Rogers Sportsnet continues to be a dream destination for sports fans everywhere, broadcasting more live events than any other network in Canada. With everything from hockey to soccer, baseball to NASCAR, if you like sports you have to like Rogers Sportsnet.
Sportsnet offers Canadian viewers the choices they want, broadcasting regional content on four channels: Sportsnet East (Quebec and Maritime Provinces), Sportsnet Ontario, Sportsnet West (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and the Northwest Territories) and Sportsnet Pacific (British Columbia and the Yukon Territories). Sportsnet HD caters to viewers on a national basis.
Ratings are up across the board and with broadcast deals to air more NHL, MLB and English Premier League soccer than any other network in Canada; things are only getting better for Sportsnet.
Here are details of some of the sports that will be featured on Rogers Sportsnet in the upcoming year:
Hockey That Matters
Rogers Sportsnet’s regional coverage of the National Hockey League continues in 2006-2007 with a total of 183 games.
Edmonton Oilers
Viewers in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut are the main beneficiary of the Sportsnet hockey schedule with 40 Calgary Flames games and 48 Edmonton Oilers games. The upstart Oilers have 21 of their intra-division matches on Sportsnet West including seven versus the Vancouver Canucks, eight versus the Minnesota Wild, five versus the Colorado Avalanche and one versus the Calgary Flames. The broadcasts will feature either Kevin Quinn or Peter Loubardias handling the play by play duties. Gene Principe is the host of the broadcast.
Calgary Flames
Jarome Iginla and the Calgary Flames have 40 of their games on Sportsnet West including three all-Canadian match-ups highlighted two home games versus the Vancouver Canucks and one home tilt versus the Oilers. Roger Millions will be handling the play-by-play for all Flames games, while the analyst duties will be split by former NHLers John Garrett and Ryan Walter.
Ottawa Senators
Canadian viewers residing east of the Belleville/Pembroke line in Ontario will be able to watch 35 Ottawa Senators match-ups this season highlighted by four games versus their bitter divisional rivals, the Montreal Canadiens and three versus the Boston Bruins featuring ex-Sens defenceman Zdeno Chara. Dean Brown handles the play-by-play chores for the Senators games while Garry Galley provides the analysis.
Vancouver Canucks
Viewers from British Columbia and the Yukon will be treated to 45 Vancouver Canucks games this season. Key match-ups that will make it to air include nine all-Canadian games, five featuring the Oilers, two with the Flames, and one each versus the Senators and Canadiens. Gemini Award-winner Jim Hughson handles the analysis, while John Garrett provides the analysis.
Toronto Maple Leafs
For viewers in Ontario west of the Belleville/Pembroke line, there will be 15 Toronto Maple Leaf games. Highlights include three versus ex-Leaf winger Gary Roberts and the Florida Panthers and another three versus Alexei Yashin and the New York Islanders. The crew for these broadcasts will feature Joe Bowen doing the play-by-play and Harry Neale with the analysis duties.
Hockey That Matters-Ratings
Ratings for all NHL games in 2005-2006 were up from the previous NHL season in 2003-2004. Ottawa Senators games in the east had the highest increase with a 55% growth, the Edmonton Oilers in the west had a growth of 32%, the Toronto Maple Leafs in Ontario had a growth of 20%, the Calgary Flames in the west had 11% and the Vancouver Canucks remained steady with a 1% increase.
Major League Baseball
Toronto Blue Jays
As the Blue Jay season winds down, Sportsnet will continue to air the bulk of their games as they fight to finish atop the American League East. In September and October, Sportsnet will be airing 23 Jays’ games, 17 of them in High Definition.
With the Blue Jays’ newfound success in 2006, the ratings have also increased. Ratings are up 35% in the current season as compared to 2005 and as they try to remain in contention for the Wild Card, these numbers should only increase further.
Along with the Jays broadcasts, Sportsnet’s baseball coverage in 2006 also includes 200 out-of-market games highlighted by 39 Boston Red Sox games, 33 New York Yankees games and 51 Seattle Mariners games.
Divisionals, League Championships and World Series
Once the regular season ends, Sportsnet’s playoff baseball coverage swings into action. Every game of the MLB playoffs from the hotly contested Divisionals, the American League and National League Championships, and the World Series will be on Sportsnet. Blue Jay play-by-play man Jamie Campbell will anchor Sportsnet’s play-off coverage from the studio. All games from the ALCS, NLCS and World Series are also available in high definition on Sportsnet HD.
National Football League
The NFL makes an appearance on Sportsnet in 2006-2007. The coverage starts with an American Thanksgiving Day Doubleheader on Thursday November 23. The action begins with the Miami Dolphins playing the Detroit Lions and the second half of the twin-bill is the Tampa Bay Buccaneers versus the Dallas Cowboys.
The third jewel of the Sportsnet’s NFL crown is the Pro Bowl from Hawaii on Saturday February 10 which matches up the best players of the NFL in a season ending grudge match.
English Premier League Soccer
The most famous soccer league in the world starts up again in August of 2006 as the English Premier League kicks off. Sportsnet has it covered with three games every Saturday for the entire season, featuring teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
Soccercentral, with host Gerry Dobson and analyst Craig Forrest, takes centre stage each Saturday between the second and third match.
