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CBC wants Habs on TV more often

The Canadian Press

Latest comment posted at 8:42 AM EDT 22/04/08

Network hopes to revive weekly Canadiens broadcast on Hockey Night in Canada ...Read the full article

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  1. Paul I from Rochester NY, United States writes: Excellent idea to capture a team that is on the rise, exciting to watch, and has, in my opinion ,the next big thing in goaltending. I will definitely renew my NHL package now. I am a Leaf fan of 47 years but I have always admired and respected the tradition of the Canadiens. They have earned more exposure. The Leafs and Sens have earned less exposure. The logic is hard to argue with.
  2. alex just a canadian from Canada writes: all due respect to the cbc, and i apoligize to habs fans, but when they bailed on them a few years ago and now want back in because the leafs can't come close to getting the same audience numbers. I say go bark up another tree or get ready to pay a premium if you want them televised. I have and had to pay to seem those televised now its your turn.
  3. Bill H from Canada writes: I sure as hell don't want to watch the whiners from montreal.
  4. Tom Henderson from Canada writes: While I check the scores occassionally, usually via the web, having the Habs on the tube just gives me a reason to watch a DVD. There's a reason the Leafs have dominated National broadcasts and its because the CBC makes more money showing the buds. If th refferees don't interfere the habs will be gone for the season soon.
  5. R Miller from Halifax, Canada writes: CBC Sports/HNIC are clearly in a self-inflicted predicament...

    This network barely beat the lowest ranked network, Sportsnet, on a recent viewer survey while being voted as having inferior Sports news and equally bad overall quality...

    RDS is also now outdrawing CBC in terms of national viewership in the Habs games for this playoff year even though the CBC is carrying the games too.

    Many Hab fans are angry that the CBC wrote their team off years ago while non-Leafs fans in the rest of the country are equally angry by being forced to watch the pathos that has been the Maple Leafs in the last few years...

    It would appear that an increasing number of Hab fans and hockey fans outside of Toronto don't even want to watch HNIC anymore even when given the opportunity to watch a team other than the Leafs in the East...

    Cheers.
  6. R Miller from Halifax, Canada writes: BTW I should have added this to my post above.... For the benefit of those Torontonians (on these threads) that believe that all Canadian taxpayers will continue to willingly fund Hockey Night in Toronto, dream on !
  7. Andrew Perry from halifax, Canada writes: I'm pretty sure William Houston had the same story last year,with essentially the same quote from the same spokes-weasel. We all know how that turned out. Perhaps he could reprise that one for us.
    No one is demanding that HNIC abandon coverage of the Fleas, we all need some comedy in our lives after all; we just want some consideration as well. HNIC is a property of a Public Broadcaster, with a mandate to serve the whole populace, and CBC/HNIC is failing in that. Even the viewership argument seems faulty, the flea-market in Southern ON is large enough to dramatically skew the national numbers, and if Mr Houston's columns are to be believed, HNIC's now three largest audiences have all been for Canadiens games that did not involve the Fleas.
    Last Saturday's numbers were no surprise to those of us who, while Anglophone , have switched our hockey viewership to RDS, I just wonder if CBC/HNIC has even a remote idea of how deep RDS is penetrating into the Anglo Canadian hockey consciousness.
  8. David H from Toronto, Canada writes: With all due respect, I think you've got it backwards, R Miller. Obviously the CBC has showed more Leaf games for economic reasons. There are more Leaf fans and thus viewers... and thus revenue. If theres going to be any "subsidizing" taking place, it will be on the backs of Torontonians (or tax-paying Leaf fans) when HNIC starts showing more of the other smaller-market Canadian teams, (disproportionate to revenue, which is simply a function of viewership).

    This being said, I do believe in the concept of a national broadcaster, and I do support the idea of trying to reach all markets and not just the biggest.
  9. Seb D from Ottawa, Canada writes: Considering the numbers that RDS is putting up for Habs playoff games (something in the neighbourhood of 2.7 million, and that's in French only), I guess the CBC is salivating at potential revenue there.

    Reality check for Leafs fans. There are teams outside Toronto that can draw viewers.
  10. Sober Second Thought from Toronto, Canada writes: Thank god! I am so sick of the Laffs and the CBC's approach to them every saturday night that I have started watching their webstream broadcasts of other games in Ottawa or Montreal.
  11. a fox from Toronto, Canada writes: About time!

    Hopefully Bob Cole will not be doing any of the play-by-play. He's brutal and has such a Leafs’ bias. He should have retired years ago&8230;
  12. Proud Canadian from Canada writes: If they put the Habs on the National Network every single Saturday night, keep the Sens for the Ottawa Valley and the Leafs for the GTA only, that would be great in my books. All I would have to do is get my Bell Express statement sent to a P O Box in the Ottawa area, all would be great. I totally agree, take the Leafs off the National, if you want to watch them, move to the Nation or pay like me and get it in another fashion.
  13. John Stevenson from Buffalo, United States writes: I'm so sick of the Toronto Maple Leaf losers! They do not deserve to be on CBC's National network. The Montreal Canadians have earned the right for National Network exposure and so have the Ottawa Senators. Southern Ontario fans deserve exciting hockey...even Leafs fans can no longer stand to watch their inadequate efforts....a decade of depravation is more than enough.
  14. Ian m from New York (via Vancouver), United States writes: Saying that the Leafs will draw better in the Rest of Canada is the ultimate self-fulfilling prophecy. Of course they will if you never show any other teams - complete Bull perpetuated by Laffs nation.

    In fact the Habs outdrew the Leafs this year - end of story. There are habs fans from coast to coast (or simply fans of good hockey) and they are sick of watching Sideshow Bob and the whining Leafs.

    Too late for CBC though, they hitched themselves to the Leaf wagon and have gone over the cliff with it. Canadians are discovering what it's like not to watch Taxpayer-funded leafs TV, and they like it.

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