the action is taking place at the other end of the ice? With Galley unsure of what to say, Healy can’t come to the rescue, and the whole arrangement results in a heavily disjointed broadcast that puts Hall of Fame announcer Bob Cole between a rock and a hard place. He can't be too happy.
What amplifies all these problems for CBC are the quality telecasts TSN put together for the Canadiens-Capitals first round series. CBC’s second round coverage, to-date, pales in comparison. If CBC alienated fans in the first round by its absence, the public broadcaster continues to alienate the same fans this time around by its presence - only now an important chunk of on-air talent has joined the collective voice of discontent.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
Flyers at Bruins - Game 2, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Canucks at Blackhawks - Game 2, 9 p.m. (CBC)/(RIS)
Sports media columnist William Houston suggests that Millen “appears to have fallen out of favour” at CBC and that it was the network’s decision not to use the “once presumed successor to Harry Neale” beyond the first round. But could the story be the other way around? Is it possible that Millen, tired at being given second tier assignments and regional telecasts, told CBC where to go? After all, Millen spent years slowly climbing the ladder at Hockey Night in Canada and must resent being relegated to back-up duties.
From his early days working as the “junior” alongside the likes of Dick Irvin – Millen was there in 1995 when Patrick Roy had his meltdown against the Detroit Red Wings – the young analyst eventually graduated to work the late game of the doubleheader with Chris Cuthbert. In 2007, Millen worked his first Stanley Cup Final alongside Bob Cole and Harry Neale. The next year, with Neale out of the picture, Millen was the sole analyst with Cole. But that was it. Craig Simpson – who arrived at the network in 2007 – called last year’s Final with Jim Hughson, and the two are expected to do the same this year and well into the future. Whereas it took Millen 12 years to receive his first Stanley Cup assignment, Simpson was handed the reins after only two seasons – and at Millen’s expense. It would be understandable if Millen were more than a little ticked-off. The respective parties are keeping pretty quiet on the issue: When columnist William Houston asked the executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada why Millen was no longer being used, her response was “because Garry Galley is”. As for Millen, his only comment was “have a good summer”.
Whether the public broadcaster was thrown a curve ball by Millen’s sudden departure, or whether the network itself was responsible for pulling the plug, the larger short-term question is why pick Garry Galley as Millen’s replacement? The highest ranking analyst after Simpson and Millen, based on assignment frequency during the regular season, wasn’t Galley – it was Kevin Weekes. Should we be reading anything into the fact that Weekes was overlooked? Is CBC trying to alienate its entire stable of commentators or just the television viewers that have to watch a first-rate series picked apart by a fourth-tier analyst?
I have nothing against Garry Galley personally, but the whole setup that CBC has going for this series is wrong. Galley is an Ottawa Senators guy – he hasn’t been assigned to another team all season long, and it isn’t fair to either him or the viewers at home that he be thrust into the spotlight of the Canadiens-Penguins matchup, trying to analyze two teams with which he isn’t very familiar. And then there is this whole business about having Glenn Healy behind one of the nets, providing sporadic commentary during the game from his “unique vantage point”. I know CBC elected not to cover the Canadiens first round series against Washington, but didn’t the public broadcaster realize that Montreal was getting badly outshot in these playoffs and that posting an analyst behind the other team’s net for two of the three periods may not be the best move? How, exactly, can Healy contribute to the telecast when all the action is taking place at the other end of the ice? With Galley unsure of what to say, Healy can’t come to the rescue, and the whole arrangement results in a heavily disjointed broadcast that puts Hall of Fame announcer Bob Cole between a rock and a hard place. He can't be too happy.
What amplifies all these problems for CBC are the quality telecasts TSN put together for the Canadiens-Capitals first round series. CBC’s second round coverage, to-date, pales in comparison. If CBC alienated fans in the first round by its absence, the public broadcaster continues to alienate the same fans this time around by its presence - only now an important chunk of on-air talent has joined the collective voice of discontent.
TONIGHT'S GAMES:
Flyers at Bruins - Game 2, 7 p.m. (TSN)/(RDS)
Canucks at Blackhawks - Game 2, 9 p.m. (CBC)/(RIS)
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