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| Copyright © Graeme MacKay. Please check for MacKay's posting and publication rules by clicking here. |
| Sunday February 26, 2006 |
| extremeright |
If one were to believe some of the reports being
tossed up by some North American media sources,
you can put the Winter Olympics behind Hurricane
Katrina as the biggest disaster of the past year.
The august journal USA Today even came up with a
list of suggestions to save the Games from
extinction, ideas that included turning some
competitions into "reality TV" and having viewers
decide the winners of events such as figure skating.
In Canada, there have been many reports that the
CBC is losing its shirt on its Turin adventure. The
fact that most of these reports emanate from a
newspaper whose owners will be broadcasting the
2010 Vancouver Games should not be dismissed.
CBC's prime-time average is down 47 per cent from
2002 and 12 per cent from projections. But its
daytime coverage is up 40 per cent and 55 per cent
of what it told advertisers to expect.
To suggest that the CBC blew things in Turin or that
Canadians have lost their appetite for the Winter
Games is just foolish.
The audience peak for the Canada-Czech Republic
hockey game, played on a Tuesday morning, was
1.85 million. A similar number was registered for
Friday's gold-medal curling match that started at
11:30 a.m.
tossed up by some North American media sources,
you can put the Winter Olympics behind Hurricane
Katrina as the biggest disaster of the past year.
The august journal USA Today even came up with a
list of suggestions to save the Games from
extinction, ideas that included turning some
competitions into "reality TV" and having viewers
decide the winners of events such as figure skating.
In Canada, there have been many reports that the
CBC is losing its shirt on its Turin adventure. The
fact that most of these reports emanate from a
newspaper whose owners will be broadcasting the
2010 Vancouver Games should not be dismissed.
CBC's prime-time average is down 47 per cent from
2002 and 12 per cent from projections. But its
daytime coverage is up 40 per cent and 55 per cent
of what it told advertisers to expect.
To suggest that the CBC blew things in Turin or that
Canadians have lost their appetite for the Winter
Games is just foolish.
The audience peak for the Canada-Czech Republic
hockey game, played on a Tuesday morning, was
1.85 million. A similar number was registered for
Friday's gold-medal curling match that started at
11:30 a.m.
| Putting spin on Olympic TV numbers |
| Other cartoons of interest |
