Tennis Canada changes up with relaunched website

Just in time for the annual Rogers Cup events in Montreal and Toronto, Tennis Canada is relaunching its website with a whole new approach. And the new way of doing things means less focus on stuff like the Rogers Cup and more on those who play the sport.

Not that the racquet-swingers have anything against Canada's biggest tennis tournaments -- in fact, Rafael Nadal will be at the CN Tower on Friday to launch the new site at 4 p.m. -- it's just that the organization believes it has to speak more directly to those who play the sport than to those who watch it. More importantly, it believes it needs to allow tennis players and organizers to speak more directly to Tennis Canada.

Right now, the focus is on the elite of tennis: the pros, the up-and-comers, the top amateurs. That will all change as Tennis Canada tries to reconnect with its roots.

``It's not about us," says Tennis Canada spokesman Michael Cvitkovic. ``It's about the 4.5 million Canadians who pick up a racquet."

Part of the new campaign is a new web address. Instead of the old www.tenniscanada.com, it's now www.lovemeansnothing.ca. (Thank God they didn't go with lovemeansneverhavingtosayyou'resorry.ca or lobslabourlost.ca.)

The message, Cvitkovic says, is that ``tennis is spoken here." There's also a message that Tennis Canada is going to wear its headband at a jauntier angle, too.

A commercial that will air during this weekend's Rogers Cup shows a dog chewing on a tennis ball and offers that if you think this is abuse of a ball, then you're Tennis Canada's kind of person.

There'll be more opportunities for tennis nuts to interact with each other and tell Tennis Canada what they're thinking. Among other features, tennis instructor Bob Brett will answer questions and give video tips in response. 

The elite players won't be abandoned, but even they will take on a more interactive role. One plan is to get Canada's top players to file live video updates from tournaments. There will also be live chats with Rogers Cup participants as well as athlete and expert blogs.

``The new website will be open to all," says Cvitkovic. Sounds like a good idea all around.

BY THE NUMBERS: It's summer, so the CFL and Blue Jays must be dominating the sports ratings. But maybe the most interesting number from the weekend came from Formula One racing. Getting an average of 336,000 to watch a car race at 8 a.m. on a holiday weekend is no mean feat. Getting them to watch it at 5 a.m. on the West Coast is even more amazing.

Here are the most-watched English-language sports broadcasts for the past weekend, according to BBM Canada overnight ratings:

1. CFL, Tiger-Cats at Roughriders, Saturday, TSN: 1,035,000

2. CFL, Blue Bombers at Stampeders, Saturday, TSN: 884,000

3. CFL, Lions at Eskimos, Friday, TSN: 801,000

4. MLB, Indians at Blue Jays, Sunday, Sportsnet: 573,000

5. MLB, Indians at Blue Jays, Saturday, Sportsnet: 526,000

6. Auto racing, NASCAR Pennsylvania 500, Sunday, TSN: 429,000

7. MLB, Indians at Blue Jays, Friday, Sportsnet: 412,000*

8. Auto racing, F1 Hungarian Grand Prix, Sunday, TSN: 336,000

9. Track and field, Canadian championships, Saturday, CBC: 197,000

10. Extreme sports, Summer X-games, Sunday, TSN: 196,000

11. CFL, Pre-game show, Friday, TSN: 157,000

12. Athletics, ITU Triathlon, Saturday, CBC: 145,000

* 3 channels only

Comments

[Brett S]

It's incredible just how popular my Riders have become in recent years across this country, there's a sea of green and white at every park they play in, they lead the ratings every week this year,and they have played in front of a sellout crowd for each home and away game this year.

[Rick Grace]

The only question now is can the CFL average one million viewers for the year?
Which would be amazing on a sports channel that reaches 5 million less homes than CTV.
When you compare those numbers to what hockey gets, you have to start questioning which sport is the number one TV property in this country.

[tom]

what did the thursday night argos - als game do for TV numbers?

why don't you make a little comment about what the als games draw on RDS, for those of us who care?

[Tim]

Seems to be time that CTV start looking at putting a game of the week on the main channel, plus the playoffs and Grey Cup.

[Brett S]

@Rick, I doubt the CFL can average a million viewers, right now they are around 800-900 thousand. The Riders are averaging over a million right now, and historically ratings go up after Labour Day, so you never know.
@Tim, I never understood why they don't show it on CTV in addition to TSN, it's not like whatever CTV would be showing instead of the Grey Cup would get higher ratings or anything.

[Josh]

@Brett, look at it this way - the options for CTV are the following:
1. Keep all CFL games including the Grey Cup on TSN, allowing other programming to be aired on CTV. CTV has free pick of whatever it wants to show, since it's a general interest network, and has no obligation to air only sports-related stuff like TSN. So, on the Grey Cup Sunday, this means that while TSN is showing the game, CTV can show, let's just say, a female-centric movie on the main network, to appeal to people who aren't watching the game.

2. Shift some CFL games (including the Grey Cup) from TSN to CTV. This would create a void in TSN's programming lineup that would presumably be filled with poker or something else that isn't going to draw much in the way of viewers. TSN can't really counterprogram against the Grey Cup, because 99% of the sports fans in the country are watching the game on Grey Cup Sunday.

So, the fact that CFL games might get higher ratings on CTV isn't really playing into the decision, instead it's the fact that whatever would replace them on TSN *definitely* would get terrible ratings. Right now, CTV/TSN has the best of both worlds: it can air something for the sports fan on TSN, and something for the non-sports fan on CTV. If they switched it up, they would be competing against themselves, and undercutting their own ratings.

