TSN hits the heights with world junior final

That was quite a gift TSN was handed Tuesday night, with the Canadian and American juniors providing some of the best sports entertainment in years. A great game, a stirring comeback and a wild overtime should ensure huge ratings -- and another record, ho hum -- when the numbers come out later today.

But TSN played a role in the quality of entertainment, too. Networks can mess up these things; just look at the way Fox handled some of those bowl games. But TSN did it right.

It didn't overwhelm us with heart-breaking stories, images of crazed fans or multiple replays. Instead, it gave us the game with the right mix of angles and stories. In doing so, it managed to project the speed and excitement of the game into living rooms across the country.

Gord Miller and Pierre McGuire brought their A games, avoiding that annoying Canadian habit of blaming international officiating. There was mention of some chintzy calls, and there were strange ones against both sides, but they were never played as key ingredients in the outcome. They also avoided that nasty habit we have in crowing about Canadian ``heart" as if no other players really care. Ryan Rishaug also supplied some good reports, especially filling us in on what was said in the dressing rooms between periods.

Overall, TSN gets an A.

Here are the top sports ratings on English-language channels from the past weekend, according to BBM Canada overnight calculations:

1. World junior hockey, Canada vs. Switzerland, Sunday, TSN: 3,223,000

2. NHL, Maple Leafs at Flames, Saturday, CBC: 1,854,000

3. NHL, Winter Classic, Friday, CBC: 1,616,000*

4. World junior hockey, Switzerland vs. Russia, Saturday, TSN: 1,053,000

5. NHL, Winter Classic pre-game show, Friday, CBC: 968,000

6. World junior hockey, U.S. vs. Sweden, Sunday, TSN2: 902,000

7. World junior hockey, semifinal pre-game show, Sunday, TSN: 819,000

8. World junior hockey, U.S. vs. Finland, Saturday, TSN: 714,000

9. NFL, Early games, Sunday, CTV: 686,000

10. NHL, Oilers at Sharks, Saturday, CBC: 668,000

11. NCAA, Rose Bowl, Friday, TSN: 613,000*

12. NFL, Bengals at Jets, Sunday, TSN: 573,000*

13. NHL, Hockey Night In Canada pre-game show, Saturday, CBC: 513,000

14. NFL, Late games, Sunday, Citytv: 453,000

15. Figure skating, Grand Prix final, Saturday, CBC: 427,000

* Viewers for U.S. channels not calculated

OTHER STUFF: With all those hours of TV coverage planned for the Vancouver Olympics, the CTV-Rogers consortium has a huge cast of commentators ready and willing to drop the first cliche come Feb. 12. Not surprisingly, Brian Williams will be the prime-time host on CTV and will handle the opening ceremonies with Lloyd Robertson. Brian's big challenge, after handling all those Olympic ceremonies for CBC, will be to avoid calling Lloyd ``Peter." The other prime-time hosts are Jennifer Hedger and Darren Dutchyshen (TSN), Martine Gaillard and Brad Fay (Rogers Sportsnet.) As for the big event, men's hockey, that will be handled by Chris Cuthbert, Gord Miller and Peter Loubardias. Pierre McGuire, John Garrett and Ray Ferraro will provide analysis. On the women's side, Kevin Quinn will do play-by-play with Cassie Campbell-Pascall doing analysis.

Comments

[Agridome]

What about the NBA are any Raptor games? I guess they didn't register on those BBM Canada calculations. TSN is a horrible sports network. They only survive because the CRTC forces them onto our basic cable bill. It's hockey, hockey and more hockey. It reached bizarre depths when the NHL shut down there season a few years back. They still carried hockey. Let's be honest about TSN. They are CRTC's child and they are a horrible sports network.

[dveous]

I'm surprised you didn't make note that the Sweden/US game on TSN2 drew a record audience of 900,000 for that network. I guess that should somewhat put to rest the idea that not enough people were able to watch on the deuce.

[moosy]

Raptors ratings rarely make it above 200k - 15th rank program had 427k. So, no Raps - too TO centric and basketball as a tv sport is way behind hockey, football and baseball. And this weekend, it includes figure skating.

[Josh]

I have to agree. TSN is a horribly run sports network. I have to cringe everytime I tune into that channel. If it's not their poor talent choice, it's their bizarre scheduling. Canada has been in need of ESPN for a long time. It's time for TSN to go.

[willy]

josh

tsn basically is espn neither is very good.

[Rick Grace]

The winter classic ratings put to rest the theory that you can double the ratings for a game when its also on US TV. Because no way did that game do over 3 million viewers if you double the Canadian ratings. Maybe you can add another 100,000 at the most, but thats it.

And about NBA ratings? Its like hockey in Phoenix. Outside of a few people in Toronto, who cares? Canadians find basketball boring. We don't care if a billion Chinese supposedly follow the NBA. We just don't like basketball.

[Mike]

Correction Rick: YOU find basketball boring. YOU don't care if a billion Chinese supposedly follow the NBA. YOU just don't like basketball.

