• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Cdn sports fans: CTV, Rogers win Olympic rights over CBC

Status
Not open for further replies.

calder

Member
CTV Inc., Rogers win Olympic rights

TSN.ca Staff

2/7/2005

CTV is once again Canada's Olympic network, starting with the Vancouver Winter Games in 2010.

The International Olympic Committee on Monday awarded television rights for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics to Bell Globemedia and Rogers Media ahead of a bid from incumbent Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

The rights for the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver cost $90 million US, while the rights for the 2012 Summer Olympics cost $63 million.

''This is the first time that the amount for the Games exceeds the Summer Games,'' IOC Finance Commission chairman Richard Carrion told an IOC news conference.

''We certainly believe that 2010 will be the biggest sport events in Canada this decade, may well be the biggest event in Canada this decade,'' added Ivan Fecan, president and CEO of Bell Globemedia.

CTV was also the host broadcaster for the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, which was the last time the Olympics were held in Canada. That was also the first time the Olympics were seen on TSN.

CBC's 12 year reign as Canada's Olympic broadcaster will come to an end with the 2008 Games in Beijing, China, for which the corporation paid a record $45-million US.

The host city for the 2012 Summer Olympics will be chosen July 6 from a group of Madrid, London, New York, Paris and Moscow. Paris is considered the front-runner.

CTV Inc., which is majority owned by BCE Inc., will showcase the Olympics on its main network as well as its subsidiaries, including TSN, its French-language arm RDS and Outdoor Life Network, which is licensed to broadcast outdoor sports.

''We think viewers are the winners here,'' said Fecan. ''The Bell Globemedia/Rogers Media partnership aims to have the most diverse and comprehensive coverage of the Olympics ever.''

Bell Canada, another subsidiary of BCE, agreed to pay almost $200-million CDN last fall to be the official telecommunications sponsor of the Vancouver Games.

Rogers Media plans to air Olympic content on its regional sports network Rogers Sportsnet, as well its radio network, headed by the FAN 590 in Toronto, and Rogers' two multicultural stations in Toronto.

The deal also brings together two of the countries biggest internet and wireless providers, Bell Canada and Rogers Wireless.

NBC is paying $2.201 billion US for the American television rights for the next two Olympics, including $820 million US for the Vancouver Games.

TSN and Sportsnet getting coverage is good, but as someone who remembers suffering through CTV's painful Olympic hockey telecasts in '88 and '92 (anyone else remember the classic "ballsy move!" call ?? mad props to anyone who remembers who the commentator was and who he was talking about - hint it was a penalty shot) I'm going to miss the HNIC crew doing the Vancouver games... especially since Cole/Neal will likely be mercifully retired by then.
 

calder

Member
I wouldn't care much except that, going by my memories of the previous CTV olympic broadcasts they just can't quite pull off the same level of polish as CBC does. CTV just doesn't have much in the way of regular sports broadcasting, so their Oly stuff was just thrown together with freelance announcers and commentators from regional networks getting the call and it showed, everything was just a bit off. There was just a huge change in the quality of the telecasts when CBC took over and had established TV sports crews who did enough hockey/football/etc events to do the Olympics justice.

The good thing is that now more than in the early 90's TSN is big enough to take up the slack. So maybe my nightmare of having Lloyd Robertson in studio introing the Canada/Russia gold medal game and sending it a play-by-play announcer who was let go from HNIC a year before and colour commentators Vicki Gabereau and Nick Kypreos won't come to pass.
 

Memles

Member
calder said:
So maybe my nightmare of having Lloyd Robertson in studio introing the Canada/Russia gold medal game and sending it a play-by-play announcer who was let go from HNIC a year before and colour commentators Vicki Gabereau and Nick Kypreos won't come to pass.

This did two things:

1. Made me laugh
2. Make me pray to god that both Sydney Crosby and Pierre McGuire will be locked up in a hole by 2010.
 

Kon Tiki

Banned
The content of CBC coverage is unsurpassed, CBC does not have the amount of stations Bell/Rogers does. I do not see why CBC/Bell and Rogers did not make a deal.

I do not like the idea of having Sportsnet and TSN doing Olympics. It will mean a lose of normal content, Jays/Leafs/Raptors, on dedicated sports networks.
 

Suranga3

Member
CTV just can't compete on the same level as the CBC when it comes to amateur/olympic sporting coverage. This sucks.
 

Pochacco

asking dangerous questions
This does suck.
I have a feeling that CTV will step it up, hire some interesting personalities, and present a good olympics...
...but the CBC is unsurpassed. It's the best damn Olympic coverage in the world.

Brian Williams rocks.
B_Williams1.jpg
 

bishoptl

Banstick Emeritus
Vicky Gabareau :lol

Anyways, it's about time. Like Shinobi and I were discussing in irc, CTV and Sportsnet have way more channels to devote to Olympic coverage 'round the clock. Plus there's the always thorny issue of the CBC using public dollars to bid for the rights in the first place, but that's another argument for another day. :)
 

Mugen

Banned
Isn't it CTV/TSN?! Yah CBC would have been nice but we'll see how this turns out. With TSN, I'm counting on it to be at least on par.
 

Kon Tiki

Banned
Mugen said:
Isn't it CTV/TSN?! Yah CBC would have been nice but we'll see how this turns out. With TSN, I'm counting on it to be at least on par.
It is Bell (TSC,CTV, OLN) and Sportsnet (all 5 channels)
 
"THAT SCANDINAVIAN POLE VAULTER WHO FINISHED FOURTH IS MY MONSTER PERFORMER OF THE FIRST THIRD OF DAY 2'S OUTDOOR EVENTS!"
 
The Olympics isn't the same without Brian Williams :(

Canadian Olympic coverage by CBC is regarded as pretty much the best in the world and then this happens


BOOOOOOO
 

Richiban

Member
This was big enough news that we had to have a meeting about it today.

There are certain rumblings around the office that corus may try to buy CTV from Bell.

Should that happen, our department may be called upon to head up some of the mobile productions for the 2010.

That's very good news for me.

(That's only if I stay with the company long enough)
 

Shinobi

Member
bishoptl said:
Plus there's the always thorny issue of the CBC using public dollars to bid for the rights in the first place, but that's another argument for another day. :)

Oh, I'll make the argument right now...fuck the CBC and their use of tax dollars to bid for shit that private channels could cover just as well. That's not a shot against the sports guys or their coverage which has been excellent, but the last CTV-run event was 13 freaking years ago, and I would think they could improve a little bit from that level since then. And I'd rather have the ability to see as many events as I want, and we're gonna have that in spades with this deal. CTV, TSN, OLN, Sportsnet (which will be used as four seperate channels), Omni, APTI, plus the local Rogers stations...can't see what there is to complain about.

The only thing that sucks is that CBC might blow their sports department to smitherings in a few years, but most of those people would no doubt find work in the Bell or Rogers fold. And I wouldn't be surprised if Brian Williams is among them (heh, would be pretty funny if Bell and Rogers got into a bidding war over him :lol). Nope, this deal has nothing but upside for me...I'll finally be able to watch some live badmington, squash and table tennis, three of the most mindblowing top-level events to watch, instead of a few minutes of highlights.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom