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The Canadian sports viewers' relationship with the Toronto Raptors has been largely unrequited.
The viewers get teased one year, let down the next, but never really go away.
To that point, the Raptors' regular-season audiences on TSN, Rogers Sportsnet and the Score showed growth for the second consecutive year, despite a somewhat disappointing season.
TSN averaged 164,000 viewers in 21 games for a 6-per-cent increase over last season. Sportsnet had an average of 150,000 in 12 games, up 13 per cent. At the Score, the average was 119,000 for 30 games, an increase of 7 per cent.
The CBC, in its first year as a Raptors broadcaster, topped them all with 181,000 viewers for seven Sunday afternoon telecasts.
David Errington, the Score's senior vice-president, is bullish on the Raptors and basketball generally. With TSN and Sportsnet focused on the NHL, the Score's strategy is to “own basketball,” he said.
In addition to the Raptors, the Score has acquired non-Raptors NBA game rights, previously belonging to Sportsnet, for 2008-09. The network also airs U.S. and Canadian college basketball.
“It's a property that fits in well with our young, urban demo,” Errington said.
The problem is that young and urban, as it applies to the Raptors and the NBA, is largely Toronto based.
Scott Moore, head of CBC Sports, believes the Raptors have the potential to become “Canada's basketball team,” but, for that to occur, they need to rise to higher level.
“They had a good year, but not as good as they had hoped,” Moore said. “What they have to do is make a good playoff run at some point. I think they can in the next two years, which was one of the reasons we got involved.”
In 2001-02, the Raptors averaged 191,000 viewers a game on TSN, after advancing to the NBA's Eastern Conference semi-final the previous spring.
That sort of progress, and more, will be needed to bring the team's regular-season audience average up to numbers approaching 200,000.
Two-year deal
The NHL is a few days away from announcing a two-year contract extension with NBC that will keep hockey broadcasts on the network through 2009-10.
The second year of the extension would allow NBC to market its 2010 Olympic hockey coverage by airing NHL games in January leading up to the February tournament.
NBC's ratings have been up and down. The high point was the Jan. 1 outdoor game at Buffalo, which earned a 2.2 national rating (percentage of U.S. households tuned in).
On the first weekend of the playoffs, ratings were down from last year. However, in 2007, the telecasts did not go against the Masters.
Nashville Predators-Detroit Red Wings earned a 1.0 overnight rating (percentage of potential U.S. households tuned in), compared with 1.2 a year ago. The Sunday telecast (Philadelphia Flyers-Washington Capitals) earned a 1.0, down from 1.2.
NBC views hockey as an affordable major-league property that has growth potential and also appeals to a relatively high-end consumer.
The impact of Pierre McGuire and Mike Milbury on the NBC broadcast shouldn't be underestimated. The two commentators, who team up during intermissions, have created a buzz. They've received good reviews and also incited controversy.
Last Sunday, during the Flyers' win over the Capitals, Milbury referred to the Caps as the Craps, and then called them the Crapitals.
Milbury later apologized to Capitals owner Ted Leonsis. He said he misspoke the first time and made light of the mistake the second.
Milbury did not misspeak when he said of Caps star Alex Ovechkin: “If it looks like a dog, barks like a dog, it is a dog.”Breaking the news
TSN did good work covering the dismissal of Vancouver Canucks general manager Dave Nonis. On Sunday, insider Darren Dreger led with speculation of Nonis's departure and how it could have a negative impact on the Canucks' ability to sign highly rated free agent Fabian Brunnstrom. On Monday night, TSN broke the story. Dreger reached Nonis for a reaction. Bob McKenzie and Milbury provided analysis.
- The CBC drew 1.183 million for the Ottawa Senators-Pittsburgh Penguins game on Monday. The second game, Minnesota Wild-Colorado Avalanche, had an audience of 565,000. TSN's Detroit Red Wings-Nashville Predators telecast was watched by 277,000.
- CBC commentator Don Cherry's opinion of New York Rangers agitator Sean Avery: “A real jerk.”
- In most of Ontario, Leafs TV will air the home games of the AHL Toronto Marlies' series against San Antonio Rampage starting tonight at 7:30 p.m. (ET).
