The CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada attracted the largest debut audience in the program’s history last Saturday.

On average 2.3 million viewers tuned in for the first game; either a ‘Battle of Ontario’ match up between Ottawa and Toronto or the Habs taking on Pittsburgh, depending on your location.

The ratings for the first game were up 34 per cent from last year.

The second game, Vancouver against L.A. attracted 1.4 million people, up 26 per cent from last season’s Saturday night broadcast.

Unlike many other big TV events, Hockey Night’s record audience isn’t due to the new measurement system, as the system was already in place for last year’s season debut.

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 8:59 pm (12 Oct 2010)

Hockey Night in Canada will broadcast the first-ever 3D HD hockey games this season. The CBC will broadcast two 3D HD games Montreal versus Toronto on Saturday, December 11, and the Heritage Classic from McMahon Stadium in Calgary on Sunday, February 20, 2011.

The Toronto Sun covered this here, or employees can access the press release on the internal CBC site here.

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 9:34 pm (29 Sep 2010)

Tom Harrington, a four-time Gemini nominee, and an all around class act, is moving to Marketplace.

In the news department Harrington has made career out of covering the issues behind the latest sports scores.

Jennifer McGuire, the general manager of CBC News said the department is looking forward to the “rigour” Harrington would bring to the show.

Rigour. That’s a good word to describe his work.

He’s won a bunch of awards, but to me what stands out is a brief conversation I had with him in the elevator a couple years ago.

It was when the Leafs were in total disarray; on the cusp of setting a record for most consecutive games lost. On the sports channels it was a huge story, covered around the clock.

I asked Tom what he thought about it.

He said to me, ‘I could care less.”

Leaving aside the fact that he used an expression that’s always been a thorn in my side, I thought about what he meant after the elevator doors closed.

What he meant was that he wasn’t interested in covering the daily hum and grind of the sports industry. What he cared about, and cares about, is the journalism, which isn’t scores and stats, it’s stories. Yes, Harrington loves sports, and he loves sports journalism, but if he had to pick one, I’d bet it would be journalism.

If you’ve heard him guest hosting the Current or As it Happens or seen any of his numerous pieces on The National, you’ll know what I mean.

He said as much a last year, in a response to Howard Bernstein (a former CBC news exec), who was making the argument that today “sports journalism on television is an oxymoron.”

This is what Tom wrote in response:

Hi Howard:
I must say I found it a bit depressing reading your piece lamenting the lack of broadcast sports journalism in this country. So I just wanted to weigh in on my own behalf because I doubt anyone else will.

For more than 20 years on both CBC Radio and CBC Television, I’ve taken great pride in a body of work that includes 7 seasons as host and lead correspondent of the Gemini-Award winning SPORTS JOURNAL, 5 years as the first ever sports correspondent for THE NATIONAL not to mention the journalistic chops and versatility to host AS IT HAPPENS, THE CURRENT, CROSS COUNTRY CHECK-UP, CBC NEWS SUNDAY and a variety of other important CBC News programs.

I’ve been nominated for 4 Gemini’s, almost all of them for my journalism, had a documentary on the 2nd ever episode of CBC’s Radio’s INSIDE TRACK in 1985…met students who say they want to emulate what I do after watching my career..in fact I might be the only reporter to ever host THE CURRENT and lead THE NATIONAL with a sports story on the same day!!

It’s a solitary line of work because so few in the industry want to do this sort of thing, so few in the sports media seem to value it, and notoriety (as your article shows) is so rare.

Still my record stands and I think what I’ve done matters.

Well said, and best of luck with the journalism Tom. The sports world will miss it.

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	Personalities, Sports	Posted at 10:12 pm (26 Aug 2010)

It’s almost fall, and our national obsession returns.

The NHL announced the schedule for the HNIC broadcasts today.

All in all the CBC gets 87 regular and pre-season games, including 29 all-Canadian matchups.

The TSN channels have 124 games.

But the CBC gets dibs on a real classic, the Heritage Classic in fact, which hasn’t been played in Canada since 2003 when the Habs faced the Oilers in a freezing rink in Edmonton.

This year the action is in Calgary, and again features the Habs. It should be amazing.

Otherwise the ceeb is ponying up 13 hours of coverage for the 11th Hockey Day in Canada extravaganza including a NHL tripleheader featuring all six Canadian-based teams.

Hockey Night in Canada, now in it’s 58th regular season is considered by wikipedia to be the “world’s oldest sports-related television program still on the air.” So there.

The entire broadcast schedule is after the jump.

[Read more →]

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 10:52 pm (25 Aug 2010)

^{Fans watching the World Cup in Toronto are televised on the giant screen outside of the Broadcast Centre. Photo credit: Tratohecho1a on Flickr}

The World Cup drew record audience for the CBC, more than doubling the audience from the tournament in 2006 and reaching 28 million Canadians.

The final alone drew almost 6 million viewers many of them non-traditional CBC viewers.

