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| TSN Unveils 2008/09 Lineup |
| Posted
on Tuesday, August 19, 2008 - 05:52 PM |
Two groundbreaking broadcast agreements with the NHL and Canadian Curling Association, every single CFL game, and the ‘Drive For Five’ as the World Juniors returns to Canada firmly puts TSN at the top of its game, as TSN delivers an unparalleled slate of sports programming for the 2008/09 season.
TSN continues to be the overwhelming television destination for sports fans across the country. In the recent 2007/08 Roper Reports Canada national survey, TSN was the top-ranked network among sports viewers in English Canada for Channel Most Enjoy Watching, Best Channel for Watching Sports, Best Sports News, and Best Overall Quality of Sports Coverage. TSN has consistently been voted the No. 1 source for sports since the survey’s inception in 1998, reinforcing TSN’s position as Canada’s Sports Leader.
Leading the way is TSN’s ongoing commitment to High Definition. TSN HD offers more sports coverage and more games/events in High Definition than any other network in Canada. TSN HD’s comprehensive lineup includes SportsCentre, NHL, CFL, NFL, NBA, International Hockey, Toronto Blue Jays Baseball, NASCAR, IndyCar Series, Formula One, grand slam golf, grand slam tennis, Champions League soccer, HBO Championship boxing, and Molson That’s Hockey.
The 2008/09 season is filled with a tremendous amount of exciting news for TSN. Below are highlights of the network’s jam-packed sports lineup for the upcoming year:
Hockey Lives Here
TSN is the home of everything hockey with a new multi-year, multiplatform NHL deal, and complete coverage of the World Juniors and Men’s World Hockey Championship, which both continue to achieve ratings milestones.
•NHL on TSN –TSN has secured a landmark six-year broadcast and digital rights agreement with the NHL that provides TSN with more coverage of Canadian teams than ever before. The deal, which begins with the upcoming 2008/09 season, delivers to TSN 70 nationally-televised regular season games each year, with all games featuring at least one Canadian team. TSN will also televise the first three rounds of the Stanley Cup® Playoffs, and for the first time, coverage may include a Canadian team in the post-season. As part of the deal, TSN acquires a suite of digital rights including broadband, wireless and video-on-demand, as well as continued exclusivity of Wednesday Night Hockey and exclusive Canadian coverage of the NHL Entry Draft and NHL Draft Lottery Special. The vast majority of NHL games and programming will be available in High Definition on TSN HD.
TSN’s relationship with the National Hockey League dates back to 1987. Since then, TSN has aggressively worked to grow its NHL telecasts to marquee status. Audience levels have increased 32% in the last five seasons, going from 311,000 viewers in 2002/03 to a season-ending national average audience of 410,000 viewers in 2007/08. Audience levels have also increased 30% over the past five seasons in the key A25-54 demo coveted by advertisers. The audience growth caps an ambitious, long-term broadcast, marketing and promotions strategy for the NHL on TSN, which garnered two Gemini Awards last year for excellence in sports broadcasting.
TSN's NHL broadcast schedule
•IIHF World Junior Championship – Will Team Canada be able to complete The Drive for Five on home soil? TSN will be on hand for multiplatform coverage of the 2009 World Juniors in Ottawa, as Canada goes for its fifth straight gold medal at the annual hockey holiday tradition in late December/early January. TSN will provide live coverage of the tourney, including all of Team Canada’s games, on TSN, TSN HD and TSN.ca. Last year, TSN’s coverage of the gold medal game attracted 2.2 million viewers, making it TSN’s 4th most-watched program of all time and the most-watched World Juniors telecast to take place overseas. Eight of the Top 10 programs on TSN are World Juniors broadcasts. A total of 25 World Juniors broadcasts on TSN have topped more than 1 million viewers, the largest being the 2003 Gold Medal Game in Halifax with a national average of 3.45 million viewers – the biggest audience in network history.
•IIHF Men’s World Championship – TSN heads to Switzerland in May for exclusive Canadian coverage of the 2009 IIHF Men’s World Championship. TSN will televise 15 games from the tourney, including live coverage on TSN.ca. This marks the last World Championship before the 2010 Winter Games and will feature many players who will form the basis Canada’s Olympic team in Vancouver. TSN’s coverage of the 2008 gold medal game attracted a national average audience of 947,000 viewers, making it the second most-watched World Championship game ever on TSN.
•Additional Hockey – TSN has extensive coverage of additional national and international tournaments/events on the hockey calendar during the 2008/09 season: NHL Entry Draft, TradeCentre on NHL Trade Deadline Day, Free Agent Frenzy, Hockey Hall of Fame Induction Celebration, World Women’s Championship, World Under-18 Championship, World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, World Junior A Challenge, National Women’s Under-18 Championship, ESSO Women’s Nationals, Four Nations Cup, TELUS Cup, RBC Cup, and the Allan Cup.
