Led by TSN and its French language counterpart, RDS, sports channels earned huge dollars in Canadian television last year.
CTV-owned TSN and RDS posted profits (all figures before interest and tax) of $58.82-million and $22.76-million, respectively, in the 2007 fiscal year.
Rogers Sportsnet, the regional service owned by Rogers Communications, showed a profit of $18.11-million.
TSN's figure, tops among all specialty services, is up more than $10-million from 2006, when it earned $48.58-million.
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RDS showed a jump of about $4-million from $18.37-million in 2006.
Sportsnet's profit dropped by almost $7-million from $25.35-million in 2006, a result largely of the network paying a huge fee starting in 2007 for regional TV rights to Toronto Maple Leafs games.
For comparative purposes, Discovery, a popular cable channel, reported a profit of $33.54-million.
CBC Newsworld, one of the first cable channels launched in Canada, showed a profit of $11.12-million.
All numbers are based on filings to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission.
A well-placed source said the profit information submitted to the federal regulator by the networks is generally skewed low.
"They all fudge the numbers," he said. "They would rather not show what they're really making."
The Score television network, once a money loser, is now earning millions annually.
In 2007, its profit was $5.92-million, up from $4.61-million in 2006.
Among the digital sports networks, NHL Network, principally owned by the NHL, posted a profit of $1.49-million, up from $1.27-million in 2006.
Xtreme Sports had a profit of $990,284, an increase from $405,325 in 2006.
ESPN Classic Canada pulled itself out of the red, showing a profit of $256,724 from a loss of $256,724 a year earlier.
The Outdoor Life Network made $4.86-million, down from $5.29-million in 2006.
Wild TV, a hunting and fishing channel, showed a profit of $191,069, an increase from $143,846 in 2006.
Other sports digitals did not fare as well.
Leafs TV, a regional channel owned by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, lost $3.43-million despite increasing its distribution in Southern Ontario through a deal with Rogers Cable.
Leafs TV airs a package of Leafs preseason and regular-season games, but functions primarily as a promotional vehicle for the club. And it also improves MLSE's overall market value.
Still, it's a consistent money loser that was $3.76-million in the red in 2006.
Raptors NBA TV, which is also owned by MLSE but distributed nationally, lost $879,767, down slightly from $897,078 in 2006.
Other money losers included:
Fox Sports World Canada: Lost $197,816; $477,285 in 2006.
The Fight Network: Lost $2.94-million; $2.93-million in 2006.
World Fishing Network: Lost $3.01-million; $2.61-million in 2006.
GolTV: Lost $2.76-million; $2.49-million in 2006.
Figures for U.S. networks The Golf Channel and Speed were not reported.
CBC channel likely
In about 18 months, the CBC will launch a sports channel that will devote up to 75 per cent of its programming to professional sports.
That's the prediction of observers familiar with CRTC procedure.
The digital channel, to be called CBC SportsPlus, has jumped the queue ahead of the Canadian Olympic Committee's proposed amateur channel, and will have its application heard by the CRTC in July.
The channel is expected to be up and running by the fall of 2009.
The application has been designated as a non-appearing item, meaning negative interventions will not be heard but rather accepted as written submissions. That leaves insiders believing the application will sail through.
There is some unhappiness over the application.
Those involved with the COC channel, which applied to the CRTC ahead of the CBC, are rankled over the CBC application being given priority.
TSN, Sportsnet and the Score will object to SportsPlus focusing heavily on professional sports. Initially, the channel was assumed to be primarily devoted to amateur sport. The application proposes only 25-per-cent amateur content.
Professional sports programming could include the Toronto Raptors, Toronto Blue Jays, Toronto FC, tennis, plus utilization of the Hockey Night in Canada brand, but not NHL telecasts. The CBC says in its application that 80 per cent of the channel's programming would be Canadian.
Sportsnet's Memorial Cup coverage begins tonight at 7 p.m. (EDT) with the Gatineau Olympiques playing the Kitchener Rangers. Peter Loubardias will call the games, Sam Cosentino will provide analysis and Rob Faulds will be the host. All telecasts will be shot in high-definition TV.
TSN's telecast Wednesday of the fourth game of the Detroit Red Wings-Dallas Stars series was watched by 846,000 viewers, the network's second-largest audience of the NHL postseason. Tops was the seventh game between the Philadelphia Flyers and Washington Capitals, 990,000.
TSN has the Canada-Sweden semi-final at the world hockey championship today at 4:50 p.m. (EDT), in HDTV, from Quebec City.
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