(And I'm pretty sure that the only reason that the NFL moved the Super Bowl and NFL rights over from Global is that CTV guaranteed those games would air on the main network, not on TSN. If CTV tried to pull the same stunt on the NFL that they currently do on the CFL, the NFL would most likely move everything back to Global in a heartbeat.)

[Rick Grace]

I think what is hurting CFL ratings are all those double headers.
Why is the CFL scheduling all their games in two nights so often?
If you ask me they should have one game each night from Thursday to Sunday.
That way each game takes on more importance.
Seems like TSN is trying to get the CFL out of the way as quick as possible so they can show other sports.
Which is why for the next TV deal especially for future expansion a second carrier of the CFL (CBC?) is a must.

[Orest Thamalpachuk]

I think the F1 races are usually rerun later in the day, so I wonder if those numbers also include that or just the initial live airing.

Since The Star is a Toronto newspaper, it might also be interesting to see all of these ratings for just the GTA or southern Ontario, it that was possible. The Blue Jays still do reasonably well for a team that has 162 games a year and has not played any truly meaningful games in over 16 years. If the master plan of acquiring prospects pans out in the next few years and the team becomes a contender again, I think their popularity and attendance would increase significantly. In contrast, I'd guess that winning and losing over the long term is largely immaterial for the Argonauts as their popularity and attendance will unavoidably continue to gradually decrease as the number of rubes and senior citizens left in Toronto who pay attention to the CFL inevitably declines.

[Rick Grace]

Thats funny Orest.
I read where the Blue Jays have the fan base with the oldest average age.
Somewhere in the early 50's.
Guess your theory must apply to baseball then right?

[cichlid]

actually Josh, CTV airs the SuperBowl and other NFL games to take advantage of the ad revenues from the simulcast as CTV does with nearly all their American programming and plus, TSN being a cable network isn't allowed to simulcast anyway.

But the rest of your stuff you wrote got the gist of it - CTV carrying the CFL in prime time means loss of revenue from simulcasting American tv shows.

And other than big events such as the Olympics, key World Cup matches, Grey Cup with some playoff ganes, Super Bowl with some playoff games, World Junior if Canada is in final, Stanley Cup Final and a chunk of HNIC games, no sports programming really makes the weekly top 20 in overall Cdn tv ratings. If regular sports programming can't achieve the bare minimum of 1 million in prime time on the CBC, CTV or Global, it isn't worth putting on these networks when they can easily do it with a simulcast with many of American tv shows.

[Brett S]

Orest, Argos attendance bottomed out in the mid 90's and gradually has increased since then, as TV ratings have as well. Whereas attendance and interest for the Jays maxed out in the early-mid 90's and has drastically decreased since then.

[Joel]

Both teams are in danger, Orest. The Raptors and TFC have connected to younger people in more ways than the Argos and the Jays have. The older generation still supports the Jays/Argos/Leafs. It will be interesting what the ratings and attendance will look like in 20 years.

[Mike]

The difference between TSN and the broadcast channels are getting smaller and smaller anyways. Just like its ESPN counterpart, which now has exclusive rights to huge events like the BCS, TSN is probably a more desirable spot for sports since they have the subscription revenue the main broadcast networks don't. Plus, as others have mentioned, CTV/City/Global are always making sure that they don't lose eyeballs to the US channels from a lack of sim-sub.
Orest, the GTA numbers do exist, as well as breakdowns for all media markets, but they are rarely ever reported. I've occasionally seen the numbers in a press release for a big event and the Leafs game on HNIC can crack the weekly top 30 (ie mediaincanada.com/articles/mic/20091123/tor11092009.pdf) but outside of that nothing gets reported. I think it has to do with BBM and what it allows certain media outlets and stations to report on. Unfortunately we also don't get any meaningful demo breakdowns, which is what really drives interest in a sports property, not total viewers.

[Peter Brown]

Mike, I don't think that BBM necessarily holds back regional breakdowns from media outlets. Rather, the media can request and publish more detailed information if it wishes, at least to the regional level. Chris Zelkovich occasionally discusses the regional or Toronto numbers in comparison to national numbers. But I also recall him mentioning that his editors preferred a national picture, perhaps because the Toronto Star wants to position itself over a wider market in competition with the Globe and the Post.

As far as demo's, that sort of breakdown probably is available only to corporate subscribers.

[Rick Grace]

Show me where the Raptors and TFC have connected more to young people than the Leafs?
Are you people serious?
Why do the fans of these sports keep trying to tell us we don't care about hockey anymore?
I've been hearing for 15 years how the Raptors and NBA are huge with young people, but each year interest in basketball and its TV ratings getting minisculer an minisculer.
Like follow your sport, but don't try telling us it'll ever be more then it is.

[Joel]

More people are coming from countries where hockey isn't played while basketball and soccer are. Both sports are cheap and accessible, someting that hockey and baseball aren't.

[Joel]

Another reason MLB is declining http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2798719

[Brett S]

Rick is minisculer a word? LOL, but I do agree, Leaf, Argo and Jays ratings are growing in the last few years, and Raptor and TFC ratings have remained the same even after BBM was introduced. I'm 16 and I don't buy that soccer and basketball are popular for one second. People in my class talk more about curling than they do about the Raptors!

[Joel]

I guess it would depend on where you live.

[Brett S]

The only way someone could gather that young people are watching more basketball and soccer than they are hockey, football, or baseball is if they watch The Score all day instead of real sports channels

[corey]

basketball will never be popular, in this country. I hope this chris bosh BS is an eye opener for all basketball fans. This team will never win a championship, nobody from the states wants to come up here!
I wish this team would just fold and leave this country!

[Rick Grace]

I wonder if in France you have people who try to claim more people watch British soccer on TV then French soccer?
Somehow I don't think so.