CFL on TSN
The CFL has a new home this season! For the first time ever, TSN will televise every single CFL game – including the playoffs and coveted Grey Cup – making TSN the ultimate destination for all things Canadian football. The complete 77-game package is part of TSN’s new five-year deal with the CFL, which kicks off this season. The vast majority of games will air in High Definition on TSN HD. New to the CFL on TSN broadcast team this year are two-time Grey Cup champion Duane Forde, who joins the crew as a game analyst, and reporter Sara Orlesky, who will work the sidelines during Wendy’s Friday Night Football. Back for another season is the Gemini Award-winning team of play-by-play announcer Chris Cuthbert and game analyst Glen Suitor. Rod Black will provide play-by-play alongside Forde. Brian Williams returns as on-site host, while Dave Randorf hosts the TSN Studio show, alongside analysts Chris Schultz, Hall-of-Famer Matt Dunigan and Jock Climie. Wendy's Friday Night Football returns for its 12th season and will continue to be the marquee night of the week for the CFL on TSN. TSN is once again looking for Canada's next millionaire as Wendy's Kick For a Million returns for the fourth installment. One lucky fan will get the chance-of-a-lifetime to kick a 50-yard field goal during halftime at a CFL game for a one-time payout of $1 million. In 2005, the first year of the contest, 25-year-old mechanical engineer Brian Diesbourg of Belle River, ON, became an overnight success by splitting the uprights at 50 yards and winning the $1 million grand prize.
NFL on TSN
CTV and TSN boast the biggest – and most prestigious – NFL broadcast package in Canada. CTV will air all Sunday afternoon early games (1 p.m. ET) and every NFL playoff game – including the coveted Super Bowl, while TSN continues to provide exclusive Canadian coverage of Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football and the Thursday/Saturday NFL package, making CTV and TSN the home of the NFL in Canada. In all, TSN will televise 42 regular season games in 2008/09, beginning with the season opener on September 4 as the Washington Redskins take on the Super Bowl champion New York Giants. Included in the mix on TSN are football magazine shows NFL Countdown, Football Night in America, Monday Night Countdown and NFL Primetime, as well as the NFL Draft. All games on CTV and TSN will air in High Definition. Last year’s Super Bowl XLII was a ratings record as a combined audience of 5.07 million viewers watched the big game on CTV and RDS, making it the most-watched Super Bowl ever in Canada. Nearly 11 million viewers (10.7 million) watched some or all of the broadcast.
Season of Champions Curling
TSN’s landmark six-year broadcast and multimedia deal with the Canadian Curling Association gets underway this upcoming 2008/09 season, providing TSN with exclusive Canadian rights to all Seasons of Champions events each year – including the semifinals and finals, making TSN the one and only home of curling in Canada! In addition, along with afternoons and evenings, viewers will be treated to the return of extensive morning coverage. TSN’s curling schedule features the Continental Cup of Curling (Dec. 18 to 21), Canadian Junior Championships (Jan. 31 to Feb. 8), Scotties Tournament of Hearts (Feb. 21 to March 1), Tim Hortons Brier (March 7 to 15), Canada Cup (March 17 to 22), Ford World Women’s Championship (March 21 to 29), Ford World Men’s Championship (April 4 to 12), and the timely Canadian Olympic Pre-Trials (Nov. 9 to 14) and Trials (Dec. 6 to 13), which determine who will represent Canada at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games. TSN’s popular made-for-TV curling Skins game returns in 2008/09 with a new twist, as the two reigning World champions – men’s and women’s – will do battle on the ice for a total cash purse of $100,000 (Cdn). This year’s Casino Rama Curling Skins Game, airing live on January 10 and 11, features reigning Men’s World and TSN Skins champion Kevin Martin (Alberta), reigning Women’s World champion Jennifer Jones (Manitoba), and three-time World champions Glenn Howard (Ontario) and Randy Ferbey (Alberta), marking the first time a women’s rink will compete against men’s rinks in the Skins format.
SportsCentre
SportsCentre, TSN’s flagship news and information program, remains the clear-cut leader in sports news as sports fans from across the country once again name TSN ‘Best Channel for Sports News’ in Roper Reports Canada’s annual national survey*. With bureaus in nine Canadian cities, SportsCentre brings viewers the most comprehensive news, highlights, scores and exclusive interviews from across the sports spectrum with nine hours each day, all in High Definition.
*2007/2008 Roper Reports Canada
TSN2
TSN announced the launch of its new 24-hour sports digital network, TSN2, which hits Canadian TV airwaves on Friday, Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. ET with a jam-packed lineup featuring 800+ hours of live and exclusive major league sports action. Today’s announcement further illustrates TSN’s leadership and commitment to delivering marquee sports properties and better serving sports fans from coast to coast.
TSN.ca
TSN.ca remains Canada’s leading sports website with an average of 4.9 million unique visitors and 90 million page views per month, and a yearly average of more than two million video plays*. In an ongoing effort to provide Canadian sports fans with a highly interactive and enhanced online sports experience, TSN.ca recently unveiled a new look to the site featuring five brand-new applications, a cleaner design, bolder images and easier navigation. In the first month since the re-launch, TSN.ca’s new video player had a staggering nine million video plays. Currently, TSN.ca has more than 400,000 registered users, while an average of 125,000 user comments and videos are submitted to the site’s popular Your Call feedback section each month. TSN.ca offers 250,000 pages of content, scores/updates/standings/stats from 35 different sports, daily fan forums and fantasy pools, and the most insightful and provocative analysis from Canada’s most respected sports writers and reporters..
*Source: Omniture/HBX
All audience figures are 2+ and exclude and pre- and post-game; source BBM Nielsen Media Research
Please visit TSN's page on falltvpreview.com
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