TSN Extends CFL Deal From 2018 to 2021, Good Thing?

Somewhat surprising word that TSN and the CFL have extended their broadcasting deal from 2018 through the 2021 season. It has been reported that the previous deal through 2018 was worth around $40 million per year for the CFL.

Exactly why a deal was done now, rather than waiting to closer to 2018 hasn't been reporting on, but it does come suspiciously close to when TSN's parent Bell bought the Toronto Argonauts.

No terms have been announced, although in North America sports properties have been hot. TSN lost hockey to Rogers recently and Rogers has the Blue Jays in the summer so TSN needs the CFL for content. Advertisers crave male audiences and in this era of cord cutting, the CFL gives people a reason to get cable.

I have a couple of questions about the deal. First were the terms of the deal until 2018 revised upwards? And second is there a substantial increase from 2018 beyond $40 million?

Likely TSN wanted certainty (why bother promoting the CFL extensively if you could lose the rights in 2018?). Did they pay for that certainty?

CHML Loses Ticat Rights to Bell TSN Radio 1150, End of the Fifth Quarter

News today that Bell is rebranding the old AM CKOC 1150 station to its TSN all sports brand with the centerpiece being the broadcast rights to the Ticats.

Obviously this is a blow for CHML (a Corus channel) which has carried and supported the Ticats for decades. I feel bad for Rick Zamperin and the rest of the CHML staff associated with the broadcasts. That includes Ted Michaels and the Fifth Quarter after the games. I'm guessing TSN 1150 will have their own after game show with a different name. One benefit for the Cats is that the after game show may well go on longer. Sometimes the Fifth Quarter seemed a bit truncated and there were times where I would have kept listening but CHML switched to some old radio serial. Hopefully now we will get several hours of after game coverage.

I'm wondering how easy it will be for the station to fill time. I would guess that there will end up being some rebroadcasting of TSN's Toronto radio station signal. However likely coverage of other Hamilton teams like the OHL's Bulldogs will be a big part of the station.

LeFevour Out For 2014 Season?

The Spec is reporting that Ticats quarterback Dan LeFevour may be out for this season with a possible torn ACL. That's obviously not good with former starter Zach Collaros still out with a concussion.

Obviously LeFevour being out is unfortunate. LeFevour was putting up good rushing and passing yards although the Cats weren't winning many games along the way. Now the Cats have to go with third stringer Jeremiah Masoli as their starter, provided Collaros doesn't come back early. Masoli hasn't looked terrible when he's been in, although his interception late in the last game pretty much ended any chance of a Ticat comeback.

To be honest, at the start of the season, Masoli was probably one of the better third stringers in the league, but it is still tough for the Ticats. Hopefully running back C.J. Gable can come back and take some of the pressure off Masoli from needing to pass every down, although Gable's rushing numbers have been nothing special this year.

Certainly for a 1 and 6 team like the Ticats this isn't good news.

CFL Television Rankings and ESPN Contract

Chris Zelkovich who formerly at the Toronto Star had a blog about Canadian sports media and ratings is continuing that tradition over at Yahoo Canada Sports. He has the weekend Canadian sports ratings and the three CFL games held on to the top three spots, over all the rest of the sports programs including all the Blue Jays games:

1. CFL, Alouettes at Lions, Saturday, TSN: 717,000
2. CFL, Ticats at Stampeders, Friday, TSN: 692,000
3. CFL, Argos at RedBlacks, Friday, TSN: 673,000

Zelkovich points out that "Yet despite this string of awful football, the viewers haven't turned off. The Edmonton-Winnipeg game on Thursday drew an average audience of 759,000 -- 56,000 more than last year's regular-season average of 703,000."

I've pointed out in the past that the fact that the CFL is Western provinces heavy in terms of viewers is a good thing. A viewer in Alberta on average makes far more money than an Ontario and has considerably more disposable income. That also goes for a viewer from Saskatchewan. That's probably why sometimes there's some bizarre Western restaurants advertised nationally.

There's a good article in the Winnipeg Sun about the current CFL ESPN deal:

"Last year the network aired six games on ESPN2 and another package of contests on ESPN3, its digital network. Cohon said the ESPN2 matches drew approximately 300,000 viewers south of the border, and the network was happy with the results. “The ESPN2 games did adequate in the spots we programmed them,” Gregg Morriss, ESPN’s manager of programming and acquisitions, told the Sun."

That means along with the CFL TSN average of 703,000 viewers, those games could have received around a million viewers (with the caveat that I don't remember exactly which games were on ESPN 2 and they could have been among the least viewed). That's not bad.

"Cohon is shooting for the stars. ESPN was part of a new broadcasting deal with Major League Soccer in May. Three networks, including ESPN, are reportedly paying a combined $90 million per season for the MLS broadcasting rights."

That's interesting that with considerably more teams and games the MLS rights in the US aren't that much more than the Canadian CFL rights (around $40 million).

