TSN clear winner on NHL trade deadline day

by WILLIAM HOUSTON
Globe & Mail
February 28, 2008

TSN won the battle for NHL trade deadline viewers on Tuesday by a wide margin, drawing more than triple the audience of Rogers Sportsnet and almost 14 times as many viewers as The Score.

TSN's audience of 166,000 jumped 11 per cent from last year's trade deadline day. Sportsnet's 54,000 was flat. And the Score's 12,000 represented an increase of 33 per cent.

Réseau des Sports (RDS), the French-language sports service, topped them all, drawing 268,000. But the RDS telecast was only four hours in length, from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. EST.

TSN and Sportsnet were on the air for 10 hours and the Score for 10½ hours. It's more difficult to hold an audience over 10 hours than four.

"We did fantastic, really," TSN president Phil King said. "We're continuing to grow every year."

King noted TSN (and the other English-language networks) went on the air two hours earlier this year than last and presented a longer telecast, but still managed to increase the audience.

"The first two hours are the toughest, because trades are unlikely," he said.

The TSN, Sportsnet and Score numbers are down from 2006, but interest in hockey two years ago was extraordinarily high because of the NHL's return from the cancelled 2004-05 season.

Although Sportsnet improved the quality of its coverage from last year, when it employed a failed studio party format, it was unable to win back viewers. The Score continued to rank a distant third.

Speculation about the Montreal Canadiens trading for Atlanta Thrashers star Marian Hossa kept viewers glued to RDS in the afternoon.

But TSN, Sportsnet and Score took a hit when Toronto Maple Leafs veterans with no-trade clauses, including captain Mats Sundin, refused to be moved.

Online, records were set.

TSN.ca had its busiest day, with 14.26 million page views, up 39 per cent from last year and bettering the previous mark of 13.92 million in 2006.

The Score set a one-day record for its online traffic. Its website received 88,647 visits, an increase of 89 per cent from last year's trade deadline.

TSN.ca provided 1.4 million streams of its TV coverage, more than double last year's 607,000. It had 359,00 unique visitors to its live video and audio services, up 30 per cent. At Sportsnet, 60,000 used its live video stream, double last year's traffic.

Page views for the deadline special on Hockey Night in Canada Radio streamed on CBCsports.ca jumped 135 per cent to 800,000 from about 300,000.

Deadline blues

Reaction to the trade deadline inactivity in four Canadian cities:

Vancouver: David Pratt, the co-host of the Team 1040 all-sport radio afternoon drive-time show, said a poll taken by the station broke 60-40, with the majority criticizing the Canucks for failing to make a substantial move. "It wasn't the 'sky is falling' sort of response that I was expecting," Pratt said. "I was surprised. But the Canucks are on a four-game winning streak and if the playoffs started today, they would be in. If it had been a four-game losing streak and they're in 10th place, then maybe they're burning down GM Place."

Toronto: At AM 640 Toronto, noon-hour host Brian Duff asked on the air: Did the Leafs have a plan after they fired general manager John Ferguson in January? It was assumed interim GM Cliff Fletcher would strip down the team and target a high draft choice in June. But the veterans would not waive their no-trade clauses. Captain Mats Sundin, who refused to be moved, seems determined to improve the team's win-loss record to a level that will take it out of contention for a high pick in the draft lottery. Duff's co-host Bill Watters said, "There never was a plan."

Montreal: The cover headline of the Journal de Montréal, in response to the Canadiens trading starting goaltender Cristobal Huet to the Washington Capitals, read: Un Pari Risqué (a risky bet). Red Fisher of the Gazette wrote: "So, yes, I'm surprised that Huet is gone. It's a mistake." Team 990 afternoon host Mitch Melnick said fan reaction was running 80-20 negatively to the Huet trade.

Ottawa: Freelance broadcaster Patricia Boal said "there was plenty of disappointment" in the nation's capital over the Senators not acquiring a goaltender. "You can't escape the fact that anything less than winning the Stanley Cup is going to be a step down, and the way this team has been playing the last couple of weeks, it could be a challenge for this team to win a [playoff] round."