Closing Time

So the Olympics are now over and the Flame has been extinguished. It was a great 17 days of athletics and a great show of national pride by all of Canada from Coast to Coast. You would usually see an outpouring of support by the US given similar circumstances but it was nice to see the passion that all the people in the streets wearing red and white HBC fashions. They might actually be the big winners of the games. The Olympic apparel was stunning (I know how that sounds, and no I am not trying to play Mr. Blackwell), but it was very well designed and made all of our athletes not only look like a winning team but made us look professional. When the average person is clamoring for the same stuff and not being able to get it because it is in such high demand and sold out says a lot.

Back to sports...The, I don’t want to say fringe sports, lets call them niche sports, managed to showcase themselves and their sports in front of the world. It is too bad that it will more then likely be 4 more years before we get excited for the luge or 4 man bobsleigh again. Similar to the Summer Olympics where people who have no knowledge or interest in gymnastics become super fans of the sport and 16 year old’s become bigger then professional baseball players. It is almost funny how we get so excited for people we have never heard of in sports that we never follow just because they are wearing the Maple Leaf. I guess the old adage is true... You play for the crest on the front not the name on the back.

It is almost funny that a bunch of media outlets report that we are expected to medal in whatever sport or discipline and if the athlete doesn’t perform we are disappointed. If someone we haven’t heard of comes out of nowhere and are successful they become the pride of a nation and morph instantly into rock stars.

We were also treated to great coverage by the "Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium" who offered some 4800 total hours of programming on CTV, TSN, RDS and RIS, APTN and Rogers Media’s Omni Television, Rogers Sportsnet, OLN and on radio on the Fan 590. The commentators were all pretty good and even Jamie Campbell did a good job in becoming the voice of the ski hill at Cypress Mountain. Canada was treated with live events when they happened. NBC in the USA have taken a lot of heat for their plan of holding events on tape delay for prime time and other events on MSNBC and CNBC (which are not available to a lot of viewers). In an age where now is almost too late, tape delayed sports is not a good model to continue with. Imagine the 3pm Gold Medal Hockey game between Canada and the USA being held until 8pm est.

See you in London in 2012 and Sochi, Russia in 2014

My TV Was Hijacked By Canadian Government Pirates

So the Super Bowl is over for another year, the TV event of the year is over, but there is still an issue that needs to be touched upon and that is the TV coverage itself. Being in Canada there is an issue that arises and it is usually forgotten not long after the big game and that is the CRTC regulations that switch the feed that we get here. The game was shown in the US by NBC, the pregame started early on the network and continued through until the end, however what we got was NBC via CTV. CTV is a fine network but if I want to watch NBC I should be able to watch NBC. I have a satellite dish and even pay extra to have a second NBC western NBC and to not be able to watch it is annoying at best.

Part of the fun of the Super Bowl is getting to watch the new commercials that command in excess of $2.5-$2.9 million dollars for a 30 second spot. When, because of the switch of the feed we in Canada miss out on a good portion of them. One redeeming factor is that with the internet now we can see these online after but that is a minor victory. When I am watching the game on a clear TV maybe I don’t want to watch these commercials on a smaller computer screen at a lower quality later on. Maybe I don’t want to search to find this content and there is a pretty good chance that without a list I don’t know what to look for, which companies are advertising and where I can find the best quality ones.
Possibly the most aggravating issue is that the Canadian commercials that we get are Canadian Tire and Tim Hortons on a continuous loop. When they aren’t good in the beginning, repetition doesn’t make them better.

We were able to avoid this issue with the Olympics because CBC and NBC had in dependant coverage and their own crews (I understand the economics of the simulcast but it is all about choice) so it was separate and we were better for it as we had more choice

This isn’t just a Super Bowl issue as it happens not only for simulcast sporting events but for drama’s and sitcoms that are shown at the same time on both the US and Canadian channels. It is good that there are standards to keep Canadian culture and content on the airways but when you are paying for one thing having at least a choice would be nice.