Canadian network scores with hockey

TSN nets top-rated show with Junior tourney

By BRENDAN KELLY

MONTREAL -- Canada is living up to its rep as a hockey-crazed nation -- a junior-hockey tournament featuring teen players with little marquee value has become the top-rated show on Canadian TV so far this season.

The local passion for watching hockey on the smallscreen is in sharp contrast to the situation in the U.S. where the sport remains a marginal broadcast property.

The gold-medal game at the World Junior Championship Jan. 5, which pitted host Canada against Sweden, pulled in an audience of 3.7 million viewers for leading sports network TSN, making it the most-watched show ever on a Canadian pay channel and the most-watched program during the current broadcast season.

The audience peaked at 4.7 million viewers just before 10 p.m. EST Jan. 5 as Team Canada celebrated its 5-1 victory over Sweden in Ottawa. An extra 602,000 viewers watched the game on RDS, TSN's sister French-language network.

At least part of the game was seen by over 9 million Canadians, or close to one-third of the country's entire population. This for a game played by a bunch of youngsters who might well go on to become National Hockey League stars but, for the moment, are hardly household names.

The Team Canada games at the tournament, which kicked off Dec. 26, averaged 1.7 million viewers.

The tournament has been compared to March Madness in the States, but the difference is that the top U.S. college basketball players are well-known among sports fans.

TSN president Phil King says Canadians tune in because they know "it's going to be great hockey. People like the purity of the sport. Plus all the American shows are on hiatus. There's not much else going on. And people are home for the holidays."

It also helps that this is Canada's fifth straight gold-medal win at the Juniors, as they're known here.

The boffo ratings couldn't come at a better time for TSN. The network's ratings are up by 20% overall this season thanks to strong numbers for Canadian Football League action and NHL games. TSN is in the first year of a seven-year deal with the NHL, the second year of a six-year deal with the Juniors, and the first year of a six-year deal with the CFL.

So what's the next ratings juggernaut for the network?

TSN boss King knows folks might snigger in the U.S. but he says the curling action coming in February and March is going to be huge for the channel.

Just another Canadian quirk apparently.