Jump to content

Time for Hockey Night to trade the Leafs


Pierre the Great

Recommended Posts

Yeah, but if they had any brains they would not just switch to the Sens, but split the early slot roughly equally across Toronto, Montreal, and the Sens. That way they could start developing long term national audiences for all three teams, rather then local interest in the sens and habs, national interest in the leafs.

Despite how well the sens are doing, what is the CBC going to do if the sens lose the opening round (happens to the best teams) and the rest of Canada don't recognize a single habs player....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I would love that. What CBC should do is get more games. I would love to see them televising games througtout the week. It's not like any of CBC's shows are worth watching anyway.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

hmmm well we aren't turning out because, well for me, I'm always busy and its never the showcase game. I'm out so last time i listened to 2 games in the car, the clippers and canucks.

Plus its not freezing cold out here in the rain forest, we've got better things to do then to sit around at home... its not -20 and a metre of snow out, eh?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I believe that was how it was supposed to be all along was it not?

Don't believe so. The original post was a reference to an opinion piece that Houston did, saying the Leafs shouldn't be the national game all the time. This article confirms a recent CBC decision to make Habs-Pens the national game on Saturday, due to their position in the standings relative to the Toronto-Buffalo matchup.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'll add this for the benefit of those of us in southern Ontario - my understanding is that the CBC does not black out nationally televised games. So, although we'll be inflicted with regional coverage of the Leafs on the 'regular' CBC station, the Habs game can be accessed (if you have digital cable) via other CBC channels across the country.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just thought I'd point out that these aren't the complete numbers here. All of the Toronto games on SNET are regional only (can't get it outside of the Toronto area), same for Leafs TV, and TSN regional games. Combined, that's roughly 50 games over the full season. Conversely, RDS is available outside of the Montreal viewing area (I have it, and I'm in Ontario although it's not available everywhere at this time.) Thus, it's somewhat justifiable that Montreal's regional viewing stats would be higher than Toronto's, there's more of a market to draw from (part National vs Southern Ontario viewing area only.) A more appropriate stat would be to take national games and add in regional ratings for that game. For example, the CBC ratings from the PIT/MTL game if indeed it is the national one and add in RDS ratings and compare it to the last nationally televised CBC game at 7 (2 weeks ago.) Failing that, just take TSN national numbers, since they do show some Toronto games nationally and compare those to Montreal's games. If the numbers still favour Montreal, then there's more of an argument to be made here.

That being said, it is nice to see Montreal's regional viewing data, a good sign heading forward I hope.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Well I must say though, the downfall of the Montreal Canadiens fan west of Montreal is that Radio Canada doesn't do games anymore. Lots of Canadien fans here on the island, especially in the older crowd. How they still manage to follow the team is amazing.

RDS is Channel 905 on digital here on the island.

905!

I get TV5 and TVA but in order to get RDS its a special add on, in the digital package.

the rds deal killed any fan base outside of Atlantic Canada and Quebec. really.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

from William Houston's article on January 12th 2008

Other regional audiences:

Flames: Averaging 117,000 viewers, down 3 per cent from last year at this point, up 3 per cent from 2003-04.

Oilers: Averaging 116,000, down 30 per cent from last year, up 22 per cent from 2003-04.

Leafs: Averaging 411,000, down 3 per cent from last year at this time, up 7 per cent from 2003-04.

Ottawa Senators: Averaging 102,000, up 17 per cent from last year, up 38 per cent from 2003-04.

Montreal Canadiens: Averaging 643,000 on Reseau des Sports, down 9 per cent from last season, but up 65 per cent from 2003-04.

from another William Houston article dated January 14th 2008

The Leafs have taken precedence on Hockey Night for years, but as a non-playoff team currently second last in the Eastern Conference, they're contributing little to the telecasts.... The problem for Hockey Night's network, the CBC, is that, among the six Canadian NHL teams, the Leafs produce the largest audiences

Bull Shit. He just showed us in an article from 2 days before this article that the habs average close to 200,000 more viewers per game on a CABLE network and averaged more people than the Leaves on Saturday night on the CBC(50,000 more viewers)

Mr Houston should make up his mind!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...