Take the cited Santanio Holmes touchdown as an example.  Instead of an official making a call on the field, we were subject to minutes of review which broadcasters fill with speculation if there was a hair-width of space between one foot and the ground.  It was obvious to me that the official made the best call with the visual information available and the time on the review was unnecessary.  Since this was not a blatant blown or missed call by an official, the review process actually suppresses the celebration as well as delaying it.  I appreciate my memories pre-replay of many touchdowns scored late or last minute goals where you knew it counted if it was not immediately waved off.  I would not trade catches waved off or goals disallowed for teams I supported if it meant replacing it with a long drawn out review process.

Regarding The Atlantic article on NFL broadcasts, it shows to many Canadians the NFL broadcast production is not just about the quantity of cameras, technology and money they throw at it.  The whole televison crews are specialists for broadcasting football, from the camera operators to directors to the commentators.  Using all specialists for their broadcasts is easy not just because of the money in the television contracts, but because of the economies of scale.  In Canada, in an eight to ten team league, and one or two broadcasters you are not going to to see the hours of coverage needed to develop specialists.  It shows in the camera work and direction of CFL games.  It was worse when the CBC had the broadcast rights as their camera operators from across the country would work across all kinds of genres, from sports to news.  Hockey on the other hand does not require as much skill to broadcast.  Nothing has worked better than the pan up and down the ice method that has been in use since the first televised hockey broadcast over 50 years ago.

‘Riders Get Holmes, Getzlaf for Armstead

My first feeling when reading the news that the ‘Riders had re-aquired RB Corey Holmes was not surprise, then “What the…” when I read it was WR Jason Armstead heading to Hamilton. Finally, when I read the whole story and saw the ‘Riders also acquired Regina-born WR Chris Getzlaf I was left scratching my head. Initially, I was grasping as to the reasoning behind the trade for both sides.

After letting it sink in, I’ve come to the following conclusions. First, the primary players in the deal, Armstead and Holmes, seem to defy reason on the surface. While Armstead is not tearing up the league in receiving, he is competing for the ball with WR‘s Matt Dominguez and D.J. Flick who are having outstanding seasons, while in returns, one TD return and minimal yards probably has the ‘Riders thinking they can improve in that area. Holmes just happens to be a return specialist. The ‘Riders cannot believe they can offer Holmes more time in the backfield behind the RB Wes Cates/FB Chris Szarka tandem than the zero time he received in Hamilton, so they must want Holmes for his return ability. Hamilton on the other hand is in need for quality experienced receivers and since Holmes was an unused talent behind RB Jesse Lumsden, they sought to correct the error of last years trade that sent Holmes to Hamilton so the ‘Riders could have the first two picks in the Ottawa Renegades dispersal draft and take QB Kerry Joseph and Armstead. Saskatchewan, tired of fleecing Hamilton, decided to provide Armstead an opportunity where he may catch more balls, and having WR Yo Murphy coming off the injured list soon allowed them to make this move going into their bye week.

The Chris Getzlaf add-on part of the trade is more difficult to understand. Sure, the ‘Riders had a desire to acquire home-boy Getzlaf. Getzlaf, though, has not played for Hamilton this year, spending the whole season on the practice roster. Practice roster players are free to be acquired by any team for no compensation as long as they are placed on the active roster immediately by the acquiring club. So the ‘Riders could have gotten Getzlaf for free if they put them on their active roster. If the ‘Riders do not dress Getzlaf and leave him on their practice roster, he is left open to poaching by other clubs. If he wanted to avoid the home town scrutiny, he could go back to Hamilton, whose system he knows, and dress as a special teams player. As a Canadian, Hamilton gave up on a top prospect while the Roughriders strengthened their Canadian talent, a signature of GM Eric Tillman’s teams.

Wicked Weather, the CBC and Scoring

The whole country seemed to be abuzz this morning about last night’s football game between the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Edmonton Eskimos. With approximately 14 minutes left in the game and the Eskimos leading 32-27, a torrential thunderstorm forced the teams off the field and shortly after a lightning strike left the stadium without power. While not the first time this has occurred, it is rare enough that there does not appear to be a standard procedure. With a late start already (10 PM Eastern) and the outage occurring at 12:35 AM Eastern, the CBC first went to alternative programming. There was no message on the screen about the situation, nobody to cut to in the studio (the panel was located at the stadium) and after 25 minutes started their scheduled movie, The Good Thief, on time at 11 PM Mountain (1 AM Eastern).