And nothing is put to rest, YOU don't know how many people were watching on NBC. Also, as has been mentioned before, there is a difference when two stations are showing the same feed and when one is a CBC broadcast and the other is an NBC broadcast. Of course, (surprise) YOU weren't paying attention.

[Rick Grace]

Ah Mike.
Do you see the NBA anywhere on the above list?
The large majority in this country do not like basketball.
Period.
And whats your point about different stations?
Either you watch the game on CBC or NBC. I doubt 1.6 million also watched on NBC,
So much for that theory.

[moosy]

forgot to include that basketball is behind curling in this country.

and don't whail on tsn, like espn they show more of the top rated sports in this country. Difference is that we're not the US where football, baseball & basketball dominate.

Cdns can watch enough basketball anyway from the Score to Raptors tv to the US broadcast networks etc.. But not too many Cdns appear to be interested.

[Peter Brown]

Rick,

The winter classic is a special case because the two networks produce their own broadcasts with their own announcers, and the vast majority of Canadians associate CBC with hockey for obvious reasons. So, what Canadian would *choose* to watch the NBC broadcasters instead of good ol' CBC? Very few, I would reckon.

In the case of Sunday Night Football on NBC/TSN or the NCAA tournament on CBS/whoever, sports consumers associate the U.S. broadcaster with the event. NBC's brand is well established on Sunday nights now, and CBS has been showing the NCAAs for 28 years. In these cases, the audience watching the U.S. provider is likely to be at least -- if not vastly larger -- than the audience watching the Canadian one.

As far as the Raptors games, I'm not shocked that they got killed this weekend, what with the sheer amount of hockey and football going on. I don't think you can generalize from this weekend's data. I'm a huge Raptors fan, and I didn't watch any of either of their two games. Too much going on.

[Rick Grace]

I don;t know about that Pete.
Look at the numbers above, and the NFL games not simulcast do about the same as games that are simulcast. You'd figure that games that aren't on two stations should do double the simulcast games in the ratings. According to your theory. Since everybody is watching the same channel.
But they don't.
In fact I think I've read somewhere the ratings when games are simulcast factor in both stations.

[Mike]

Sigh, some people never get it Peter.

[Mullah_Kintye]

All I know is that I'm seeing an increasing number of antennas in this region, all aimed south in the direction of Buffalo and/or Rochester. And few people, I'm guessing none of them who watch sports, are getting rid of their cable or satellite service, and therefore are using antennas for the sole purpose of watching the unsubstituted (and uncompressed) digital HD free over-the-air signals of the U.S. networks to avoid the Canadian channels whenever possible. The Star had an article a few months ago with one store owner alone saying he was selling over a thousand antennas a month.

http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/640344

You can bet that number will increase dramatically if the CRTC orders cable companies to charge customers for the Canadian over-the-air channels with the option to drop them if we don't want to pay for them, while enforcing cable blackouts of the U.S. stations.

And on Saturday CTV had audio and other problems during the Jets at Bengals game, causing at least one system to drop the CTV substitution for NBC.

[Rick Grace]

This is like beating a dead horse here.
I gave you the evidence in black in white.
The simulcast NFL games do around the same as the non simulcast games.
Why is that?
Shouldn't the non simulcast games do double the ratings according to your theory? But they don't.
So whats your evidence? Your estimation??
Estimation ain't evidence my friend.

[Mike]

"This is like beating a dead horse here."
I agree, you just don't seem to get it.

"I gave you the evidence in black in white.
The simulcast NFL games do around the same as the non simulcast games."

That statement isn't evidence in black and white, evidence would be you having numbers to prove your statement.What you have is a generalization by you and a poor one at that. The only games this year that have done over 1 million have all been Monday Night Football games, where TSN is the only broadcaster with it in Canada. So no, the games aren't always around the same.

"Why is that?"
Well, you again ignore the issue of other games on American channels that are on but not in sim-sub and NFL Sunday Ticket. That affects the numbers that are reported for the simulcast afternoon games and those factors also change week to week.

Do you get it now?

[Peter Brown]

First of all, you can't compare Sunday afternoon games to Sunday night and Monday night games (or to CFL ratings, for that matter). The age of just watching whatever game you get on a small number of channels is over. Even if you don't pony up the cash (as I do) for NFL Sunday Ticket, if you have time-shifting channels on digital cable, you still have a wide selection of games broadcast regionally (on both U.S. and Canadian channels) that are all occurring at the same time. Also, the past practice of always simulcasting the game that the U.S. channel is showing (Global used to *always* show the Bills games, for instance, to capture all of the audience) is over. The Canadian carriers typically show the best game, not always tied to one team. This means that the NFL viewership is split up on Sunday afternoons. Primetime games are really what you should be looking at. And, of course, with NBC on Sunday nights, BBM only counts the viewers on TSN.

This is an important point to remember when comparing CFL to NFL ratings. Because there are only 4 games per week in the CFL, there are no games scheduled for the same time. If it's a Friday night (or a Sat. or Sun. afternoon) and you want to watch a CFL game, you have exactly one game to choose from *all the time*. So, of course the ratings will be high because the audience is not being split.