The CBC is considering the launch of a new television channel dedicated to amateur and high-performance sport.
Scott Moore, the head of CBC Sports, yesterday confirmed that an all-sports digital channel is in the discussion phase at the network.
However, he said applying to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission for a licence is not imminent.
"It's nowhere near to being something that we're taking to the CRTC," he said. "We have a number of ideas and strategies. We just haven't finalized one yet."
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The CBC's interest in a new channel represents a clear challenge to the Canadian Olympic Committee, which is hoping to start an amateur sports channel of its own.
Adding to the intrigue is the CBC's apparent agreement to support the COC initiative. In the Olympic body's application to the CRTC, the CBC is cited as being supportive of the channel and willing to provide production resources.
Moore, however, characterized the CBC's support as conditional and lukewarm.
"If they get a licence, we will negotiate with them to potentially provide services," he said. "So I would call it a non-negative intervention, but not necessarily backing."
Moore said the CBC's immediate goal is to build up its online sports service. He said traffic to cbcsports.ca has grown threefold in the past eight months. The online service, he said, is now earning a profit.
In November, cbcsports.ca ranked third in Canadian consumer traffic among domestic sports channel websites with 1.02 million unique visits, behind NHL Network (3.6 million) and TSN/RDS (2.7 million).
Moore noted it's cheaper and easier to build an online sports channel than to launch a digital TV service.
But COC sources are skeptical of Moore playing down the CBC's interest in an amateur channel.
They note that the network owns domestic and international figure skating rights and has a long term contract with Fédération Internationale de Football Association. The new channel would carry live programming from those sports, much the way CBC Country Canada does now, as well programming from other amateur sports.
Moore said that a TV channel, to be successful financially, would need to carry events that are not technically amateur, such as curling competitions that offer prize money.
In its application, the COC is seeking mandatory carriage by the cable and satellite companies. The CBC, if it does apply for an all-sports licence, would designate its channel as category two, meaning carriage would be optional.
A category two application is more likely to receive CRTC approval than an application seeking mandatory carriage.
The advantage the CBC would have over the COC is that the public network has the clout with cable and satellite operators, as well as advertisers, that comes with being a media giant that owns a group of cable channels as well as a main broadcast network. The COC channel would be by itself, without chips to play.
Still, the COC has a compelling argument to make: that there is a need in Canada for amateur athletes to receive TV exposure and for amateur sport to be promoted, for health as well as participatory reasons, particularly in an era when so much sports TV content, particularly outside of prime time, consists of marginal U.S. programming. The COC says its channel would be able to provide funding for amateur sport.
The CRTC is expected to release its ruling on the COC application in about four months. That decision will have a major impact on the CBC's next move.
Hockey audiences
It was speculated Hockey Night in Canada's first game audience last Saturday would drop below one million, because of the decision to air the Pittsburgh Penguins-Montreal Canadiens game countrywide instead of the Toronto Maple Leafs, which traditionally receive national distribution.
That's why the 1.201 million audience was a surprise. It surpassed by almost 40,000 viewers the 1.163 million average audience that had been tuning into the telecasts this season when the Leafs went across the country.
The Buffalo Sabres-Leafs game, which was seen in most of Southern Ontario, pulled in about 500,000 of the 1.201 million. The Pens-Habs audiences were higher than the Leafs audiences had been over the past two weeks in every region except British Columbia.
But there was interest in the Leafs. Online, at cbcsports.ca, Sabres-Leafs had 11,000 views, double the usual traffic of 5,000 to 6,000 views for the first game.
NBC earned a 1.1 overnight rating (percentage of potential U.S. households tuned in) for its first NHL telecast of the season on Sunday, Boston Bruins against the New York Rangers. That matches last year's 1.1 for the opener (regional games) - in other words, no growth.
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