What was a very exciting game before the outage became all the more interesting due to the weather. It was unclear whether the CBC would return to broadcast the end of the game if it resumed. For those with local radio or an Internet connection, rumours were abound about the game being resumed on Sunday or Oct. 26 in Edmonton or on the verge of being called with Edmonton declared the winner. After about 45 minutes the power was restored and the lightning moved away from the local area, allowing the game to be resumed after a 55 minute delay. For the local market at least, CBC returned to cover the end of the game, which finally ended shortly after 12 AM local time (2 AM Eastern).

First indication this morning that something went wrong was an annoucncement on CFL.ca that the final hour of the game would be available on the CBC Monday morning at 12:30 AM local time in all markets. Following that was a statement from CFL Commissioner Mark Cohon regarding the disrupted CBC broadcast. It was clear that the CBC had screwed up somehow. Perhaps they did not return to the game in all markets.

Only this evening do I understand the full extent of the CBC‘s actions. The CBC not only did not return to the game in all markets, they returned to the game only in the Saskatchewan market and only after the game executive producer convinced a mid-level executive to broadcast the end of the game in Saskatchewan after she initially refused to air it in any market. Calls by CBC Sports staff to Sports head Scott Moore, who could reverse the decision, went unanswered because Moore had shut his cell phone off and staff did not have his home number due to a recent move.

There are so many things wrong with this series of events it is hard to know where to start. In a nutshell if CBC staff making decisions know nothing about their properties (Saskatchewan Roughrider fans are populous across the country due to province depopulation) or common sense (how many people are waiting for the end of the game compared to how many are staying up to watch the movie?) then they do not deserve to have sports properties. Thankfully, TSN has all the games starting next year, but that does not help fans this year who missed seeing the Roughriders comeback to win the game 39-32.

Postscript

After stories this week that CFL scoring has not increased much over last year despite rule changes, the league pulls off two high-scoring, exciting finish games. Going into the week the average points per game was 43.8. After a 90 and 71 point games in Week 8, the points per game average shot up to 50.1, an increase of 6.3 points per game. At the same time the average margin of victory dropped from 13.5 to 12.9. Unfortunately, 8:00 PM local starts for both games this week involving only Western clubs combined with the unfortunate CBC decision means that many people in the East did not get an opportunity to see the CFL at its best so far this year.

CFL Gains

A first glance at the deal shows a substantial gain in rights fees for the CFL over the last five-year deal. However, that is not the only way to judge a contract. There are other reasons the league signed with TSN during the exclusive rights negotiation period.

• The deal is believed to be worth $75-80 million over the five-year term, or $15-$16 million per year. This is reportedly an increase of $30-$35 million from the previous five-year contract, or a 67% increase.
• A solid TV contract with a substantial increase from the previous makes the league and franchises more attractive to potential advertisers and investors.
• The CFL gets a strong, sports-orientated partner for all their broadcasts and new media offerings (Internet, mobile and video-on-demand). This consistency will help improve their brand and image.
• The CFL is guaranteed all of their games will be broadcast, which happened in 2006 for the first time since 1989. TSN plans on adopting another standard night for football, and scheduling will likely be much more flexible with TSN compared to the CBC.

CFL Concessions

Without question, the CFL did not pull the wool over the eyes of TSN. The league gave up additional rights and properties in this new deal.

• The CFL negotiated only with TSN as the previous rights holder during the exclusive rights negotiation period. Without taking it to the open market, the league does not know what other players would have paid. Unconfirmed sources suggested a CBC-Global bid would have come in at $20 million a year.
• By signing an exclusive deal with TSN, the Grey Cup will not be shown on CBC for the first time since 1952. This breaking of tradition is more a sentimental issue for CBC and tradition supporters.
• The pay cable TSN network reaches approximately 8.8 million Canadian households, where the free over-the-air broadcaster CBC reaches approximately 13 million households. The CFL states they were more interested in the quality (sport fans) of households rather than the quantity.
• An exclusive deal with TSN could result in no other bidders being at the table at the next negotiations, taking away any leverage the CFL has to get market value for their TV rights. While the CBC may decide not to bid if their sports department does not exist in five years, continued strong CFL numbers are likely to raise the interest of other players, like Sportsnet or Global, enough that TSN will not be able to make a take it or leave it offer.
• Without wording in the contract to pay for rights on a number of games basis, or increase the yearly value with the addition of franchises, the annual yearly return to clubs will be reduced by expansion, causing franchise fees to be higher than the risk of starting a new franchise allows in order to soften the loss to other clubs, which will potentially inhibit expansion.
• There will be a change in blackout policy, calling for the blackout of an unknown number games across the whole league. Individual clubs will not be responsible for deciding to blackout or lift the blackout on games, the decision will be at a league level, which may mean it will be tied to a formula like percentage of tickets sold so many hours before game time.
• The league turned over new media rights after investing time with other partners to develop them the last few years. Locking up these rights in a five year deal eliminates any revenue growth potential from these burgeoning revenue streams.

