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Toronto Raptors audiences are increasing, but they aren't large enough to inspire special coverage of the NBA trade deadline Thursday.
TSN, Rogers Sportsnet and The Score will break into regularly scheduled programming with live updates.
Leo Rautins will provide analysis on TSN's SportsCentre and Jack Armstrong will do the same on Sportsnet Connected.
But given that major trades already have been made and the Raptors are not expected to be active, the NBA deadline will continue to be a minor event in Canadian sports TV.
The exception is Raptors NBA TV, which will air hourly updates and a live Full Court Press deadline show at 2 p.m. EST.
There will be additional trade information on Raptors Today at 6 p.m. Raptors NBA TV will also pick up TNT's trade deadline recap later in the evening.
Tom Anselmi, the chief operating officer of Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which owns Raptors TV, noted Raptors TV audiences are up 22 per cent from last year.
Sportsnet's numbers have increased 46 per cent, The Score's 20 per cent and TSN's 6 per cent.
Still, the NBA deadline is small stuff compared with the attention that will be given to the NHL's final trading day next Tuesday.
"The NHL deadline rivals the coverage of a nuclear war," Anselmi said.
Sportsnet announced yesterday that Doug MacLean, a former NHL general manager and once TSN semi-regular, will be in the studio as an analyst for its NHL trade telecast.
The Score, which last year was late off the mark, will start its coverage at, wait for it, 7:30 a.m. EST, beating TSN to the puck by 30 minutes.
We asked Richard Garner, The Score's vice-president of programming, what he would do if TSN pushed up the start of its show to 7 a.m.
"We would do the same," Garner said. "We're going to be starting first."
Pampered buds
A hockey broadcaster says the refusal of Toronto Maple Leafs defenceman Tomas Kaberle to waive his no-trade clause suggests complacency.
"All this stuff about how tough it is to play in Toronto is a bunch of malarkey," he said. "If it was so tough to play in Toronto, why wouldn't a guy, especially on a team that hasn't made the playoffs in three years, waive his no-trade?
"It says to me he's very comfortable playing in Toronto. Winning isn't important, because financially they're taken care of. And there are so many other opportunities away from the arena [for local endorsement and appearance opportunities].
"There is no other market in the league like Toronto. It's a comfy, cozy environment to play in. You're protected by PR people and, with the exception of some of the writers and broadcasters, the people covering the team are fans. It starts with the broadcasts [produced by Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, the company that owns the club] and it goes forward from there."
Slippery slope
Canadian ski officials are rankled over the decision by Rogers Sportsnet to call this week's World Cup at Whistler, B.C., off a monitor from Toronto.
But, at the CBC, the message to Alpine Canada Alpin is: We would have provided full on-site coverage if given the opportunity.
The CBC applied to be the host broadcaster of the World Cup event, but was turned down because of a contractual agreement in which World Cup rights holder Infront Sports employs a European-based company, Host Broadcasting Services, to cover the races.
Denied the host broadcasting job, the CBC said no thanks to providing domestic coverage, so Alpine Canada turned to Sportsnet.
At the CBC, the feeling is that host broadcasting contracts for events in Canada should be filled by Canadian companies.
Outside the box
CITY-TV in Toronto will air a March 2 Toronto Blue Jays-Cincinnati Reds exhibition game with an "unconventional sports broadcast team."
That should immediately raise a red flag.
Involved in the broadcast with be news anchor Gord Martineau, sports reporters Kathryn Humphreys and Hugh Burrill, Jennifer Valentyne of Breakfast Television and Barb DiGiulio of The Fan 590.
- Hockey Night in Canada pulled in its second largest Game 2 audience of the season last Saturday, 1.052 million for Edmonton Oilers-Vancouver Canucks, up 50 per cent from the season average of 703,000. The Game 1 three-way split, Philadelphia Flyers-Montreal Canadiens, Boston Bruins-Toronto Maple Leafs, New Jersey Devils-Ottawa Senators drew 1.197 million.
- TSN produced its second largest auto racing audience for the Daytona 500 on Sunday: 554,000 viewers. The most watched race was last year's Daytona: 568,000.
