Media Notes

In Toronto, William Houston cited sources saying that the NHL is “seeking a huge increase” in its Canadian TV rights deals when they expire after the ’07-08 season. The CBC is paying about US$65M a year for the Saturday night NHL doubleheader and playoffs and is “believed to earn an annual profit” of US$25-30M. The NHL “will demand at least” US$100M annually in its new deal, and for CTV-TSN, “the price would be even higher because it wants everything — broadcast rights for CTV and cable rights for TSN” (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 11/25).

MISCOMMUNICATION: Trail Blazers Owner Paul Allen is also Charter Communications Chair, and in Portland, Helen Jung wrote the Blazers “can’t seem to get [Charter] to air some of its games” in Southern Oregon. The two sides have been “unable to agree on how much Charter should pay the Blazers to air 22 games between now and the season’s end” (OREGONIAN, 11/23).

BARE SKINS: SI.com’s Gary Van Sickle writes this past weekend’s Skins Game on ABC “was a big dud, a disappointment after two years of revival thanks to Annika Sorenstam and Fred Funk. This time around, the Skins Game was a Who’s Who of who’s not here? No Tiger, no Phil, no Ernie, no Vijay, not even a Sergio or a Monty.” Funk, Fred Couples, Stephen Ames and John Daly played this year (SI.com, 11/27).