News

CurlTV will begin covering the opening draws of the Continental Cup in Chilliwack, B.C., Thursday morning.

It's a big event and CurlTV's programming will be extensive, but you won't find it on television.

That's because CurlTV is an online channel doing business in Internet protocol television — in other words, streaming content.

IPTV is new medium, but will quickly become an important part of sports programming's future, says Scott Moore, who has a stake in CurlTV.

"I really think that's where coverage is going," said Moore, a former head of production for Rogers Sportsnet. "There's more and more stuff out there, and the networks don't have the capacity to cover it."

Kevin Albrecht, the newly appointed president and chief executive officer of the Toronto media company Insight Sports, agrees.

"Take a look at CSTV, College Sports Television, in the United States," Albrecht said. "When it was bought about 18 months ago by CBS for $425-million (U.S.), everybody went: 'What? Are they nuts?' And I thought, 'That's the best buy going.'

"Then, in September, in one day, CSTV launched 100 TV channels on IPTV for all the universities. If you're a UCLA alumnus and you're sitting in New York, you may see one or two national games on TV in a year. But for $14.95 a month, you get to see every basketball game, every football game from your alma mater. What a great model."

In Canada, the model is being applied to curling, a sport that's big in this country, but also moving from niche to wider popularity elsewhere.

Japan, for example, is becoming something of a hotbed.

This week, CurlTV has a production crew in Japan to shoot the Pacific Curling Championships in Japanese.

"We've launched a Japanese version of CurlTV," Moore said. "I'd say 10 per cent of our viewership is in Japan."

In the United States, curling's appeal has been growing since the Salt Lake Olympics in 2002. Just last weekend, NBC sent Don Chevrier and Don Duguid to Whistler, B.C., to call a made-for-TV competition that will air on Sunday afternoon in the United States.

Curling's growth rate in the United States is such that the miners of the special granite in Scotland used to produce rocks can't keep up with the demand.

Largely because of this growth, Moore says, CurlTV, despite its launch only one year ago, will break even this year.

He also believes the IPTV business is set to explode. The key to success is to get a channel up and running quickly as possible.

"It's going to become a very crowded universe," he said.

"The brands that are established will be the winning channels."

Vanier Cup TV

The Score's telecast of the Vanier Cup on Saturday will rank as its most ambitious.

"We're excited," said Anthony Cicione, the vice-president of programming and production for the network. "This is a big deal for us."

The Score, which has a core business airing highlights, will shoot the Laval-Saskatchewan game in high-definition television. It will use a virtual first-down marker. There will be pregame and postgame shows. Tim Micallef and Duane Forde, who called The Score's university telecasts this season, will be in the booth.

This was The Score's first year to air the Ontario University Athletics and Canadian Interuniversity Sport regular-season and playoff football schedule. The audiences have ranged from 8,000 for Queen's-McMaster in early October to 89,000 last Saturday for the Ottawa-Saskatchewan Mitchell Bowl game.

David Errington, the network's senior vice-president and general manager, says the schedule of games has produced a profit.

The audience for Vanier Cup game on Saturday? It will be hurt by Laval's home market being largely French-language and The Score's distribution in Quebec being spotty. But it should exceed 100,000.

• The club-owned digital channel, Raptors NBA TV, does not have a distribution deal completed with Shaw Cable, the largest cable company in Western Canada. But Chris Hebb, the head of broadcasting for the club, said Thursday the channel is on a 30-day preview in some Shaw markets. He expects an agreement to be reached for all Shaw distributors by the end of the year.
• The CBC will provide Continental Cup coverage this weekend, beginning Saturday at 1 p.m. EST with live telecasts of the men's and women's skins games. On Sunday, starting at 12:30 p.m., the CBC will carry the men's and women's finals.