What about curling? Actually, more people would watch it if they could! It turns out that the Canadian Curling Association negotiated a new contract for televising the men’s and women’s championships for the next four years, and thousands of viewers are up in arms about the arrangement [yours truly included].
CBC stations across the country have been flooded with complaints about how the public broadcaster is covering the Scott Tournament of Hearts. On the main
network, coverage is limited to a daytime window featuring one draw, and a
late-night repeat of the evening draw.To see the other matches, viewers need to subscribe to CBC’s pay digital television channel, Country Canada, or to the sports network The Score.
To make matters worse, nobody telecasts the morning draws (games). And to make matters even worse, there is no indication that anyone will be telecasting the 4-way tie-break playoffs that begin tomorrow (Friday) morning. The relationship between the Canadian Curling Association and the CBC truly does seem to be an Unholy Alliance.
I know CBC is trying to do this to promote its new digital network (the way Fox did when it won its first contract with the NFL). The difference is that Fox had good shows to promote. Prior to this week, the CBC digital network averaged 500 viewers/day during the day and 900 viewers/day at prime time.
I hereby issue the following challenge to the CBC. Come to my classes and videotape the lectures using only one camera and with no editing. Put them on a separate channel, and I can still outdraw whatever else you’re showing on CBC’s Country Canada.