“The FIFA World Cup has helped CBC reach out and engage with communities who often feel that they’re not represented on the network. This month was different,” Kirstine Stewart, the general manager of CBC Television said.

As Trevor Pilling, executive producer for CBC Sports said, “This is the whole corporation’s event – not just CBC Sports. We’re fortunate to have a property like FIFA because we have the opportunity to talk with viewers, listeners and surfers who are passionate and people who may not be traditional CBC viewers. What we’ve created here is something good to build off of for many years to come.”

^{The CBC gave away some of its tickets to South African kids during the tournament.}

Scott Moore, the executive director of CBC Sports praised the network-wide effort that “resulted in tremendous month all around.”

In particular Moore singled out the news department for their coverage which was a joint operation with the sports department. More said he’d never seen this level of cooperation in his time at the network “this may have been the best example of all the various parts of the CBC coming together to make something as big as it can be,” he said.

The results speak for themselves.

The final audience number for the final were 5.8 milllion on CBC and Radio-Canada. Although some of that may be juiced from the new audience measurement system, either way it’s still a whopping 105 per cent larger than the audience for the final in 2006.

The third place match was also a big draw, it attracted 1.9 million people on Saturday afternoon.

Overall between June 11th and July 11th, more than 28 million Canadians watched 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa programming on CBC and Radio-Canada. There are more audience numbers, including a breakdown as the tournament progressed after the jump.

The number also showed strong online demand. “We set new records online with our streaming and our event coverage. We surpassed CTV’s concurrent streaming number from the Vancouver Olympics and served up well over 15 million streams over the course of the tournament,” Moore said.

[Read more →]

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	Sports	Posted at 1:30 pm (14 Jul 2010)

“We may start to play with how much of the country sees the Leafs or the Sens or the Habs based on team performance and matchup.”

Scott Moore, the executive director of CBC Sports said that Hockey Night in Canada is considering limiting coverage of the Toronto Maple Leafs if the NHL team’s early season slide continues. He made the comments in an email to Sun Media this week.

“We are ready to make changes whenever we have to,” the show’s executive producer, Sherali Najak told the Sun. “We’ll watch every week and rely on the numbers, but what we’ve learned is that fans want to see some variety.”

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 8:07 am (23 Oct 2009)

The CRTC approved a new CBC sports specialty channel Wednesday, but will limit the amount of high-ratings sports like hockey, basketball and football.

CBC SportsPlus is expected to start early in 2009.

As part of the licence, at least 30% of the content must be covering amateur sport, calculated weekly. Also, no more than 30% of weekly broadcasts could involve pro sports and only 10 per cent could be high-profile sports such as hockey, baseball, football, basketball, golf, soccer or tennis.

Calculating weekly, rather than hourly, will make it difficult for new station to exceed its programming limits during high ratings — playoffs, for example — and then make it up in slack periods.

A number of groups, including CTVglobemedia, Rogers, and Score Media, had opposed the proposed channel saying it would unfairly compete against their sport channels.

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	Sports	Posted at 1:31 am (21 Aug 2008)

Beginning in July 2008, and continuing through to 2010, CBC will provide more than 90 total hours of daily coverage of the legendary Calgary Stampede on CBC Television, CBCSports.ca and bold, (formerly CBC Country Canada). This makes it the most extensive coverage ever of the Calgary Stampede on CBC. CBC will also serve as host broadcaster for the duration of the agreement.

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	Asides, Sports	Posted at 2:07 pm (10 Apr 2008)

Don Wittman, synonymous with CBC Sports for nearly a half-century, died early Saturday after a battle with cancer. He was 71.

Wittman passed away in a Winnipeg hospital surrounded by his family.

Don Wittman joined CBC Sports in 1961 and went on to call some of the most vicious, arresting and triumphant moments in Canadian sports history.

Don Wittman joined CBC Sports in 1961 and went on to call some of the most vicious, arresting and triumphant moments in Canadian sports history.

“On the Saturday mornings of every telecast I worked with Don, I recall him spending a couple of hours talking to players, coaches, writers and broadcasters, gathering as much information as possible, far more than he could ever use on the air,” Scott Oake of CBC Sports said. “But, in Don’s mind, better that than being unprepared.”

His voice appears on perhaps the most replayed sports clip in Canadian history, Ben Johnson’s apparent win in the 100-metre sprint at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, a result overturned days later after Johnson tested positive for a steroid. More recently, he expressed the shock so many viewers felt when favourite Perdita Felicien crashed into the first hurdle at the 2004 Athens Games.

Covering a calamity more sobering than any sporting event could ever be, Wittman was near the scene in Munich in 1972 after gunmen attacked and held hostage members of Israel’s Olympic team, with 11 eventually killed.

During the standoff, Wittman and producer Bob Moir crawled under a fence to get into the Olympic Village and the evacuated Canadian quarters. They were positioned directly across a courtyard from the Israeli dormitory.

