The Great Canadian Sports Attendance, Marketing and TV Ratings Thread

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by esquire

As for SN, I have no idea... I don't think I've ever watched Sportscentral longer than the amount of time it took me to find the remote and change the channel.

If its not about the Maple Leafs, Raptors or Blue Jays, or has a Toronto angle, Sportsnet does not give two shits about it. They are the worst, with TSN a close second.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by le calmar

Isn't Kodi a "gray" market thing though? Not necessarily illegal at this time but could very well be in the future. I am not familiar with Kodi and there is no way I am going to hook up my computer to watch TV (I think that's how you do it?). Streaming sports illegaly is such a pain I stopped bothering a while ago. I subscribed to IP TV with my internet package with one of the smaller, low-cost providers. No contracts, half the price of Rogers/Bell.

Kodi is open source (legal) software, it is the addons which can circumvent copyright. The Kodi developer site itself will not allow illegal addons, they want to distance themselves from that. All Kodi is, is a media player/conglomerator.

All the addons I use are totally legal (CBC for example). Kodi has nothing to do with so called "Kodi boxes" and tries to discourage the use of their name.

As for the illegal addons, in Canada they are still a grey area (the stream is just passing through and not recorded for other use) but in Europe I believe they are now illegal.

Anyone telling you that you can get all the channels forever is lying, illegal addons come and go and are fairly unreliable and getting fewer all the time. Legal streaming is the way to go.

It's just a different way of consuming content but if you have to have a certain show at a certain time, ya better stick with cable or a dedicated pay service.

My mission is to not pay anything at all, I know people who pay as much for the extra providers like Netflix, Disney etc as they would if they still had cable. That's not cord cutting to me.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

As far as TSN goes, when I had Sportscentre on last night, if I recall correctly they covered the Brier right after the NHL highlights. They didn't spend a ton of time on it, just showed the big highlights, a word or two from the winner (incidentally Gushue seems to have no discernible NL accent, I thought everyone there pretty well sounds like an Irishman now ), flash the stats, move on. Curling coverage is fairly rare on Sportscentre, TSN does a ton of curling but it tends to be pretty standalone...

That's the impression I had as well.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

The Brier is pretty prominent in Manitoba and I'm guessing most of the prairies. If you consume any kind of general local sports news (i.e. read the local papers, listen to local radio, watch local TV) there is no way you could miss it. I guess it helps that the Winnipeg Free Press often assigns one of its more prominent young reporters with a major social media presence (Melissa Martin) to the curling beat... she probably does more to expose the under 40 crowd to curling than anyone else in the province, except maybe Devin Heroux of the CBC.

It honestly feels like everyone's mom and dad watches the Brier and Tournament of Hearts even if they aren't curlers. Even my oldest kid who is obsessed with playing hockey stopped to watch curling on TV.
.

Unfortunately due to a number of factors (broadcast regulations, corporate concentration, etc.) the Prairies don't have their own sports network.

[MacLac]

Originally Posted by esquire

The Brier is pretty prominent in Manitoba and I'm guessing most of the prairies. If you consume any kind of general local sports news (i.e. read the local papers, listen to local radio, watch local TV) there is no way you could miss it. I guess it helps that the Winnipeg Free Press often assigns one of its more prominent young reporters with a major social media presence (Melissa Martin) to the curling beat... she probably does more to expose the under 40 crowd to curling than anyone else in the province, except maybe Devin Heroux of the CBC.

It honestly feels like everyone's mom and dad watches the Brier and Tournament of Hearts even if they aren't curlers. Even my oldest kid who is obsessed with playing hockey stopped to watch curling on TV.

As far as TSN goes, when I had Sportscentre on last night, if I recall correctly they covered the Brier right after the NHL highlights. They didn't spend a ton of time on it, just showed the big highlights, a word or two from the winner (incidentally Gushue seems to have no discernible NL accent, I thought everyone there pretty well sounds like an Irishman now ), flash the stats, move on. Curling coverage is fairly rare on Sportscentre, TSN does a ton of curling but it tends to be pretty standalone... Sportscentre doesn't spend that much time on it. No Craig Button equivalent breaking down the shots in the 6th end for 10 minutes, that type of thing.

As for SN, I have no idea... I don't think I've ever watched Sportscentral longer than the amount of time it took me to find the remote and change the channel.

Don't get me started on Craig Button - TSN's "Director of Pro Scouting" - what does that even mean? He's not affiliated to a team - so how can a random entity like TSN have their own Scouting dude? He's a Buffoon for sure..the biggest out of all of them. The only one less likeable is Dreger on SN.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by esquire

As for SN, I have no idea... I don't think I've ever watched Sportscentral longer than the amount of time it took me to find the remote and change the channel.