Ratings for the opening tripleheader of the 2006-07 season were up 65% compared to the 2005-06 season.
National Basketball Association
NBA Playoffs
Once again, the NBA playoffs will be front and centre on the Rogers Sportsnet schedule. Thanks to the success of the Phoenix Suns in 2005-2006, playoff ratings were up 9% over the previous season. With Phoenix once again being a contending team in 2006-2007, those numbers should increase even further.
Sportsnetnews
The hallmark of the Sportsnet franchise continues to be Sportsnetnews. featuring strong analysis, breaking stories in an entertaining package. Led by hockey analyst Nick Kypre os, Sportsnetnews has established itself for strong and informed opinions. The stable of analysts includes: Ken Rosenthal for Major League Baseball, John Gordon for golf, Neil Lumsden for CFL, Jay Glazer for the NFL, Jack Armstrong for the NBA and legal expert Rob Becker. Sportsnetnews investigative reporter Erin Paul, leads a group of reporters that include; Dan Murphy, Gene Principe, Jim Lang, Barry Davis, Greg Ross, Chris Simpson, Louis Jean and Ian Mendes covering the Canadian sports scene from coast-to-coast.
Ratings for the evening editions of Sportsnetnews featuring Brad Fay and Jason Portuondo is up 63% nationally in 2005-2006 as compared to the previous period.
The late night editions of Sportsnetnews with Martine Gaillard, Sean McCormick and Mike Toth are up over 20% in the East and Ontario regions in 2005-2006 over the previous period while the Pacific edition of Sportsnetnews with Don Taylor is up 145% during the same periods.
Hockeycentral
Hockey fans couldn’t get enough of Hockeycentral on Saturday Nights, so Sportsnet has extended the popular 30-minute show to 1 hour starting at 6 pm (ET). Our Hockeycentral panel made up of Nick Kypreos, Daren Millard, Gord Stellick and Bill Watters along with feature reporter Chris Simpson will also be making daily appearances on Sportsnetnews.
Hockeycentral at Noon
For those who can’t get enough Hockeycentral, Sportsnet and the FAN 590 are launching Hockeycentral on FAN 590 starting on September 11 at 12 p.m.. This radio show will be simulcast both on Sportsnet with Daren Millard as host and Nick Kypreos and Howard Berger as regular contributors.
NASCAR
Rogers SportsNet’s coverage of selected races from both the NASCAR and Nextel Busch Cup Series continues to be a boon for the network. Ratings in 2006 have gone up 73 % over the previous year.
The 2006 coverage finishes up with two Busch Grand National races in High Definition. The first of which will be the Dover 200 on September 23 and then finishing up with the Yellow Transportation 300 from Kansas on September 30. The NASCAR season will once again kick-off in February 2007.
Prime Time Sports
Bob McCown, a fixture of the Canadian sports broadcasting scene for decades, continues to host the television simulcast of Prime Time Sports weekday evenings on Rogers Sportsnet.
Since the show’s debut on the network in September of 2004, ratings have gone steadily upwards. From 2005 to 2006, ratings for the show are up 54 %. McCown’s acerbic wit and thoughtful insights has won him fans from coast-to- coast as he tackles all the sports related issues of the day.
Pratt And Taylor
Sportsnetnews host Don Taylor hooks up with his radio partner Dave Pratt every afternoon on Sportsnet Pacific for an hour long radio simulcast of Pratt and Taylor. This outspoken duo covers all the news and issues that effect sports fans from the West.
Since the show’s debut in January of 2006, ratings have gone up 50%.
Saturday Night Poker
Poker has become a fixture on Saturday night’s on Rogers Sportsnet. Saturday Night Poker has been made up of the first three seasons of Poker Superstars. It features the best of the best in the poker world including Johnny Chan, Phil Hellmuth and Canadian poker phenom Daniel Negreanu.
Ratings continue to go through the roof for this popular past time. Audience numbers for the Saturday Night broadcasts for 2005-2006 are up 54% over programming in the same period the year before.
Best Damn Sports Show Period
The US-based weekday show is hosted by Chris Rose and features ex-athletes Rob Dibble, John Salley and Rodney Peete. The show features interviews with athletes and other celebrities and focuses on the lighter side of sports.
The highlight of the series is their often imitated but never duplicated Best Damn Top 50 lists. Shows dealing with Best Damn Beatdowns and Best Damn Coolest Moments have been among the shows’ most popular and ratings have continued to climb since the show’s first appearance on the network in March 2006.
Starting in October of 2006, Best Damn will have a regular timeslot on Sportsnet each weekday starting at 3 pm (ET).
The Ultimate Fighter
The Ultimate Fighter is back for a second season on Sportsnet. The show pits 16 top mixed martial arts fighters over a 12 week series with the winner receiving an Ultimate Fighting Championship contract. Ratings for the first season of this contest exceeded expectations across the board and the second season should be even better.
Source for all ratings numbers: Neilsen Media Research, all audience figures are 2+.