I'll put it this way, I'm in Sask we have not had a blackout here for years that I can remember ( I have had to listen on the radio quite often tho do to work)....would you like to start them again? If so see ya later I will not support a league that treats it's fans like that. I have disowned football for years because of blackouts... now that I can actually watch the games....guess what I'm a fan again. Take that away & I'm outa here, why would I support it if I can't even watch it.
You can't force everyone to come the games, you have to do better at selling the live experience not alienate the fan.
The CFL does better when there is more TV exposure. Fewer to no blackouts the last number of years and the attendance overall has been quite good in most markets. I don't think blackouts encourage many people whatsoever to buy tickets. If its not available to watch, diehards will turn to the radio, the casual fan that you want to turn into a diehard will look for something else and eventually will stop being a fan. When you're trying to continue to build the fan base you can't go back to a policy that encourages apathy towards the league.
Teams did the tradeoff for the blackouts a few years ago. It was an offer to give more TV revenue to the teams to make up for the loss of fans. TSN wants to broadcast as many games as possible, if they blackout a team with a large viewing population that is a loss of advertising revenue for the network. They would gladly hand over more money to teams rather than have games blacked out and lose revenue.
How about the CFL start by just being fair with the bidding for the contract. 5 years ago CBC was completely excluded from bidding on the contract thus pretty much automatically awarding it to TSN. No explanation was ever given as to why CBC wasn’t allowed to bid but that needs to change if they want to appear as being a fair league. Personally I think the league would gain more American fans because the last time it was on network Canadian TV I was able to watch on TV here in the states. But…for the last 5 years I have had to watch on the internet because TSN charges way too much for any U.S. network to have any rights to show games.
I would LOVE to see the TV ratings if the Super Bowl was on TSN, and the Grey Cup was on CTV.
THAT IS THE WAY IT SHOULD BE. We live in Canada, yet Canadian Television will only air the Super Bowl from the USA?
It wasn't until CTV started airing the Super Bowl that the Super Bowl started getting higher ratings than the Grey Cup again.
However, on TSN those same NFL games during the regular season get slaughtered in ratings by the CFL on TSN. So maybe our answer is there, if the Super Bowl got 8.15 million than we could easily get 10 million, especially when it was the 100th Grey Cup.
To the person who has all the answers on going to a bar or a friends house. You gotta think, people just aren't gonna do it because you came up with this exceptional idea. They're gonna sit on their dam couch and if they can't watch it before work on Monday they AREN'T GOING TO GO OUT ON A SUNDAY!
Next year we should have the Super Bowl on TSN and Grey Cup on CTV and see what happens. Super Bowl ratings were never this high until CTV. The Grey Cup used to average 1 million more viewers than the Super Bowl every year in the past decade before CTV Super Bowls.
Excellent point.
As good as TSN has been and yes in fact they have been great for the league, I can’t get out of my mind the possibility how the mother CTV/Bell network has purposely kept the CFL “down” by having them on the cable only TSN while “propping up” the No Funners on the CTV side?
Welcome back benji.
Here we are again discussing the new TV deal and as we get closer to same it is even more critical for the league to hit the mother load on the amount of the contract and especially viewing the games.
Exactly, look at how its viewed when Conan goes from a big network like NBC and the Tonight Show, to TBS (which is a HUGE cable network) and its considered a downgrade if anyone in the United States has to go from network TV to cable tv. Its always been that way and this is the first time its really come up in Canada.
There definitely is some kind of agenda at the CTV to keep the CFL down, I totally agree. I mean why else would a network take something that got higher ratings the year before (The Grey Cup) throw it on a cable network and pick up the Super Bowl which had lower ratings than the Grey Cup and throw it on Network TV. Doesn’t that sound a lot like moving the Winnipeg Jets to Phoenix but Bettman did it anyways type thing? If you catch my drift at all. It really pisses me off. I’m 28 now and I’ve been an avid follower of these forums since 2002 or earlier.
There’s definitely something up with this whole thing, I don’t know if CTV thought they could maybe land the first Toronto NFL Tv contract if they actually thought they were gonna get a team, or what. But we’re on to you CTV and your horse manure!
The CFL has never had higher ratings, since TSN has taken over the exclusive rights. Since 2008 the ratings have gone up from under 300,000 to around 720,000 this past season. So why change what works? football fans watch TSN for sports and if you are a Football fan then you subscribe to TSN. There is no proof that putting the CFL on CTV or CBC would increase viewers.
If you don't can't get TSN you are not a sports fan. If you like CFL football you will go out and get TSN . The number of people that can't get access to TSN would be so few and wouldn't make one bit of difference to the CFL ratings.