"The current deal with ESPN is only just the beginning, as Cohon said it is netting the league only six figures. The fact every game can be seen on one network is likely the best news for the CFL, which ESPN aired often during its early days."

 So that could be at most just under a million. I hope that's per year. Too bad that ESPN had to move the Hamilton home opener from the main network. I would have been curious to see the ratings.

TSN New 2014 CFL Host is Jock Climie. Maybe

Well at least for this pre-season game. Climie said it is temporary at the start.

Say It Ain't So, Dave Randorf Goes to Rogers from CFL's TSN Panel

Yahoo Canada's Chris Zelkowich has the story. Probably not great for the CFL, as I'm guessing whoever ends up as the replacement as panel host won't be as good (and by good I mean keeping a concussion addled Matt Dunnigan in check). Maybe we'll be pleasantly surprised. Maybe someone young like Justin Dunk. Really ballsy would be getting a female host

Where's the CIS Football Coverage on TSN SportsCentre?

I saw the first part of the Guelph Queen's game yesterday, but didn't know how it ended. Still don't know. I watched a fair amount of SportsCentre yesterday, plus the full noon to 1 pm one today before the Ticats game. I saw no coverage at all of any CIS games. I did see some coverage of some Southern US college games, far from the Canadian border. Do I care about what Auburn did? Not particularly. Is there a lot of Auburn alumni watching TSN? I strongly doubt it.

Perhaps TSN's Chris Cuthbert and Jock Climie would like to know their alma mater's results?

I do realize that the game was on a Rogers Sportsnet channel and as far as I know, TSN shows no CIS regular season games. Do they still show the Vanier Cup? I'm not sure.

Certainly there's a case to be made for showing a few CIS highlights on a Saturday and on Sunday morning. At the least it builds the brand of players who will later play in the CFL, which TSN broadcasts all their games of.

Article on Jays Television Numbers

I read with interest this Star article on the Jays television numbers staying strong this year despite the Jays being out of it:

"Except that viewership across all Sportsnet channels is up 21 per cent compared to 2012, while Jays audiences are down only slightly from last season’s record highs despite the team’s poor play."

"Last season the Jays finished with a 73-89 record, and their games drew an average of 540,000 television viewers, up 7 per cent from the previous season and 25 per cent over 2010, according to Rogers.

Before this season many baseball observers labeled the team a World Series contender, and that optimism translated into inflated early-season ratings. This season’s first regular season attracted a record 1.4 million viewers, compared with 1.3 million in 2012."

"By last August, when it had become clear the Jays wouldn’t contend for a playoff spot, viewership dipped to an average of 437,000 per game. Last month, with the Jays again out of contention, ratings fell again but to an average of 475,000 per game."

I was wondering about the comparison with the CFL. The Jays have 162 regular season games per year, so last year the Jays had 87,480,000 total viewers across all games last year. The  CFL has only 72 regular season games per year. Just using an estimate of 600,000 viewers per game that's 42,000,000 viewers total which is significantly less than the Jay total.

A couple of points about that. The CFL numbers are biased towards Alberta and Saskatchewan while the Jays would overwhelming be balanced towards Ontario. Income for Albertans and Saskatchewan people are considerably higher than those in Ontario, so a CFL viewer on average is probably worth more based on location. I would guess the Jays may also have a slightly older audience which isn't worth as much, but I have no data on it.

The CFL's current television deal pays $40 million per year. Using that number for the Jays, the Jays contract would be worth around $83 million, although since Rogers owns both SportsNet and the Jays, there really isn't an open market. Further for both leagues I didn't include playoff games just to keep things simple. The CFL has a bit of an edge there in the sense that the six teams always make it, while the Jays have no guarantee. I also didn't include the pre-season games, where the Jays definitely have an advantage and TSN only broadcast two this year.

With Ottawa joining the league next year, that increases the number of CFL games to 81 per year. Potentially adding an Atlantic team would bump that to 90 games per year.

TSN CFL Panel at 2012 Ticat Opener

TSN CFL Panel, a photo by philinator on Flickr.

Here's a shot I took at this year's home opener at Ivor Wynne, where the TSN CFL panel was broadcasting live from the West end zone.

CFL Pre-season Television Ratings

Tigercatatonia has long argued for TSN to broadcast CFL pre-season games, well before TSN started broadcasting them last year. Reasons advanced were that TSN already owned the rights anyways (sure CFL production does cost something, but reasonable ratings would cover them easily), the games are a big long commercial for the season to come, and rabid fans of the Saskatchewan Rough Riders would probably tune in for both games in large amounts. Last year between TSN and TSN2, the network broadcast seven games, while this year only four (or was it five?) were broadcast.

Chris Cuthbert recently tweeted that the BC Saskatchewan game last week had over 400,000 viewers, confirming that Rider fans will tune in, especially in the pre-season when hope springs eternal. He also tweeted the Cats Argos game at Ivor Wynne got close to 336,000 fans, which is also impressive for the pre-season. That's some decent numbers and way better than the average MLS game.

