TSN, Sportsnet forced to dig into past
Canada’s sports networks giving fans their hockey fix with ‘classic’ Canadian games
Areader the other day was infuriated. Incensed. Enraged. He said he was channel surfing on TV and couldn’t believe there was curling with a near-capacity crowd in these times of self-isolation and one-hockey-stick-length social distancing.
I politely informed him that virtually all of the live sports events other than some horse racing and dogsled racing in Alaska, etc. has come to a complete standstill and television, particularly TSN and Sportsnet, are now competing by putting up recent and classic replays. I informed the reader that the curling he was watching had actually happened a few weeks earlier.
My story reminded TSN vice-president and executive producer Paul Graham of what happened this year at the World Juniors from the Czech Republic.
“TSN produced the signal for Moscow for the shared rights-holders Match TV and Channel One. Match showed every tournament game but Channel One had the option to take the gold medal game and they did,” Graham told the story.
“The programmers at Match TV were upset so they decided to show, at the same time, the 2011 gold medal game from Buffalo that also featured Canada-Russia.
“Viewers used to watching Match TV tuned in and a good percentage viewed the game thinking it was live, not realizing it was nine years old.
“Several Russian sports figures sent tweets after the game congratulating the team on their gold medal win.
“Problem was Russia didn’t win. Canada won!”
Anyway, that got me thinking. Here we are watching sports event replays. How is that working out for the networks and what can you look forward to watching at the time of year fans are normally submersing themselves in the Stanley Cup playoffs, NBA playoffs, Masters golf, Triple Crown horse racing, Indianapolis 500 and the start of major league baseball?
It would figure NHL rightsholder Sportsnet would be hitting you with hockey during the coming weeks when they were hoping to feature either four or five Canadian teams in the playoffs.
And give them credit for taking a creative approach. If they can’t have those four or five Canadian teams in first round best-of-seven playoff action, they’ll have all seven Canadian teams involved in a best-of-seven series from their playoff past.
The best of seven series begin April 20 and feature the following series:
▪ 987 Stanley Cup Final — Edmonton vs. Philadelphia (7 games).
▪ 1989 Stanley Cup Final — Calgary vs. Montreal (6 games).
▪ 1993 Stanley Cup Final — Montreal vs. Los Angeles (5 games).
▪ 1993 Norris Division Semifinal — Toronto vs. Detroit (7 games).
▪ 2011 Western Conference Quarter-Final — Vancouver vs. Chicago (7 games).
▪ 2017 Eastern Conference Second Round — Ottawa vs. New York Rangers (6 games).
▪ 2018 Western Conference Second Round — Winnipeg vs. Nashville (7 games).
Sportsnet is choosing to respond to all media questions with comment via a spokesperson.
“Our primary focus remains the well-being of our employees while we continue to serve sports fans during this unprecedented time,” said the spokesperson in regard to my inquiries beyond obtaining the best-of-seven matchups.
“With a lack of live programming we are giving viewers a look back at memorable moments with classic NHL, MLB and NBA games for ‘Rewind’ and ‘Classic’ games including original content that can be done remotely.”
The spokesperson did offer that 851,000 watched Game 7 of last season’s Toronto Raptors vs. Philadelphia playoff series last week, a very strong number for a non-live telecast.
“We have a database of thousands of games. We don’t have everything but we have enough that we’re not going to run out soon,” said the spokesperson.
At TSN, they are blessed to have plenty of options and no lack of content available.
“Our programming and content group has done an incredible job working with our producers to research and source what we think will be compelling productions from previous coverage. We are lucky to have an extensive library of first-rate games that cover multiple sports,” said Graham.
“Showcasing our ‘Champions Live Here’ content is key and we plan on identifying days of the week where we focus on one particular sport.”
“Obviously, our ratings have been impacted. The Sunday before leagues started shutting down we had more than a million viewers for the Brier final in Kingston and two nights before the NHL shutdown we had over 700,000 for a Toronto Maple Leafs game.”
While replay games don’t come close to matching those numbers Graham says they’ve been surprised with some of the ratings, particularly from Toronto Raptors playoff games from last year.
“It’s a very challenging time for everyone. For those of us that cover live sports, it is a complete shutdown. The frustrating part is that we don’t have any real indication of when leagues will start up again,” said Graham