Other Factors, Notes and Speculation

Other information about the agreement.

• The CBC has first rights to the Grey Cup if TSN decides to broadcast the game on conventional broadcast TV. TSN insists they intend to broadcast the Grey Cup on TSN only.
• The deal is for 77 CFL games (72 regular season, 4 playoff and the Grey Cup) per season with an eight team league. It is unknown if the rights fee increases with the addition of franchises, but it is speculated that it does not. If not, TSN will receive an additional nine games for the same fee if expansion takes place in Ottawa for the first year of the contract, 2008, as is the league’s goal. While it is not as likely a tenth team would be added before the end of the agreement, such an action would give TSN 95 games for the price of 77.
• The CBC CFL broadcast crew has been decimated the last few years with the loss of primary play-by-play man Chris Cuthbert (laid off due to NHL lockout) and host Brian Williams, who both ended up at TSN. Without replacing quality with quality, the CBC left themselves exposed with only the tradition on their side. The CFL instead went with TSN, which will give them the best crews to broadcast the CFL playoffs and Grey Cup.

Analysis

There are some parts of the new deal that raise an eyebrow, however the CFL fully accepts it took some risks in signing the deal, but they believe these risks will pay off for them in the future.

The major risks undertaken by the CFL are:

1. Moving to a cable-only broadcaster for all their games, including the showcases of the playoffs and Grey Cup, could backfire if viewer numbers drop and do not recover over the term of the agreement. Exposure of their game still trumps the contract value for the CFL. The CFL nor TSN expects this to happen.
2. Not waiting to involve other bidders, the CFL signed a deal when there was no competing offers which may have better reflected the value of the property. This shows the league was very interested in the TSN partnership, not just the money value, and did not see a benefit to a continued splitting of rights with holders who showed no interest in the game.
3. By eliminating CBC from football for five years, they may not be around to bid next time, effectively removing a bidder in a small Canadian market. The CFL again seems to be happy to sever their relationship with CBC due to the decline of the relationship that goes back a decade.

All of these risks, while they have potential to backfire, seem manageable. The CFL looks to step up their presence, image and brand with this deal, and for a niche player such as their league is, this type of deal makes sense.

Questions

There still are unanswered questions about this new television deal. The facts surrounding these details may never come out, but that does not stop me from wondering.

• Is there any language in the contract to increase the value with the addition of franchises, and therefore the number of games available for broadcast? If not, why not? With expansion to Ottawa on the burner right now and Halifax a serious candidate if they win the rights for the 2014 Commonwealth Games (decided in 2007, with a stadium potentially ready by 2010) plus the value of bringing in these additional areas of the country into the league, the broadcasters stand with everything to gain.
• Why was the CBC given first right of refusal to conventionally broadcast the Grey Cup if TSN decided to do so? If you want to make a new deal, why not sever all ties with the past? If TSN decided after the first year of the deal that due to declined viewership they wanted to move the game to conventional TV, CBC could snap it up and throw together a poor quality broadcast. It seems a TSN crew broadcast on CTV would make the most sense, but CBC potentially stands in the way of that.

Do you have an insight on the deal? Did I miss something? Leave a comment here.

References

‘End of an Era’: CBC Loses Rights To CFL – Dec. 21, 2006 Ottawa Citizen

TSN, RDS Go Solo In 2008 – Dec. 21, 2006 National Post

Grey Cup moves to TSN in new deal – Dec. 20, 2006 globesports.com

CBC is out, TSN is in – Dec. 21, 2006 Ottawa Sun

CBC out as CFL opts for TSN – Dec. 21, 2006 Toronto Star