Curling's TV deal isn't good

By Ted Wyman

The Canadian Curling Association made the best TV deal possible for itself, but a terrible one for fans. An agreement finalized yesterday with CBC will result in a drastic reduction in the amount of championship curling on the mainstream broadcast schedule next winter.

It's a deal which will move coverage of popular curling events like the Brier, the Scott Tournament of Hearts and the world championships from TSN (with some weekend draws on CBC) exclusively to CBC and its little-watched digital channel Country Canada.

Evening draws won't be shown live and only one draw a day -- in the afternoon -- will air on the main network.

It's a four-year deal which will presumably bring more money to the CCA (financial details weren't released, but it's reportedly in the neighbourhood of $10 million), but will provide nowhere near the exposure curling received during 20 years of coverage on TSN.

Dave Parkes, who is CEO of the CCA, insists this proposal was the best one for the sport and granted, games shown on the main network will reach far more people (99\% of Canadian viewers get CBC). But it will still be a ripoff to hardcore fans, unless hundreds of thousands of Canadians suddenly go out and order digital cable boxes so they can watch curling on Country Canada, squished in between reruns of On the Road Again and Northern Exposure.

It's not likely to happen.

Fans are going to be turned off and then they are going to tune out.

"To me it seems like it's not good for the curling fan especially," former Brier and world champion Kerry Burtnyk of Winnipeg said.

"I'm a little bit perplexed to see that they would make a deal that has less coverage than they had before."

If the curlers are dumbfounded by the decision, you can imagine how the people it really affects -- loyal curling viewers -- are going to feel.

"I don't understand CBC's programming as to why curling wouldn't be a viable draw in the evening," five-time Brier champion Randy Ferbey said. "What are we going to see? Cooking with Charlie or something like that instead of curling?"

Last year's Brier champion Mark Dacey concurred.

"It's going to be a big disappointment for the loyal fans who watch it religiously and those are the people (CBC) should be looking for the reaction from and find out what they like," he said.

Burtnyk said TSN losing broadcast rights means there might be more air time for non-CCA events, such as the Grand Slam.

"For events other than the major championships, this could be a positive," he said.

But still, fans of the game are being blindsided by this move. These are people who have set their watches by the Brier and Scott schedules on TSN. They didn't need a TV guide to know there would be curling on every morning, afternoon and evening during championship events. They felt a certain bond with trusted broadcasters like Vic Rauter, Ray Turnbull, Linda Moore and Cathy Gauthier.

Now they are going to have to order a new channel they likely didn't know existed or stay up until 11:30 p.m. to watch evening games on tape delay.

People aren't going to be happy. The question is, will they be unhappy enough to make the CCA regret its decision.