Twice in two nights, the CBC has “angered viewers looking for coverage of the Pan American Games on conventional television, sending those wanting to see the men’s baseball final and the gold medal game in women’s basketball to an Internet stream with varying degrees of picture quality,” according to Sean Fitz-Gerald of the NATIONAL POST. Host committee CEO Saad Rafi said, “We would like to see every successful Canadian team or athlete be on live broadcast. It's just not, practically, possible. So I think what we've done -- together -- with CBC is do the best we can to get the best of these Games into people who are watching them.” Fitz-Gerald notes the CBC was “awarded broadcast rights to the Pan Am Games three years ago,” and as part of that deal, the public broadcaster “does not get the advertising revenue generated from those broadcasts.” When early broadcast plans for the Pan Am Games were “rolled out in April, the CBC had planned to carry more than 650 hours of live coverage online.” TV broadcast plans were “more modest, with only about five hours set aside for most days.” The net has “bumped that number up twice during the Games, in response to surging demand.” CBC English Services Head of Public Affairs Chuck Thompson said, “Resources are a factor in what we have been able to provide. But our commitment to amateur sport is as strong as ever.” The CBC said that an audience of 57,780 “logged in to watch the live stream of the men’s baseball game on Sunday” and a “smaller audience watched the women’s basketball game on Monday, with 44,818 watching online” (NATIONAL POST, 7/22).
SPREAD THE WEALTH: In Toronto, Mike Koreen writes for "all the good things that have played out during the first 10 days of the event ... there is one clear downer: The inability of the Games to showcase many of its biggest events on live TV.” The CBC’s programming decisions "are just odd.” TSN “has five channels, Rogers Sportsnet has six -- and yet two Canada-USA showdowns for gold in big sports in this country can't find a place on live television?” While the CBC “does have a deal to show several Pan Am soccer games on Sportsnet,” it is unclear if TSN or Sportsnet “could have picked up other sports.” Koreen: “It is not the extensive multi-sport Games coverage we are used to as Canadians. It feels a bit like the American treatment, where tape delays and canned features are often shown over live events” (TORONTO SUN, 7/22).