Yeah, if I wanted to be American centric I'd watch the intersectional ESPN and avoid the middleman.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Unfortunately due to a number of factors (broadcast regulations, corporate concentration, etc.) the Prairies don't have their own sports network.

I would love that. And I have the perfect guy to do the daytime sports talk.

Basically the closest thing to our own Jim Rome kind of personality is Rod Pedersen out of Regina, former WHL/CFL play by play guy who had a show on CKRM for a few years. He now does a sports talk show every day that streams online (available via Google Podcasts), but starting April 8 it will be live on Game+ TV, which is probably somewhere in the far reaches of your cable TV lineup. I give him credit for attempting to build something regional and not just city-specific as most sports shows are out here.

A prairie sports network would probably go heavy on the hockey, football, curling, lacrosse... it would be pretty cool. Too bad it's unlikely to happen.

[Acajack]

Even though Ottawa has hosted well-attended Briers fairly recently and is home to one of the country's best female curlers (Rachel Homan), the Ottawa media devote very little coverage to the Brier or even the Scotties when they're out of town. And this Brier was in Kingston, only 2 hours away.

At best there is a quick mention of Homan (BTW Rachel Homan of Ottawa won) at the end of the sports segment on the local CBC station.

I don't think I've ever heard Ottawa's sports radio station TSN 1200 talk about curling (though I have to applaud their coverage of the Redblacks who are treated like a true big league team), and of course clearly any other Ottawa radio station than the CBC would rather swallow a live snake than talk about curling on their sports segments.

[le calmar]

Originally Posted by elly63

Kodi is open source (legal) software, it is the addons which can circumvent copyright. The Kodi developer site itself will not allow illegal addons, they want to distance themselves from that. All Kodi is, is a media player/conglomerator.

All the addons I use are totally legal (CBC for example). Kodi has nothing to do with so called "Kodi boxes" and tries to discourage the use of their name.

As for the illegal addons, in Canada they are still a grey area (the stream is just passing through and not recorded for other use) but in Europe I believe they are now illegal.

Anyone telling you that you can get all the channels forever is lying, illegal addons come and go and are fairly unreliable and getting fewer all the time. Legal streaming is the way to go.

It's just a different way of consuming content but if you have to a certain show at a certain time, ya better stick with cable or a dedicated pay service.

My mission is to not pay anything at all, I know people who pay as much for the extra providers like Netflix, Disney etc as they would if they still had cable. That's not cord cutting to me.

Ok thanks for the clarification. So not so different from my Roku or Amazon Fire stick I guess. I have Netflix and recently decided to keep Amzon Prime after a free trial. The amount of original content on Prime surprised me, and if something is not available on Netflix you will likely find it there. Keeping both costs around 20 bucks/month, a reasonable price imo. But yes, there are no simply too many alternatives with HBO, ABC, Disney+, Apple TV+... If you want to get everything you will be upwards of 50$ per month, which at this point is similar to subscribing to a basic TV package with one of the major companies. When it comes to sports, I rely on my IPTV subscription but I can cancel and renew anytime since I am not bound by a contract.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by elly63

Yeah, if I wanted to be American centric I'd watch the intersectional ESPN and avoid the middleman.

Yeah, if I were interested in that stuff why would I want to watch some dude sitting in a Toronto studio talk about American sports when I can listen to ESPN guys who actually spend their Friday nights or Sunday afternoon having drinks with Roger Goodell or LeBron James in a Manhattan bar or by the pool?

[elly63]

Originally Posted by le calmar

I have Netflix and recently decided to keep Amzon Prime after a free trial.

Remember, you can legally share Netflix and Amazon. Depending on what you purchased with Netflix the content is the same for all options, the only thing that differs is how many devices and the resolution. Amazon I believe you can share between two computers but I haven't checked for a while. But with Netflix depending on your package you could split the cost with someone.

I have to laugh, scam artists offer old time OTA (over the air TV) as some sort of "free TV" And of course you need a "digital antenna" All BS of course (the sales hype), but if you live in a big, near the border, market like Toronto you can get all those channels plus US channels for free. There's lots of people who have no idea this still exists. And the quality is better because the signals aren't compressed like cable.

[elly63]

Originally Posted by Acajack

Yeah, if I were interested in that stuff why would I want to watch some dude sitting in a Toronto studio talk about American sports when I can listen to ESPN guys who actually spend their Friday nights or Sunday afternoon having drinks with Roger Goodell or LeBron James in a Manhattan bar or by the pool?

I believe you were the inspiration for that stroke of genius thought (which I have oft stolen)

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by elly63

I believe you were the inspiration for that stroke of genius thought (which I have oft stolen)

Please feel free!

