CBC defends its Pan Am Games coverage
Canadians love nothing more than to watch our athletes beat the Americans, and the back-to-back nights of our teams winning Pan Am gold in men’s baseball and women’s basketball provided some of the best highlights of the Pan Am Games.
The problem is that likely most of you just saw the highlights, as CBC has come under fire for not showing these events live on television during these games. Canadian baseball legend Larry Walker tweeted out his disappointment: “CBC ... You missed out showing Canada an amazing game! Many are disappointed! Gold 4 Men’s baseball!!!”
Many others felt the same about the Canadian women’s basketball game, which could be a breakthrough for the team, and was the coming-out party for 19-year-old Kia Nurse, who seems she could be the star for this team for years to come.
Both games were available via live stream and then edited and re-aired during the network’s late night programming, but just as Americans complain about NBC’s Olympic coverage, which is often not live or aired after the fact, CBC is facing some of those same types of complaints.
“The coverage of these Pan Am Games is unprecedented. There’s more games available than ever before, by far. And we’re pleased that Canadians want more. In some ways it’s a good problem to have,” said Trevor Pilling, head of CBC Sports, when asked about the criticism.
“I do think we are the victim of our own success in that having Olympic coverage that is around the clock, but the Olympics are a different event than these Pan Am Games. But I feel like we’ve done the athletes justice by telling those stories or through live coverage, or with reporters on site. We’ve tried to make sure we’re at all the significant events, and with Canada winning over 180 medals, that’s a tall task.”
Pilling says that more than 20 million Canadians have watched some part of the television programming, and many thousands have availed themselves of the streams. The CBC is providing 750 hours of programming across its platforms. The ratings highlight has been the opening ceremony, and the second best night was the 100 metres featuring Andre De Grasse winning gold, which was shown live.
In any multi-sport event, and in particular a summer event, it is impossible to show everything live, as many events conflict with each other, and despite living in an ondemand world, television schedules are still not as flexible, although he points to the fact the CBC listened to the criticism and added an hour of daily live coverage, as interest has grown due to how well the Canadian team has done.
The National Post’s Sean Fitz-Gerald wrote a good piece earlier this week, defending the broadcaster that also intimated that cuts to the CBC may have played a factor, but Pilling doesn’t point to that as an excuse.
“Resources aren’t specifically an issue. It’s not about that, it is about the planning, It is about making good, sound business decisions. We have parameters that we need to stay within, no matter what we’re doing,” he says.
Pilling says he very proud of the work that his staff has done, showing the network’s commitment to amateur sports, and how the Pan Am Games have helped introduce Canadians to many athletes who will be representing the country in Rio next year. But the question is whether Canadians should expect less from CBC’s coverage next summer.
“In regards to that, the Olympics and the Pan Am Games are not really comparable. They are on a different scale in many ways,” says Pilling. “What you’ll see next year during Rio is what Canadians have come to expect from CBC Olympic coverage. Working with our partners, at Bell and Rogers, we will provide wall-to-wall coverage of the Olympic Games and almost everything will be streamed.”
It is clear the plan from the outset of these Pan Am Games were for Canadians to have live access digitally to the majority of the events, and for most technically savvy sports fans, this is already becoming the way of things, even though we also still want extensive TV cov- erage. There are still issues with the quality of the streams, with some dropping out. As well, there is the larger concern about how live streaming can exclude the less affluent and technically capable. This also plays into the constant questioning of the CBC’s role as public broadcaster — a reputation that has largely been built by its historically excellent job covering the sporting events that matter to Canadians.
“Nothing brings Canadians together like sports does. And we take that responsibility seriously. Like many of the athletes that perform at these type of international multi-sport games, many of the people on my team aspire to work on these large events, like the Pan Am Games and Olympics, and our crews have worked really hard and long hours to do the best coverage we can. And I’m glad that Canadians want more of it,” says Pilling.
“I’m not terribly surprised in that this has taken a typical games story arc, in that it was negative off the top, and then once the games get going, and Canadian athletes start delivering wonderful athletic performances, people start changing their tune. That’s one of the most exciting things for us, as events like these are the number one most shared national experience.”