Geminis get an infusion of new blood

Nothing gets a sports fan's blood flowing, ears twitching and nose itching as much as the annual Gemini Awards for sports broadcasting. Oops! Did I say sports fans? I meant sports broadcasters. Sports fans couldn't give a hoot, though there's a significant number of them who'd be interested if the Geminis were inserted manually into certain sports announcers.

As a sports media writer (part-time, anyway) I don't even pay much attention to this annual bit of back-patting, but this year is different. That's because this year is REALLY different.

Instead of the usual suspects, most of whom get the paycheques from the CBC, this year's list includes a lot of new faces from a lot of different places.

Take The Score, for example. Usually voters pay as much attention to The Score as they do to local cable. But this year, the little network received a whole bunch of nominations, which must have owner John Levy even more excited than usual.

Sarah Meehan and Jake Thompson were nominated in the Best Sports Feature category for their excellent exploration of minor hockey's woes. I actually watched this one, and it was very good. Producer DJ Bennett was nominated in the same category for a sports special on Black History Month.

The Score Tonight was also nominated in the Best Sportscast category, up against traditional power TSN SportsCentre. 

And Steve Kouleas was nominated in the best sportscaster category along with TSN's James Duthie and Darren Dutchyshen.

Another name seemingly out of the blue is Citytv's Kathryn Humphries, nominated as best host or interviewer along with TSN's Brian Williams and Duthie.

Even the digital NHL Network got a nod for its feature on Martin Brodeur.

Noticeably absent from all of this are the likes of Ron MacLean, who usually gets at least one nomination. Maybe this year's panel didn't like puns.

Regardless, new blood is never a bad thing and this infusion is long overdue. 

For what it's worth, with no attempt to influence the judges, here are my picks:

1. Best sports feature: The Score's minor hockey piece. Too often the horrors of kids' sports are overlooked.

2. Best sportscast: Tough to go against SportsCentre.

3. Best host or interviewer: Nothing against Williams or Humphreys, but Duthie's work at the world juniors was sterling. 

4. Best analyst: CBC swim analyst Byron McDonald talks way, way too much but he gives you more information than anyone on TV. TSN's Glen Suitor is a close second. CBC's Mike Milbury is entertaining, but there's not much analysis there.

5. Best play-by-play: You could flip a coin on this, but TSN's Chris Cuthbert gets the nod over CBC aquatics guy Steve Armitage and TSN hockey announcer Gord Miller.

6. Best reporter: TSN's Darren Dreger has the inside dope on hockey, but CBC's Elliotte Friedman was unstoppable in Beijing. CBC's Brenda Irving's work at the Canadian figure skating championships was almost as good.

7. Best sportscaster: Again, gotta go with Duthie over Kouleas and Dutchyshen. Any guy who can keep viewers entertained and informed during that NHL trade deadline marathon deserves a Gemini and a medal.

For a complete list of nominees, go to www.geminiawards.ca

Tennis stands out in a weekend of the usual

I don't know why I always think that things are going to change after a week's vacation. Every time I flee from the office, I assume that when I return drastic changes will have taken place. Maybe announcers will have learned to talk less, maybe poker will finally be stricken from the sports channel lineups.

But everything's pretty much the same, except the announcers seem to be talking even more and there appears to be more poker than ever.

A look at a weekend's worth of TV ratings produces pretty much the same-old, same-old. The CFL continues to dominate the summer scene and the Blue Jays' audiences are shrinking along with the team's winning percentage. 

If there was a surprise, it's the size of the tennis audience. Sunday's Rogers Cup women's final attracted an average of 212,000 viewers to CBC, up 39 per cent over last year. Having Maria Sharapova in the final didn't hurt, that's for sure.