[esquire]

Originally Posted by Acajack

I don't think I've ever heard Ottawa's sports radio station TSN 1200 talk about curling (though I have to applaud their coverage of the Redblacks who are treated like a true big league team), and of course clearly any other Ottawa radio station than the CBC would rather swallow a live snake than talk about curling on their sports segments.

For context, even in a curling friendly city like Winnipeg, local sports radio doesn't spend much time on it. They have the odd analyst heading into major tournament finals, but that's about it. TSN 1290 is heavily weighted towards hockey (Jets, NHL, Moose, as well as the amateurs), with the Bombers/CFL, NFL and Blue Jays coverage kind of rounding it out. The other talk stations like CJOB and CBC cover the results but don't spend tons of time on curling unless someone local makes a big splash which is not uncommon.

I guess curling isn't really something one listens to on radio, so it doesn't exist much in that space.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by esquire

I would love that. And I have the perfect guy to do the daytime sports talk.

Basically the closest thing to our own Jim Rome kind of personality is Rod Pedersen out of Regina, former WHL/CFL play by play guy who had a show on CKRM for a few years. He now does a sports talk show every day that streams online (available via Google Podcasts), but starting April 8 it will be live on Game+ TV, which is probably somewhere in the far reaches of your cable TV lineup. I give him credit for attempting to build something regional and not just city-specific as most sports shows are out here.

A prairie sports network would probably go heavy on the hockey, football, curling, lacrosse... it would be pretty cool. Too bad it's unlikely to happen.

Facebook Live is the easiest platform accessible. I can even stream the show on the Defence Wide Area Network at work.

[Acajack]

Originally Posted by esquire

For context, even in a curling friendly city like Winnipeg, local sports radio doesn't spend much time on it. They have the odd analyst heading into major tournament finals, but that's about it. TSN 1290 is heavily weighted towards hockey (Jets, NHL, Moose, as well as the amateurs), with the Bombers/CFL, NFL and Blue Jays coverage kind of rounding it out. The other talk stations like CJOB and CBC cover the results but don't spend tons of time on curling unless someone local makes a big splash which is not uncommon.

I guess curling isn't really something one listens to on radio, so it doesn't exist much in that space.

The Ottawa Valley and even Ontario in general (including the GTA) has a pretty strong curling culture. As evidenced by the number of recent Brier and Scotties champions from that province.

But you'd never know it from the media coverage. It's treated as if it was your grandparents playing shuffleboard.

Never really understood why it was less prestigious or cool than, say, golf? (Not a huge curling fan but I'd much rather watch curling than golf personally.)

Perhaps it's the tropical locations (vs. the winter that is synonymous with curling) that gives golf more cred?

Though skiing is a posh sport and it's associated with winter and snow.

That said in spite of the "eeww" label on curling I've seen way more people pay attention to televised curling in bars than I have to skiing.

[esquire]

Originally Posted by VANRIDERFAN

Facebook Live is the easiest platform accessible. I can even stream the show on the Defence Wide Area Network at work.

I guess most people do it that way but I don't touch anything facebook. I listen via Google Podcasts.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by esquire

For context, even in a curling friendly city like Winnipeg, local sports radio doesn't spend much time on it. They have the odd analyst heading into major tournament finals, but that's about it. TSN 1290 is heavily weighted towards hockey (Jets, NHL, Moose, as well as the amateurs), with the Bombers/CFL, NFL and Blue Jays coverage kind of rounding it out. The other talk stations like CJOB and CBC cover the results but don't spend tons of time on curling unless someone local makes a big splash which is not uncommon.

I guess curling isn't really something one listens to on radio, so it doesn't exist much in that space.

CJOB used to broadcast the finals of the MCA bonspiel live. I believe it was with Bob Irving doing the play by play.

[VANRIDERFAN]

Originally Posted by esquire

I guess most people do it that way but I don't touch anything facebook. I listen via Google Podcasts.

Fair enough.

FYI Bomber DC Ritchie Hall is on the show right now.

[Andy6]

Originally Posted by Acajack

The Ottawa Valley and even Ontario in general (including the GTA) has a pretty strong curling culture. As evidenced by the number of recent Brier and Scotties champions from that province.

But you'd never know it from the media coverage. It's treated as if it was your grandparents playing shuffleboard.

Never really understood why it was less prestigious or cool than, say, golf? (Not a huge curling fan but I'd much rather watch curling than golf personally.)

Perhaps it's the tropical locations (vs. the winter that is synonymous with curling) that gives golf more cred?

Though skiing is a posh sport and it's associated with winter and snow.

That said in spite of the "eeww" label on curling I've seen way more people pay attention to televised curling in bars than I have to skiing.

Sportscasters want tape of themselves gushing over US sports since their dream job is to get hired by ESPN or some other American network. Covering curling makes them look like weird foreigners.