VANCOUVER – As ratings for the World Junior Hockey Championships grow stronger every year, CTV Specialty and Hockey Canada announced Tuesday it was extending their contract and expanding the number of outlets viewers may take in on-ice action.
Under the new seven-year pact, which will begin in 2007 and end in 2014, CTV’s sports nets TSN and RDS retain the exclusive broadcast rights to Hockey Canada events, as well as the addition of multimedia rights, strengthening the networks’ position as the home for hockey.
Financial terms of the deal were not made public.
The announcement was made on TSN and RDS today during the first intermission of the Canada/Finland semifinal game at the 2006 IIHF World Junior Championship in Vancouver (Canada shut out Finland 4-0).
The deal provides CTV Specialty with exclusive Canadian broadcast rights in English and French for TSN and RDS, plus rights in all languages, to 11 key Hockey Canada events including National Championships and International events. In addition, the agreement gives CTV Specialty the ability to distribute programming and content to networks within the CTV Inc. family, including CTV, NHL Network, ESPN Classic and RIS. The seven-year deal also provides the opportunity to broadcast on radio and broadband, plus emerging technologies such as video on mobile devices, video-on-demand, podcasting and interactive TV.
"This partnership delivers on two key objectives: First, it ensures that TSN and RDS will continue to be the home of international hockey and national hockey championships for the long-term. Secondly, the increase in the number of games and tournaments within the package clearly demonstrates our commitment to hockey at all levels," said Rick Brace, president, CTV Inc.
"TSN and RDS have played a great role for Hockey Canada in promoting our development programs and initiatives and growing all of our broadcasts and events, whether National Championships or our men’s and women’s teams on the international stage. Our strong partnership also benefits hockey in Canada with the promotion on the hockey development side within all of our broadcasts," said Bob Nicholson, President, Hockey Canada.
As part of the agreement, TSN and RDS will televise a minimum of 26 games from key Hockey Canada tournaments each year, up from the minimum of 22 the networks currently televise. TSN and RDS will add to its broadcast schedules the following events:
* Allan Cup – Canada’s national Senior Men’s AAA Championship, featuring six teams competing for the title; one of the country’s oldest hockey tournaments
* National Women’s Under-18 Championship – teams from Alberta, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, British Columbia, and Quebec, along with a representative from the Atlantic Provinces, join two teams from Ontario to compete for the national title
* World Junior A Challenge – inaugural event takes place November 2006 in Yorkton, Sask., featuring two Canadian (East and West) all-star Junior A teams against four European teams
TSN and RDS will continue to televise the following popular Hockey Canada National Championships and International events in which Canada participates: World Junior Championship, Women’s World Championship, World Under-17 Hockey Challenge, Telus Cup, RBC Royal Bank Cup, Esso Women’s National Hockey Championship, World Men’s Under-18 Championship, and the women’s national Team Canada games.
"International hockey and Hockey Canada’s National Championships have a
strong and loyal following, as seen by the constant growth in viewership over the years for both the men’s and women’s game. TSN is committed to all facets of hockey and has enjoyed a wonderful partnership with Hockey Canada over the years," said Phil King, President, TSN.
Indeed, another TSN release today says that Canada’s 3-2 victory over USA on December 31st attracted a national average minute audience of 1.4 million viewers – the most ever for a World Junior round robin game, and gives TSN a four-game round robin average of 1.24 million viewers, making it the most-watched round robin in TSN’s 16 years of televising the annual tournament. It outdrew Hockey Night In Canada by better than a two to one margin.
"We are pleased to further strengthen our commitment to Canadian amateur hockey and bring a level and variety of hockey coverage like never before," added Gerry Frappier, president, RDS. "Our viewers’ passion for the sport will be well-served by this enhanced partnership."
TSN’s and RDS’s partnership with Hockey Canada dates back to 1991, and the networks are currently in the fourth year of a five-year agreement.
Ten of the top 20-rated programs of all-time are international hockey broadcasts, while six of the top 10 programs on TSN are World Juniors games. The most-watched program ever in TSN’s 21-year history is the Gold Medal Game from the 2003 World Junior Championship in Halifax, which attracted 3.45 million viewers, followed by last year’s Gold Medal Game from the World Juniors in North Dakota with 3.2 million viewers.
