1 of 1- RadioActive
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COVID Blows A Hole In TSN's Holiday Plans
When word broke that the World Junior Hockey Championships had been called off because of COVID outbreaks, my first thought was - what will TSN TV and radio do? It's not like there are a lot of options now that all those games won't be played - or appearing on their airwaves.
There's no NHL to go to, no Juniors, basketball games are few and far between and their entire schedule for the next week or so was totally centered on the tourney. Each match could have lasted four hours or more, if you include playing time and pre- and post-game shows. What do they use to fill all that time now?
CFRB broke the news late Wednesday, another advantage of actually having a live show on this time of year. GNR640 had no one to report it and were in rerolls and missed the story, until they aired the CP Report at the top of the hour.
Still, not everything flowed smoothly on NT1010.
The Rush fill-in host Mark Towhey talked about the cancellation of the tournament, plugging an interview with TSN's Jim Tatti after the break. (To his credit, Towhey asked Tatti about what he and the network were going to do now. The veteran sportscaster admitted he had no idea and was on "standby.")
But when they went to the spots before that Q&A, the second one that ran was for - you guessed it - a loud commercial touting the excitement of the World Juniors on TSN, with the first game on this evening. I guess someone didn't get the message about that message.
- paterson1
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Re: COVID Blows A Hole In TSN's Holiday Plans
One thing that I have noticed for a long time is that TSN does not show the same programming on all of their five channels. They don't simulcast nearly as much as Sportsnet. Rogers sports network almost is always showing the same game on their channels with the exception of hockey. Sportsnet 360 would be the other exception which normally has something different than the other channels.
Even tonight IIHF hockey (Sweden and US) was scheduled on 2 of 5 TSN stations and the Canada and Germany game was scheduled on 3 of the 5. So they always seem to have alternative programming on 2, 3 even 4 of their feeds anyway.
No doubt they might simulcast more than normal, but they will have some alternative programming and other live sports lined up regardless. The cancellation of the series likely wasn't a complete surprise since the new strain of COVID was becoming an issue and concern prior to the tournament.
Last edited by paterson1 (December 30, 2021 12:00 am)
- Radiowiz
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Re: COVID Blows A Hole In TSN's Holiday Plans
The short term solution is to round up some very famous sports team players and have them come into the studio for some sort of talk show. Maybe fans will tune in for that. (may work for both radio and TV)
RadioWiz & RadioQuiz are NOT the same person.
RadioWiz & THE Wiz are NOT the same person.
- mace
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Re: COVID Blows A Hole In TSN's Holiday Plans
New Year's Eve TSN could air the NCAA Division 1 football semi finals. Cotton Bowl at 3:30. Orange Bowl at 7:30. Another five Bowl games New Year's Day including Rose and Sugar.
- geo
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Re: COVID Blows A Hole In TSN's Holiday Plans
mace wrote:
five Bowl games New Year's Day including Rose and Sugar
HNIC (Leafs v. Senators) has a following
- paterson1
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Re: COVID Blows A Hole In TSN's Holiday Plans
Good example of what I was talking about earlier. Right now TSN is showing NBA Basketball on TSN 1,
Sugar Bowl on TSN 2, ATP Tennis Canada vs US on TSN 3 and College Football Command Center on TSN 4. So even without the Junior Tournament TSN is still showing a varied schedule.
Sportsnet has the best program right now with the Leafs and Senators game but it is on SN Ontario, East, Pacific and West channels in addition to CBC and City. SN does have another NHL game on SN 1 with St Louis and Minnesota and an NBA game on SN 360.
Last edited by paterson1 (January 1, 2022 10:31 pm)
- RadioActive
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Re: COVID Blows A Hole In TSN's Holiday Plans
From TV scribe Bill Brioux:
Dec. 20-26 numbers hint at what the World Juniors shutdown cost TSN
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Thread Starter- torontostan
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Re: COVID Blows A Hole In TSN's Holiday Plans
Not entirely sure they're going to lose most of their money here. IIHF made it sound like the tournament will be re-scheduled for this summer. The World Cup is also this summer which will help them. No doubt it disrupted their plans, but not all will be lost if I had to bet.