MONTREAL -- These are tough times for Canuck pubcaster CBC Sports.
It saw primetime ratings for the Athens Olympics plummet by 16% compared with the Sydney Games, and it may have to cancel flagship Saturday night sports show 'Hockey Night in Canada' in the fall due to a dispute between owners and players.
The average primetime audience for the Athens Olympics on CBC was 1.1 million viewers. Overall ratings, however, for the Games were up 6% from Sydney, to an average of 696,000 viewers. CBC broadcast live coverage all day and ran taped daily highlights in primetime.
One factor in the poor primetime ratings was Canada's lackluster showing; the country nabbed 12 medals. But that wasn't the main reason for the ratings dip, said Christian Hasse, a spokesman for CBC Sports.
'In Sydney, we had some of the events live in primetime,' Hasse said. 'This time (after 6 p.m.), everything had already aired. Also it was in August, when people watch less TV. and Sydney was in September when people are back in school and watch more TV.'
CBC is looking forward to the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin because Canadians' enthusiasm for skating, hockey and other snow sports will improve ratings.
Meanwhile, the agreement between the National Hockey League players and team owners will expire Sept. 15 and owners look set to lock out the players the following day.
Unlike in the U.S., NHL hockey is a top ratings performer in Canada. 'Hockey Night' is one of the only CBC shows able to compete in the ratings with American imports on CTV and Global.
Almost 10 million Canadians tuned in for the Canada-U.S. hockey final at the Salt Lake City Olympics in 2002, the biggest audience for a TV event in Canuck history.
CBC has yet to announce what it will do if the NHL season is disrupted. 'We're moving ahead like there's going to be a season until we're told otherwise,' Hasse said.
During the 1994 NHL labor dispute, when half the season was lost, CBC aired reruns of classic hockey games from the '70s and '80s.