If you can't get TSN on you cable or satellite you can always watch TSN on the INTERNET.
Sure maybe the Grey Cup should be on Ctv but i would not say they would easily get 10 million if they have it on Ctv and its not much better then Tsn i think that would raise some questions.
If the ratings on Tsn were awful for the Cfl you could maybe say its an agenda but with what a good job Tsn has done with the Cfl i don’t think we can say its a agenda.
How do you explain the last time the CBC broadcast the Grey Cup in 2007 only 3 million viewers? The fact is more people watch the CFL and the Grey Cup on TSN and depending on who is playing the GC ratings average between 4 million and 6 million.
Those who think Bell is conspiring to keep the CFL down by putting it on TSN -- seriously? Bell is on record that the CFL is its second-biggest property after the NHL.
There are several reasons why the Grey Cup is shown on TSN and the Super Bowl is shown on CTV, including:
By showing the Grey Cup on TSN, CTV can continue simulcasting the entertainment programs it normally runs on Sunday nights. That maximizes its commercial revenue for the night. If CTV is the leading conventional network on GC night and TSN of course has the highest ratings among cable networks, that is a win-win for Bell. If the GC was on CTV, there might be a marginal increase in viewers vs. the number who watch the GC on TSN, and a marginal increase in viewers over the number who watch CTV entertainment programming, but who would watch whatever TSN shows while the Grey Cup is on? If CTV ratings go up but TSN ratings go way down, there's no win for Bell.
CTV shows the Super Bowl so that it can simulcast with the U.S. network, allowing its commercials to be shown on all stations showing the game in Cda, including U.S. channels. That maximizes CTV's revenue. As far as I know, TSN and other cable networks are not allowed to substitute their commercials on U.S. channels. If the SB was on TSN, tons of Cdns would watch it on U.S. station to see the much-hyped American commercials, reducing commercial revenue for Bell.
When the Super Bowl is on, the other networks essentially give up hope of winning the ratings that night so their programming is not competitive. Obviously that is not the case when the Grey Cup is on, so if CTV showed the Grey Cup it would miss out on showing U.S. shows with potential for big ratings.
With your theory you still have not accounted for the reason why TSN can’t for one GC Sunday then simulcast the game to include the CTV side where there is more viewership and especially all across the country with the many stations?
Also, with more viewers on CTV and not only for the GC, but all of the playoffs, naturally the ad revenues will increase.
I still have not heard a practical reason for not at least showing the GC and playoffs on CTV.
There is also an arguement to be made how one game per week, let’s say Friday Night Football or Sudnay afternoon could not be shown on CTV?
With your theory you still have not accounted for the reason why TSN can't for one GC Sunday then simulcast the game to include the CTV side where there is more viewership and especially all across the country with the many stations?
Also, with more viewers on CTV and not only for the GC, but all of the playoffs, naturally the ad revenues will increase.
I still have not heard a practical reason for not at least showing the GC and playoffs on CTV.
There is also an arguement to be made how one game per week, let's say Friday Night Football or Sudnay afternoon could not be shown on CTV?
Why would they simulcast to the CTV side when TSN has excellent viewership? There are millions of people out there that are NOT football fans and want to watch something else. CTV has done their homework and know that putting the game on CTV will not give them any significant gain in viewership and they don't want to lose the non-sports fan that watches regular CTV programming.
Before TSN took over the Grey Cup in 07, CBC viewerwhip for the Grey Cup was 3 million.
I just don’t understand the argument for showing games on CTV, football fans watch TSN and subscribe to it. If you don’t subscribe to TSN on cable or satelite and you don’t have the internet you arenot the type of person who would watch football.
There isn’t this huge crowd of football fans that can’t watch football because they don’t have cable/satellite or the internet.
For the Grey Cup this is Canadiana and not only football fans, who tune in religously every week, there are people who watch who have not seen a game all year.
It’s an event, so therefore the network has to maximize its exposure possibility.
Just like the Super Bowl.
A poster previously mentioned what would happen if the two leagues were in reverse order, with the GC on CTV and SB on TSN.
We know the answer, the GC would have probably a million more viewers plus.
Because (as stated above, and several times in the past) they get more viewers with two separate shows on two networks than they would with the game on both. Believe it or not, even when we are all transfixed by the Grey Cup, there are hundreds of thousands of Camadians (maybe into the millions) who would rather be watching shows of the Desperate Housewives ilk. CTV would like to grab both audiences. If it simulcast the Grey Cup with TSN, it would lose all those other viewers completely.
You have heard practical reasons, AT, I think you just don’t want to listen to them.