Last Saturday's NHL season opener "was good news" for
the CBC, as "Hockey Night in Canada" drew 1.28 million
viewers for the Red Wings-Maple Leafs game, up 311,000 over
last season's Leafs-Isles opener. The second game of the
doubleheader drew 777,000, up 182,000 (TORONTO STAR, 10/16).
LEAF-ING THE FANS OUT? In Toronto, Tim Harper examines
NHL TV coverage in Canada and states that TV and the NHL
have carved "up the country when it comes to televised
hockey, leaving the Leafs all but blacked out outside of the
Toronto area." Leafs fans in Ottawa "will rarely get to see
any team except the Senators," and will see the Leafs only
twice this season on CTV SportsNet. In Toronto, Senators
and Canadiens fans "will also be starving," as the two teams
"are virtually off-limits" in the area, "in a bid to provide
more local TV revenue for Canadian teams." There will be
more NHL games on TV in Canada this year than ever before,
but "most of the teams they will see will be American."
Harper says that the Canadian Radio-TV and Telecom
Commission "says it is providing more regional broadcasts of
the local teams," the NHL says that it is "trying to protect
revenues for cash-strapped franchises," TSN says it is
following league "rules" and CTVS says it is "providing the
best game to hockey fans each week." CTV VP/Sports Doug
Beeforth: "I have sympathy for Leaf fans outside Toronto and
I know there are thousands of them. The solution to that
will be pay-per-view where fans of the Leafs who, for
example, lived in ... Senator-owned territory will pay for
broadcasts of their favorite team" (TORONTO STAR, 10/16).
THE GREAT OUTDOORS: CTV SportsNet, in a partnership
with CTV and the Outdoor Life Network, has inked a deal to
broadcast "more than 32 hours" of snowboarding coverage,
which will be split between all three nets and include
events in Canada and Europe (TORONTO SUN, 10/16).