One of the challenges of being a Montreal Canadiens fan is finding a network that's carrying a game.
On the face of it, Réseau des Sports, the French-language rights holder, is the obvious destination. Its audience figures certainly reflect increased interest in the team, which is winning. The numbers are up 23 per cent from last season, when audiences increased 44 per cent from the season before the National Hockey League lockout.
Viewership of 868,000 for the Ottawa Senators-Canadiens game on Oct. 14 was the largest of the season, and it peaked at 1.089 million.
All of this is good news for RDS, but here's the problem for viewers. If you're outside Quebec — and the Habs have a national following — you need digital TV in most markets to get the channel (either a satellite dish or a digital cable box).
After RDS won the rights in 2002, Société Radio-Canada, an over-the-air network, simulcast the RDS feed on Saturday nights for several years. But that agreement is over.
Not that SRC's departure emptied the room. In the final year the network aired Montreal games exclusively on Saturday nights, 2001-02, its average audience was 472,000 viewers. RDS's average is now more than 700,000.
In addition to pulling in big numbers, RDS provides a good service. Where SRC's schedule was limited to Saturday night, RDS carries all 82 regular-season games, and the full postseason, as well as a package of Senators games.
But for English-language fans outside Quebec, it's hit and miss. In addition to requiring digital TV in most markets, viewers need to be comfortable watching a French-language telecast.
Some English-language coverage is available, but the Canadiens are the only NHL team in Canada without an English-language regional deal. That's because the market in Quebec isn't large enough to draw interest from a network.
Instead, the Habs make do with a patchwork of national telecasts. The CBC's Hockey Night in Canada will air 17 Canadiens games during the regular season.
That's up from nine last year. However, most of the 17 telecasts will not reach a full national audience. Instead, they are distributed regionally, in Quebec and perhaps Atlantic Canada. The only Habs games assured of getting national distribution are those involving the Toronto Maple Leafs, the CBC's preferred team, because it produces the largest audience.
Like the CBC, TSN gives preference to the Leafs. TSN will air nine Habs games this season, down from 13 last year.
Fix wasn't in
The CBC denies a conspiracy to undermine Glasgow's chances of winning the Commonwealth Games in 2014.
A newspaper in Scotland, the Sunday Herald, reported suspicions that a CBC documentary aired on Oct. 1, titled The Feral Boys of Glasgow, about gang violence in the city, was broadcast with the intention of helping the Halifax bid.
The newspaper quoted Halifax bid spokesman Bruce DeVenne as saying Glasgow, based on the CBC documentary, is unfit to be the host of the Commonwealth Games.
"If I was watching that, I would vote for somebody else," he said.
But CBC spokesman Jeff Keay said: "To suggest the documentary was motivated by anything other than legitimate journalistic interest in a significant current social problem would be inaccurate."
The United Nations recently rated Glasgow the most violent city in the developed world.
Hot wheels
The Discovery Channel will launch a new sports reality show Tuesday night called Star Racer (10 EDT). Created by Dave Toms, who's written for most of the big sports shows, including the Olympics and Hockey Night in Canada, it's about go-kart riders competing for a spot on the Formula Star Mazda circuit, an open-wheel series. Toms's co-writer and producer is Andrea Webb.