More at CBC.ca

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	Obits, Sports	Posted at 10:26 am (22 Jan 2008)

Ouimet, the mystery management blogger, has a great interview with the Corp’s Andrew Lundy on the changes to CBC.ca’s sports page. Lots of detail on the new branding strategy and how the changes came to be.

In the interview, Lundy answers the question a lot of folks asked in the last few months:

O: I have a lot of friends who live overseas. Every time I talk to them they ask me why they can’t watch the Stanley Cup online….

AL: Our agreement with the NHL is for Canada only. NBC and Versus wouldn’t like it if someone in Boise was watching an HNIC broadcast online, eating into their customer base. Ditto for someone in Sweden (although I don’t know who’s broadcasting competitively there).

I understand the frustation, though. We’re sending this online to a population that can watch it on main net and in HD.. why give them online? But it’s the way of the future and our numbers were, I’d say, solid for a first-time, and for games that were played in the evening (not online’s prime time by any means).

O: So that’s that?

AL: For now, that’s that. I don’t know of anyone who has global rights. Not for anything major, anyway.

O: Why doesn’t the NHL sell a subscription a streaming site of their own making? So people could pay to watch?

AL: You’d have to ask them. Major League Baseball sure does, and they do a fantastic job. But each league is different, and maybe there’s a different philosophy at play between the two leagues.

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	CBC.ca web site, Sports	Posted at 8:13 am (13 Jun 2007)

The Globe and Mail speculated late last week that it might be time for the CBC to retire Hockey Night in Canada’s play-by-play team.

Will the longest tenured play-by-play team in Canadian broadcasting, the CBC’s Bob Cole and Harry Neale, return to the Hockey Night in Canada booth next season?

It’s too early for a CBC announcement, but you can anticipate one of two decisions: Either the network will thank Cole, 74, and Neale, 70, for their long and estimable contribution to the show and say goodbye. And Jim Hughson will be offered Cole’s spot as the No. 1 play-by-play caller, and the CBC will look for additional announcing and analytical talent.

Or Cole and Neale will both be given another one-year contract, with perhaps a reduced workload and the understanding they will retire at the end of 2007-08.

I don’t watch a lot of hockey (I know, I know…) but I’ve always really liked their input and commentary. Then again, I’m a bandwagon-jumper (Go Sens! What? They lost?) so what do I know.

What do you think? If you were in charge of Hockey Night in Canada, would you pick them up for another year or find new people?

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Personalities, Sports	Posted at 10:32 am (11 Jun 2007)

The CBC has inked a two-year broadcast agreement for the rights to eight Toronto Blue Jays regular season games in the 2007 season and up to 30 regular season games in 2008. CBC’s Jim Hughson will call the play-by-play. The CBC and the Jays have a long history together dating back to 1977 when the CBC was the team’s original broadcaster. The deal adds to the strong sports showing: CBC also secured rights to Major League Soccer and FIFA coverage including the FIFA U-20 World Cup taking place across Canada. First game airs Saturday, June 23 at 1 p.m. ET.

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	Asides, Sports	Posted at 4:43 pm (29 May 2007)

The CBC has secured broadcast rights to Toronto FC, Canada’s first Major League Soccer club, for the 2007 season. CBC Television will broadcast a package of 14 regular-season Toronto FC games this year, including the expansion franchise’s home opener on April 28 against the Kansas City Wizards.

The agreement also provides CBC with the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to the 2007 MLS playoffs and MLS Cup, as well as the 2007 MLS all-star game on July 19. In addition, CBC will provide live and on-demand video streaming of all Toronto FC game broadcasts on the network in 2007, in addition to Toronto FC and MLS highlights.

CBC Country Canada will provide encore presentations of all 14 matchups broadcast by CBC Television. The agreement includes an option for CBC to broadcast additional games in 2008, 2009 and 2010.

More at cbc.ca

Photo: Chivas USA defenceman Lawson Vaughn, left, misses his kick, leaving Toronto’s Alecko Eskandarian open to take a shot during FC’s debut game last Saturday. (Mark Avery/Associated Press) 

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	Sports	Posted at 12:44 pm (11 Apr 2007)

Sorry about being late with this news — I’ve been on a flight to Toronto most of the day.

The CBC and the NHL announced a new television deal Monday that will keep Hockey Night in Canada on the air until 2014.

The six-year broadcast deal, which includes national English-language broadcast and multimedia rights to NHL games in Canada, will begin when the current agreement between the CBC and the league expires after the 2007-08 season.

“Can you imagine seven more years of me? How can it get any better?” Don Cherry, co-host of Coach’s Corner, told CBC Sports Online.

More at cbc.ca

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 4:38 pm (26 Mar 2007)

The Globe and Mail is reporting that the CBC and the National Hockey League will announce a new television agreement today that will keep Hockey Night In Canada on the air well past the 2007-08 season.

The Globe says the new rights are worth about $100-million a year, an increase from the $65-million that the CBC is now paying the NHL.

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	Hockey Night in Canada, Sports	Posted at 10:05 am (26 Mar 2007)