TSN gets midweek Canadian doubleheader under new six-year deal

by WILLIAM HOUSTON
Globe & Mail Sports Media
June 3, 2008

The NHL will announce this week, perhaps as early as today, a six-year contract extension with TSN.

Sources close to the league said the long-awaited extension, which will kick in next season, will give TSN an all-Canadian doubleheader on Wednesday nights during the regular season.

As well, the agreement is expected to give TSN rights to a playoff series involving a Canadian team if more than two series have Canadian teams participating.

The CBC, which announced its six-year extension a year ago, would choose the first two series, with TSN picking up the third.

Under the current TV deal, which will expire at the end of this season, TSN aired only U.S. playoff matchups.

Also in the contract, TSN will increase its schedule of Toronto Maple Leafs national telecasts to a total of about 10.

With its deal, the CBC lost three Leafs games from its Saturday night schedule.

The CBC will pay the league about $100-million annually. TSN's rights fee is speculated to be about half that, perhaps less than half.

DREAM SERIES

This is the NBA final that television wanted. Boston Celtics-Los Angeles Lakers on ABC represents a showdown between the two best teams in the league. There's also plenty of star power as well as the history and rivalry of the two teams.

ABC analyst Jeff Van Gundy noted the teams' contrasting styles.

"I think the Lakers are the best offensive team in basketball," he said.

"I don't think it's close. They have great shooting and passing ability.

"And I think the Celtics are the best defensive team in the NBA and have proven that throughout the playoffs. It should be a compelling series."

Norby Williamson, the executive vice-president of production for ESPN-ABC, said ABC will ask for as much access as possible.

"We've had great success miking coaches and interviewing coaches," he said. "The teams have been phenomenal in their co-operation and I think that's allowed us to bring the game closer to the fans and give them inside access."

Visually, the telecasts, which will be produced by ESPN for ABC, will consist of new animation and branding.

Given it is the championship series airing in prime time on a broadcast network, Williamson said the telecasts will need to be aware of casual viewers tuning in.

"Editorially, you need to be sensitive to a large number of people who will come to watch the series in prime time and haven't been following every bounce of the ball throughout the year," he said.

"You want to make them feel included in the presentation while also challenging the people that have been there for every drop of the ball."

In Canada, TSN will pick up the ABC telecasts.

The first game will be on Thursday, with the pregame show at 8 p.m. EDT and the game telecast at 8:30 p.m.

SHOW ME MONEY

On Saturday, Ron MacLean of Hockey Night in Canada suggested to NHL commissioner Gary Bettman that the league give ESPN the same freebie enjoyed by NBC - a profit-sharing agreement without a rights fee.

"If [the ESPN people] love us and are interested in us, they should come and talk to us in a meaningful way," Bettman said. In other words, bring a cheque.

Bettman said carriage on NBC, a main network broadcaster, brings more to the NHL than carriage on ESPN, the cable giant that placed NHL regular-season games on ESPN2 until the agreement was discontinued in 2005.

The other factor that would stop ESPN from entering into a profit-sharing agreement with the NHL is Versus, which owns exclusive cable rights to hockey for three more seasons. Why would Versus let ESPN back in as a cable rights holder for nothing when Versus is paying the NHL $72.5-million annually?

Fourth game of the Stanley Cup on Saturday: 2.026 million viewers on the CBC; an overnight rating of 2.6 (percentage of potential U.S. households tuned in) for NBC, up 13 per cent from last year's fourth game and the highest since 2004 (2.9, Flames-Tampa Bay Lightning, ABC). Against the hockey game on NBC, CBS's mixed martial arts telecast, Saturday Night Fights, earned a 2.7 overnight.

CBC's Soccer Day in Canada on Saturday, noon to 3:30 p.m. EDT, was watched by a disappointing total of 47,000 viewers, down 58 per cent from 2007, when the event aired during the FIFA U-20 World Cup. Los Angeles Galaxy-Toronto FC at 3:30 p.m. drew 116,000.