Here are the top English-language sports ratings for last weekend, as supplied by BBM Nielsen Media Research:

1. Football, Blue Bombers at Lions, Friday, TSN: 480,000

2. Football, Roughriders at Alouettes, Friday, TSN: 408,000

3. Auto racing, NASCAR Sharpie 500, Saturday, TSN: 277,000

4. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Sunday, TSN: 245,000

5. Tennis, Rogers Cup final, Sunday, CBC: 212,000

6. Tennis, Rogers Cup semifinal 1, Saturday, CBC: 170,000

7. Tennis, Rogers Cup semifinal 2, Saturday, CBC: 156,000

8. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 165,000*

9. Track and field, World Championships, Saturday, CBC: 151,000

10.  Track and field, World Championships, Sunday, CBC: 149,000

11. Baseball, Red Sox at Yankees, Sunday, Sportsnet: 143,000

12. Baseball, Angels at Blue Jays, Saturday, TSN: 141,000

13. Auto racing, F1 European Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 137,000

14. Auto racing, IRL, Sunday, TSN: 114,000

15. Soccer, Fulham at Chelsea, Sunday, Score: 74,000

16. Soccer, Man City at Wolverhampton, Saturday, Sportsnet: 58,000

17. Soccer, Toronto FC at Chivas, Saturday, Sportsnet: 40,000

* Ontario and Pacific channels only

Let's get it straight: Setanta Canada still has EPL games

Errol Hinds admits he has mixed feelings about the number of calls and emails from Setanta Canada subscribers wondering if they should be looking somewhere else for English Premier League soccer this year.

On one hand it's a little frustrating to keep sending out the same message, on the other it's encouraging that so many people care about soccer coverage.

Many of those inquiring assume EPL games will be on TSN. They've read that ESPN has taken over EPL rights in England and since ESPN owns a chunk of TSN, they assume that's where the games will go here. (It is possible, though unlikely, that TSN could bid on the EPL package this fall.)

Then there are those who want their money back because they believe they won't be getting EPL games when the league kicks off its 2009-10 season on Saturday.

``Nothing has changed from last year," says Hinds, Setanta Canada's general manager. ``We have more soccer than ever, not less."

The confusion stems from reports on the meltdown of Setanta UK, which went belly up this spring and lost EPL rights. But Setanta Canada is a different entity, as are Setanta Australia and Setanta Ireland and all the other Setantas around the world. Canada's Setanta is mostly owned by Rogers Communications, with Setanta North America a minority partner.  

Here are the facts:

1) Setanta Canada will have 130 EPL games this year, the same as it did last season. 

2) In addition, Setanta Canada is entering into the first year of a three-year deal to carry all UEFA Champions League games.

3) Setanta Canada's EPL deal, which includes sub-licensing games to Rogers Sportsnet and The Score, expires at the end of the 2010 season. While bids haven't been called for yet, Hinds says his channel will definitely be in the running for a new deal.

``We expect to be here for a long time," says Hinds, who won't give numbers but says subscriptions to the premium-priced channel ``have exceeded expectations."

That assurance probably won't stop the rumours, though many concerns should be quelled when the first EPL game of the season is aired on Saturday. At least, Hinds is hoping so.

DUNGY ON VICK: Nice work by 640 Toronto to get former NFL head coach Tony Dungy Wednesday afternoon, discussing the Michael Vick situation. Good work by host Greg Brady, too. Here's the link if you missed it: http://www.640toronto.com/HostsandShows/BillWatters/Audio.aspx

Real Madrid scores for GolTV

It was a big night, at least by GolTV standards.

Last Friday's fun kick-around between Real Madrid and Toronto FC drew 90,000 viewers, which  would be considered a miserable failure for most Canadian channels. But since the game was on a tiny digital channel named GolTV, this was a blockbuster.

The game produced the channel's largest ratings, thanks mainly to a distribution deal that put it on free preview and even made the game available to those with old-fashioned analog channels. 

Does it prove that soccer is a big-time sport here? Not really, though that's not really in dispute since World Cup ratings have already done that.

Does it put GolTV on the map? Yes, at least for now. But now that it has soccer fans' attention, the new MLSE property will have to follow up with some solid programming. Some World Cup games and maybe even an EPL match or two wouldn't hurt.

By the way, if you not that ratings for Friday's Argos-Alouettes game look a little low, consider this: Almost 300,000 watched the game on French-language RDS. I'm told many of those are anglophones who've got themselves in the habit of watching football en francais.

