Is "Hockey Night In Canada" Really "Hockey Night In Toronto"??

[Joseph_Gallant]

In recent years, hometown fans of the other five Canadian-based NHL teams (Montreal Canadiens, Ottawa Senators, Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, and Vancouver Canucks) have occassionally complained that Saturday-night games of their hometown teams were not broadcast on CBC, but instead, the Toronto Maple Leafs were.

By looking over the 2005/2006 NHL team-by-team schedules, I was able to determine how many Saturday-night games of each Canadian-based team would not be seen in the team's home city on CBC:

Calgary Flames: 11 games on "HNIC", 7 Saturday-night games not on "HNIC".

Edmonton Oilers: 12 games on "HNIC", 4 Saturday-night games not on "HNIC".

Montreal Canadiens: 8 games on "HNIC", 15 Saturday-night games not on "HNIC" (but it should be noted that the RDS French-language cable sports network will carry all Montreal games).

Ottawa Senators: 13 games on "HNIC", 8 Saturday-night games not on "HNIC".

Toronto Maple Leafs: 27 games on "HNIC", no Saturday-night (other than January 28th, when CBC apparantly will not broadcast "HNIC"; see below) games not on "HNIC".

Vancouver Canucks: 14 games on "HNIC", 2 Saturday-night games not on "HNIC".

Note: CBC apparantly will not carry "HNIC" on Saturday night, January 28th; therefore, January 28th was not included among the list of Saturday nights when a Canadian-based NHL team would be playing a game not shown on the CBC. The only two Canadian-based NHL teams who will play that night are Montreal and Toronto, who will play each other at Toronto's Air Canada Center.

It is true that Toronto is not just Canada's TV market, but it's dominant market: One-fourth of Canada's total population resides within the Toronto television market.

Still, shouldn't the CBC try to cover every Saturday-night game of a Canadian-based NHL team for local telecast in that team's home market?? Ys, CBC might sometimes be doing four or five games on a particular Saturday-night, but there would be fans in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and Vancouver who would be grateful that their hometown team was on "HNIC" every time they play on a Saturday night, and will tune-in to follow their local team. That along could boost "HNIC"'s ratings a bit.

 

[mjlarochelle]

> Still, shouldn't the CBC try to cover every Saturday-night
> game of a Canadian-based NHL team for local telecast in that
> team's home market?? Ys, CBC might sometimes be doing four
> or five games on a particular Saturday-night, but there
> would be fans in Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary, Edmonton and
> Vancouver who would be grateful that their hometown team was
> on "HNIC" every time they play on a Saturday night, and will
> tune-in to follow their local team. That along could boost
> "HNIC"'s ratings a bit.
----------
CBOT, the CBC affiliate in Ottawa, has traditionally shown Senators' games while the rest of the netowrk shows other games. Still, I think the following should occur:

Montreal Canadiens - CBMT and all stations east
Ottawa Senators - CBOT, CKWS
Toronto Maple Leafs - CBLT (excluding Sarnia and Chatham), CHEX, CKPR
Detroit Red Wings - CBET, plus CBLT repeaters in Sarnia and Chatham (seeing as much of the Detroit area gets CBET on cable, it shouldn't be hard to get the rights as long as WKBD doesn't air the same games)
Calgary Flames - CBRT, CHAT, CKSA, Saskatchewan and Manitoba affiliates
Edmonton Oilers - CBXT, CBC North
Vancouver Canucks - All BC affiliates

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

M.J. Larochelle suggests a distribution pattern for "Hockey Night In Canada":

> Montreal Canadiens - CBMT and all stations east
> Ottawa Senators - CBOT, CKWS
> Toronto Maple Leafs - CBLT (excluding Sarnia and Chatham),
> CHEX, CKPR
> Calgary Flames - CBRT, CHAT, CKSA, Saskatchewan and Manitoba
> affiliates
> Edmonton Oilers - CBXT, CBC North
> Vancouver Canucks - All BC affiliates

(M.J. also suggested Detroit games air in Windsor and nearby areas, but I doubt the Red Wings can sell any TV rights to an over-the-border station. Besides, I thought that Fox Sports Detroit and a local TV station---I don't think it will be WKBD this year---will between them have all the team's games not on NBC or OLN. I believe FSD will have the great majority of the games with perhaps 10 to 20 being on over-the-air TV)

Don't forget that "HNIC" has doubleheaders, so many Calgary, Edmonton or Vancouver games would also (if they're at home and 10:05 P.M. ET starts) be seen in the East.

If all three of the "Western" teams were playing at 10:05 ET, CBC could carry all of them as M.J. suggests, and feed the "biggest" game of the three to stations in and east of Saskatchewan.

And if all three of the "Western" teams play that night at 10:05 P.M. ET, CBC stations in Western Canada would have to carry a game of one of the three "Eastern" teams at 7:10 P.M. ET (4:10 PT/5:10 MT). Perhaps the "biggest" of the early games would be broadcast from Manitoba-westward.

M.J. Larochelle, if you have extensive experience in television sports production, go for it! Maybe you should be the next executive producer of "HNIC". Then fans in each of the six Canadian cities that have NHL teams can be assured that if their local team plays on a Saturday night, their local CBC station will be broadcasting the game.

 

[rugrats1]

> (M.J. also suggested Detroit games air in Windsor and nearby
> areas, but I doubt the Red Wings can sell any TV rights to
> an over-the-border station. Besides, I thought that Fox
> Sports Detroit and a local TV station---I don't think it
> will be WKBD this year---will between them have all the
> team's games not on NBC or OLN. I believe FSD will have the
> great majority of the games with perhaps 10 to 20 being on
> over-the-air TV)

In the past, when Detroit was in the playoffs, the Wings were seen on both CBC and an American channel (like Fox, ESPN, ABC and 50), with no blackouts on either side of the border.

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Rugrats 1 wrote:

> In the past, when Detroit was in the playoffs, the Wings
> were seen on both CBC and an American channel (like Fox,
> ESPN, ABC and 50), with no blackouts on either side of the
> border.

The Wings' playoff games on CBC were being shown to most (or all) of her CBC network. That's part of a league-wide TV deal.

 

[schmave]

Is FSN Detroit carried across the border? If so, I apologize for my ignorance.
As far as when the Red Wings are on HNIC, CBET/Windsor wouldn't necessarily carry them. For instance, one time my junior year of college (98-99) at the University of Toledo the Wings were playing the Canadiens on a Saturday night. That was an HNIC game, but so was Leafs-whoever. CBET showed the Leafs (usual practice for them), probably because UPN 50 was showing the Wings. I don't know that that was the reason, though; I just figured CBC master control assigned the Leafs to Windsor.
I loved the title of this thread, though. Every freaking Saturday night on Channel 9, it was Leafs Leafs Leafs!! Argh!!<P ID="edit"><FONT class="small">Edited by schmave on 09/07/05 04:06 AM.</FONT></P>

 

[Calgaryperson]

> Is FSN Detroit carried across the border? If so, I apologize
> for my ignorance.
Nope. We don't get any regional sports channels from the US up here. We get programming from them via 'Rogers Sportsnet' and their 4 channels but we don't get any FSN's, Comcasts or team-owned networks.<P ID="signature">______________

Canada TV and College Radio</P>