CBC takes another pass on Canucks
Afternoon games are not solid revenue generators, says former Hockey Night in Canada executive John Shannon
The CBC insists it loves the Vancouver Canucks: in prime time.
For the second time in two weeks, the Canucks meet a high- profile opponent today in a game that will not be shown on Hockey Night in Canada.
Back on Jan. 7, eyebrows were raised when the Canucks and Boston Bruins, last year’s Stanley Cup finalists, met for the only time this season and CBC decided not to show the game.
This afternoon, when the Canucks play host to the San Jose Sharks — in a rematch of last season’s Western Conference finalists — the CBC is again taking a pass.
The CBC insists it’s all about timing.
“Given that we have a limited number of Saturday nights when the Canucks play, our objective for Canucks fans, wherever they live, is to put them in prime time with a view to garnering the biggest possible audience,” said CBC Sports spokesman Chuck Thompson.
“It’s good for them and candidly, it’s good for us. When Vancouver plays in the afternoon, as they did on Jan. 7 and they will again [ today], sometimes we have to make difficult decisions.
“As hard as we try to appease hockey fans across the country each and every week when we set the schedule for the year, we know going into it it’s never going to make everyone happy every Saturday. What I should also add is that there are contractual limitations to how many games we have.”
The CBC is contractually allowed to show 14 Canucks games this season and has the option to purchase one additional game.
The Jan. 7 game against the Bruins was shown in B. C. and the Yukon by Sportsnet and garnered huge ratings, the biggest number for one of its Canuck games, despite its 10 a. m. start in Vancouver. Sportsnet will also televise today’s game against San Jose on its regional network.
Coach Alain Vigneault was among those in the Canuck organization who expressed surprise that the Boston game did not warrant a national CBC audience.
But general manager Mike Gillis, who has had his share of differences with the CBC in recent years, insists he doesn’t really care.
“They choose them at the beginning of the season and I don’t know what motivates them to choose one game over another,” Gillis said of the CBC.
Gillis said he was “not annoyed one bit” by the CBC’S decision not to show the Boston game. “We had one of the highest ratings on Sportsnet that we’ve ever had that morning.”
Gillis said he’s also not concerned about a lack of national exposure for the Canucks when the CBC elects to pass on games like the Vancouver- Boston one or today’s tilt against the Sharks.
“So what, we’ve got a good partner in Sportsnet and they get the benefit of having a fantastic hockey game,” he said. “I don’t think in those terms [ national exposure]. They [ the CBC] make their decisions on the criteria that they have, we don’t have a say in it and I don’t want to have a say in it. I don’t particularly care.
“If they make that decision and regret it after the fact, it’s up to them.”
Before the NHL schedule was released last summer, the CBC did in fact try to convince the Bruins to change the 1 p. m. EST start time of the Jan. 7 game. But the Bruins knew there were NFL playoff games scheduled for that day and refused, not wanting to gamble on possibly going up against the New England Patriots.
“We work closely with the NHL but at the end of the day it’s the league’s schedule.” Thompson said.
“Ultimately, we are looking to put every Vancouver Canucks game that falls on a Saturday — and there’s a limited number of them — in prime time.
“I’m not saying that the BostonVancouver game isn’t a sweet matchup. Of course it is, but that’s where I go back to sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. That was a tough one.”
The CBC would not make Hockey Night in Canada executives Joel Darling or Trevor Pilling available for interviews for this story.
But John Shannon, a former executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada and current Sportsnet analyst, said in an interview Friday that the CBC’S explanation for passing on the Boston game makes sense.
“In my time at the corporation, even if it was the best matchup, afternoon games sell at half the price,” Shannon said. “So in order to generate revenue, and everyone is responsible for generating revenue, the [ ratings] number you would have to do, particularly with a 10 a. m. Pacific start, probably would have had to be close to three million people.
“And you are just not going to generate ratings like in the morning. The fact that the Bruin game could not be moved to 4 o’clock Eastern, 1 o’clock Pacific, probably was the deciding factor.”
Today’s 1 p. m. start was a Canuck decision and one industry insider who did not want to be identified suggested the Canucks did that knowing the CBC would likely pass on the game and they could then sell it to Sportsnet.
The Hockey Night in Canada revenue pie is divided among all 30 NHL teams and the source noted that the Canucks likely make more money from a regional broadcast.
Gillis suggested the Canucks wanted to experiment with an afternoon start on a Saturday.
“We wanted to have a couple of afternoon games because young families sometimes don’t get the opportunity to come to games,” he said.
“I kind of like the idea of having stuff like that go on during the season. A 1 o’clock game is a different crowd, a young crowd, so it is a unique opportunity. We’ll evaluate it for what it is and see what the outcome is.”
Thompson noted that the Hockey Night in Canada schedule is Canuck- heavy for the remainder of the regular season.
“After the all- star break we have 10 Saturdays left in regularseason play and eight of those will feature the Canucks,” he said.