Here are the most-watched weekend sports events in English Canada, according to BBM Nielsen Media Research overnight ratings:

1. Football, Roughriders at Lions, Friday, TSN: 425,000

2. Football, Blue Bombers at Stampeders, Saturday, TSN: 367,000

3. Football, Eskimos at Tiger-Cats, Saturday, TSN: 354,000

4. Football, Argos at Alouettes, Friday, TSN: 281,000

5. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 258,000

6. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 234,000

7. Baseball, Orioles at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 223,000*

8. Auto racing, NASCAR Sprint Cup (rainout), Sunday, TSN: 144,000

9. Football, Bills vs. Titans, Sunday, TSN: 135,000**

10. Baseball, Red Sox at Yankees, Saturday, Sportsnet: 126,000

* Pacific and Ontario channels only

** NBC audience not calculated

GolTV hopes to strike gold with Real Madrid

This might just be another Friday in August, but it may be the biggest day in the brief history of GolTV.

The digital soccer channel is providing the world feed for Friday night's game between Toronto FC and Real Madrid from beautiful and newly grassed BMO Field.

``This is a big deal for a little channel," says Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment broadcasting boss Chris Hebb.

Indeed it is. The channel, purchased by MLSE a few months back, has a reach of about 700,000 homes. Tonight, it will expand to more than 9.5 million as the channel will be available on free preview to anyone who has digital televsion capabilities as well as Rogers analog (old-fashioned) customers.

If you're scoring at home, that's channels 1, 428 and 501 on Rogers, 404 and 390 on Bell TV.

GolTV will provide all the sounds and pictures of the game for ESPN and European television. Luke Wileman and Jason DeVos will call the game for Canadians.

The game will be in HD, a first for GolTV, which hopes to have a full-time HD channel by next year.

Hebb is hoping that Friday's broadcast will spur interest in the channel's new lineup, which features 300 live games a year. He says GolTV is in talks with CBC in hopes of landing some of next year's World Cup as well as some of the English Premier League schedule starting next summer.

No matter what happens, Friday's game will put GolTV on the map.

Have Jays fans abandoned ship?

Summer ratings, especially ones involving a holiday weekend, are seldom significant. But it's looking as if the Blue Jays Nation has thrown in the towel on the 2009 season -- just about the same time the Jays themselves threw it in.

Yes, Friday's game was at 10 p.m. Eastern and most sports fans were probably frolicking at the lake or working on their melanomas at the beach. But in 11 years of doing this job, I can't remember a three-game series that drew such low ratings. The Jays' top weekend audience -- 176,000 for afternoon games -- was about half what the Winnipeg Blue Bombers and Toronto Argonauts drew for truly one of the most dreadful football games in some time.

On the other hand, Friday's Lions-Ticats game topped half a million viewers. I can't recall the last time that many people tuned in to watch the Ticats do anything.

Here are the top English-language sports ratings from the holiday weekend, as always courtesey of the folks and machines at BBM Nielsen Media Research:

1. Football, Lions at Ticats, Friday, TSN: 519,000

2. Football, Roughriders at Stampeders, Saturday, TSN: 411,000

3. Football, Blue Bombers at Argonauts, Saturday, TSN: 337,000

4. Auto racing, NASCAR Pennsylvania 500, Monday, TSN: 236,000

5. Baseball, Blue Jays at A's, Saturday, Sportsnet: 176,000

6. Baseball, Blue Jays at A's, Sunday, Sportsnet: 176,000

7. Baseball, Blue Jays at A's, Friday, Sportsnet: 110,000

16 years later, you can finally let Kerry Fraser know how you feel

Maybe Kerry Fraser is a sucker for punishment. Or maybe he figures that after 16 years, Toronto Maple Leafs fans have calmed down enough that he can talk with them.

Whatever the reason, the  NHL referee will be on 640 Toronto's Leafs Lunch Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m. Most of his time will be spent fielding calls from Leafs fans.

It's possible some of them might bring up that infamous non-call on Wayne Gretzky that may or may not have cost the Leafs a trip to the 1993 Stanley Cup. (It's the Leafs we're talking about, right?) Or maybe they just want to ask him about his hair.