Remember the Miller Lite "Tastes Great/ Less Filling" commercials? The same thing is happening with CBC's coverage of the World Cup. It's a "Sporting Event!... it's a Cultural Phenomenon!" Every time the sports people start to get the upper hand in CBC's coverage, the culture club hauls us to a bar or community centre stuffed with quaint locals for a sampling of the proletariat. Talk about burying the lede.
Perfect example at halftime on Monday in the Italy - Paraguay game. With a monumental upset possible as Italy trailed 1-0, CBC producers went to their pre-planned Pulse of the Nation feature that tracks insipid e-mails, fan photos and Facebook detritus that should have been a setup to the game, not an intermission feature. Host Mitch Peacock then teased a replay of the game already played earlier in the day (Holland - Denmark). Then more commercials. Finally, after about eight minutes just a 90-second highlight pack on the biggest story of the tournament till that time. Analyst Nigel Reed - who calls Toronto FC - looked about to implode.
Ditto Tuesday's crucial Ivory Coast - Portugal Group G fixture for the right to accompany Brazil to the next round. The analysis was delayed till late in halftime to permit some truly annoying e-mails and a prepared feature about players like Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast playing with casts on their arm. (Drogba had yet to play.) Time to ditch the production book and follow your instincts, boyos.
Update: Jason DeVos and John Collins do the telestrator. Look, they have legs. That's better. (But won't Kelly Hrudey be jealous?)
Say What?: CBC talking head Bob Lenarduzzi notes that Canada's Randy Samuels broke the wrist of England's Gary Lineker in 1986. "Something Randy Samuels is very well known for," said Lenarduzzi. "That probably not a lot of people are aware of." Huh?
The vuvuzelas controversy is familiar to anyone who ever watched a sporting event at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal where the air horn was king. The principal difference: in Montreal it was seven guys from Rosemere in the cheap seats. In South Africa it's about 10,000 guys assaulting your inner ear. Seems the only time the vuvuzelas ever shut up is during the national anthems. Solution: keep playing the anthems the entire 90 minutes.
Own Goals: Hyundai has pulled a World Cup ad after enraging Catholics. The commercial tried to compare the fervour of soccer to the devotion at a church in South America. Say ten Hail Marys and pull the ad, Hyundai. Elsewhere, ITV's Robbie Earle has been sacked after his WC tickets ended up in the hands of 36 women in bright orange mini-dresses as part of an "ambush marketing" stunt for a brewery. ITV's still smarting after a third-party transmission company broadcast an advert instead of Steven Gerrard's goal against the USA. Bet that went over well.
It Figures: The hockey world is buzzing about the NHL season just finished-- in particular the strong American TV ratings which set records for NBC and Versus. CBC, riding the new PPM rating system, also did very well for an all-American final. Internet streaming and downloads also did impressive business. Some are calling it the best hockey season ever on and off the ice.
Now a splash of cold water. Sports Illustrated went with Washington Nationals rookie Stephen Strasburg over the Blackhawks on the cover. Oops. But then, there is always a tendency to overestimate NHL results when the largest American media markets like Chicago or Los Angeles are involved. After the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994, everyone from Sports Illustrated to Field & Stream proclaimed the rise of hockey. How'd that work for you?
Chicago (No. 3) versus Philadelphia (No. 4) has given the NHL a comparable boost in profile - with similar predictions of a new day for the NHL. But note the biggest market after the Finals' cities was mighty Buffalo (pop.: 292,000) Indianapolis tied for fifth. Ft. Myers, Fla., was seventh. None of L.A., New York City, the S.F. Bay area, Dallas, Washington nor Atlanta (all Top 10 media cities) made the NBC's list of viewing champs - in spite of being NHL sites. It's a precarious formula for a media revolution.
As well - if the NHL is so scorchin' hot in the US of A, why is it only Canadians are reportedly trying to purchase NHL teams? Outside of the mark... er, investor in Tampa, it's all native sons like Bill Gallacher, Jim Balsillie, Brett Wilson, Tom Gagliardi and the Ice Edge dudes willing to spend paying loonies, not Benjamins, for the right to share canapes with Gary Bettman at the Breakers. And why are the only markets Bettman is proposing for teams small Canadian cities? Just asking.
A final note on Canadian ratings - CBC has consistently set records this year as the PPM effect boosted ratings for sports events. Finding so-called "hidden" viewers been a boon for ad rates. The question now is what happens as we head into Year Two of PPMs. Will numbers plateau and the record ratings train slow to a crawl? And will that indicate that, other than PPM effect, TV viewership is and has been static?
NBA Shines: Note as well that the NBA - which has the dream matchup of No. 2 U.S. media market (L.A.) and No. 5 (Boston) in its Final-- is similarly getting record TV ratings. Game Five in Boston was up 35 percent in ratings and 32 per cent in viewership from the L.A./ Orlando (No. 20 U.S. market) Game Five last year. It was the fifth-most viewed game in the past nine years when series-clinching games are excluded. The series is on pace to produce records. But what if it were Charlotte/ Oklahoma City in the NBA Final?
Speaking of hoops, there's much noise lately about the political instincts of U.S. president Barack Obama. Usual Suspects can only say that the embattled prez had a colossal sports story in his home town of Chicago and somehow managed to entirely miss a slam dunk. No appearances, no press asides, no wearing the colours. Nada. Just a lame phone call to coach Quenneville and Patty Kane when it was all over. This from the man who regularly shoots hoops with burned-out NBA types. He needs to talk to prime minister Harper about crowding in on the feel-good sport moment.
Excitable Boy: Ladies and gentlemen, courtesy of YouTube your new Toronto Maple Leafs captain. Don't say the West never gives you anything. In case you think it's a one-off. When the Chicago Blackhawks appeared on NBC's Jay Leno program, NBC editors polished Doc Emrick's call of the "mystery" winning goal so the hesitation play sounded like a clean call. England goalie Robert Green immediately demanded BBC editors make it look like he stopped Clint Dempsey in the England/ USA game... At least he's honest. TMZ catches Blackhawk Patrick Kane clubbing in Hollywood and asks the $1-million question, "Do you expect to get girls with the Stanley Cup?": "I better...," said Kane.
Winning Formula: Finally, Usual Suspects received an e-mail harumph about TSN's coverage of the Montreal F1 race last Sunday. Why did the Canadian network not mount a Canadian race description, relying instead on the BBC's coverage? According to TSN president Phil King, the network gets complaints when it takes the BBC voices off the race casts. Seems the viewers like the authenticity of a good English dipthong. For the same reason, ESPN is employing Brits on its World Cup soccer coverage after taking flak about the American announcers it used in 2006.