I can understand why the day game yesterday for the Argos wasn't broadcast, but I can't understand why both Rider games weren't broadcast. I'm sure the second game would have gone over 400,000 as well.

Finally broadcasting the pre-season games is good for showing some interesting stories, like Canadian quarterbacks Brad Sinopoli and Kyle Quinlan being successful in their outings (unlike the heralded quart back Tate Forcier for the Ticats who revealed himself to be a wang).

TSN Confirms Coverage of CFL Pre-Season Games

Finally TSN has confirmed coverage of 7 out 8 pre-season games on TSN and TSN2. No Hamilton at Toronto game, but I was probably going to go to that anyways, if I was in the country. Kind of annoying for those Hamilton fans that can't make the trip.

Not sure why TSN waited so long to give the actual confirmation, but good they finally did. Hopefully the ratings will be reported. Could be good for some laughs in comparison to Raptor and TFC games.

TSN Finally Going to Broadcast CFL Pre-Season Games?

Tigercatatonia has long had a fascination with the fact TSN does not broadcast any CFL pre-season games. They've got the rights for them I assume, so why not slap a couple of Riders games on, get more work out of Dave Randorf and the rest of the TSN panel, some early publicity for the season and profit from the crazed Rider fan viewers. The cfl.ca forums have had talk that TSN has decided to show 7 of them on TSN and TSN2, but here's a newspaper article mentioning the plan, plus some info on Wally Buono sitting in his office forlornly waiting for calls that never come. Will it happen? Hopefully, although it is bad news for Cable 14 and the rest of Canada's community cable stations.

Barker Sack, Edmonton at Hamilton

Barker Sack, Edmonton at Hamilton
Originally uploaded by philinator

Here's a set of photos from the Edmonton game, including this photo of Ticat safety Dylan Barker about to sack Edmonton quarterback Ricky Ray. This photo of the boxes at Ivor Wynne shows TSN commentators Chris Cuthbert and Glen Suitor with their green screen behind them if you look closely enough.

Odds 2

Since it is a mere hours before game time, I should address the preseason odds to win the 2008 Grey Cup. Last I saw in the Spec the odds were: Toronto 5-2, BC 3-1, Winnipeg 5-1, Calgary 7-1, Saskatechewan 7-1, Edmonton 10-1, Hamilton 12-1 and Montreal 15-1. Strangely I thought the Cats would have even lower odds, but I guess everyone has aat least some chance in a eight team league. Toronto being the favourite I understand and I pretty much agree with the other picks. BC I'm not so sure how Pierce and Jackson will end up doing, although if one falters they do have the other, plus they have a lot of other talent. The other teams become mediocre from there, although I guess Winnipeg is ok.

For tonight's game, I'm hoping it doesn't rain since I'll be there in person. I do wonder if it does end up raining heavily if that is a distinct Hamilton advantage, with Lumsden and Printers on the ground versus Cavillo and whoever Montreal's running back is tonight. If it doesn't rain, I hope to see some play action as well as Printers running for first downs when the opportunity presents itself. On defence, Moreno has got to make some big plays. The secondary I hardly even know who is playing. I'm sure at the beginning of the season they will be a weak spot, but hopefully, fingers crossed, they won't cost us this game.

One last rant on televising preseason games that I made in an earlier post. Why TSN doesn't do at least two Friday night preseason games involving highly watched teams is beyond me. The first Friday have Edmonton at Saskatchewan as their fans are probably die hard enough to tune in even though the first week preseason games are usually a little tedious and then for the second Friday, have Montreal at Toronto where you can show it on RDS for a Canada wide audience. TSN has already paid a set fee for the package, so if they can get a decent audience for those two games that more than covers the production costs, why not? Plus more marketing and promotion for the league, that benefits TSN as the single carrier. Seems simple.

Go Cats!

Televising Preseason Games

I know you can watch the Ticat preseason games on Cable 14 (well I'm not sure about the one in Toronto). What I've been wondering is why TSN doesn't just go and start broadcasting all eight CFL preseason games. I know there is a fixed cost associated with producing each game and the ratings and subsequent advertising revenues would have to be higher than the producing cost. I think there may be a economical case for broadcasting these games. Regular season games get typically between 300,000 and 600,000 viewers. I would estimate that 200,000 viewers might be achievable. For Saskatchewan games, with their committed fans, you might get 400,000. Preseason games, while in a sense meaningless, have the bonus that no team is out of it. Fans that are wondering how their team is going to do this year will have a natural interest in watching. TSN could promote the games by having an extended analysis of each team before the game with the panel, and more discussion at half time. Broadcasting these games would also be free marketing for the CFL and TSN's regular season games and get the casual fans interested early. Plus the NHL playoffs end just before, so there is a natural segue into broadcasting these games. If TSN wanted to be real jerks, they could schedule games to occur during the Sportnet broadcasts of Jays games.