Commonwealth Games in 2006

[bigdan]

I was just wondering, as fellow members of the Commonwealth, which broadcaster(s) has the Canadian rights to next years Commonwealth Games in Melbourne?

Also, who traditionally has had the Comm. Games (or have been responsible for it when it's been in Canada)? Has it been a big event up your way?

[tombrokaw]

I belive CBC has the broadcasting rights. Sadly , the event is not very high profile here in Canada, and whatever network has the rights, may not show much of the event live.

[bigdan]

tombrokaw said:

I belive CBC has the broadcasting rights. Sadly , the event is not very high profile here in Canada, and whatever network has the rights, may not show much of the event live.

Fair enough. Has the event been only on CBC, or have others networks had it? I've read in places that CHEK were responsible for the Victoria games in 1994.

BTW...the host broadcaster is Channel 9, WIN and NBN.

[Tim]

Uh, are you joking? Of course the Commonwealth Games are high profile in Canada! The last commonwealth games viewership in Canada (CBC) averaged a healthy 117,000 at peak hours, if I recall correctly. The Olympics' more high-profile sporting events (such as men's ice hockey in the winter) carry an average 3.3 million viewers, but the Olympics average is about 660,000.

Wish I could find the PDF listing viewer numbers for these Games. I'm just going by my memory here, which is most likely faulty.

[tombrokaw]

bluefox said:

Uh, are you joking? Of course the Commonwealth Games are high profile in Canada! The last commonwealth games viewership in Canada (CBC) averaged a healthy 117,000 at peak hours, if I recall correctly. The Olympics' more high-profile sporting events (such as men's ice hockey in the winter) carry an average 3.3 million viewers, but the Olympics average is about 660,000.

Wish I could find the PDF listing viewer numbers for these Games. I'm just going by my memory here, which is most likely faulty.

The Canadian Curling championships are higher profile, and look for the Commonwealth Games news to be burried in page 5 of the sports sections of major newspapers.

[bigdan]

Here in Australia they've been pretty high profile for ages. They've also been on every network bar our multicultural network SBS.

Were the Games in Victoria over on Vancouver Island high profile when they were on?

[mva]

Actually, I do not think the Melbourne 2006 Organising group have signed a telecast deal with any Canadian Broadcaster yet.
It has been one of the failings of the organising committee.
Apparantly CBC told them No, Global and CTV arent interested.
Havent heard anything yet, so I still dont think anything has been done.

Which is quite surprising, the telecast of the games will be shown in the US, on NBC overnight IIRC.

The Commonwealth Games will be an embarrasement to Melbourne. Please Canada, dont broadcast the games, I dont want Melbourne to be embarassed and more than it will be.

[catnip]

bigdan said:

Were the Games in Victoria over on Vancouver Island high profile when they were on?

I remember them being pretty high profile, but I live in Victoria so that may be my perception. I remember the Goodyear blimp flying right over my house! :-)

[bigdan]

It looks like CBC will be airing it after all, screening the opening and closing ceremony and a daily highlights package.

More details here...
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17917751%255E7582,00.html

[mva]

So whats the coverage been like?

Canada played quite well in the rugby on Thursday night, and there were quite a few Canadians at the athletics today.

[Tim]

So either the Australians just kick everyone else's arses at sports, or they're cheating. Look at the gap in medals - 34 so far. I think it's just that they're kicking everyone else's arses, really.

[mva]

We're just good at sport - infact, we revolve around sport. It's really quite annoying. Melbourne is dubbed the sporting capital of the nation (if not the world).
Annually we have the Formula One Grand Prix, the Australian Open, the AFL Final Series (Australian Football), Internation Cricket, Rugby Matches, The Melbourne Cup (3rd richest horse race in the world - its a public holiday in Victoria).
Plus, the city is obsessed with Aussie Football - in September, you can not escape it. Its the top story every night.

The only sport(s) we suck at are the Winter Olympics. Because of that fact, their now spending 100s of millions of $ developing ice skating rinks to train winter olympians.

Lol, I think we're the only ones that care for the Comm Games!

Plus, Melbourne has had the Olympics (1956), had its Olympics stolen by Atlanta and a corrupt man from Sydney who wanted Sydney to have the glory... (he was bribed by Atlanta)
The talk is of now bidding for an upcoming Winter Games (I hope we loose - though we have snow, it would be a waste of money) and also the Soccer World Cup!

[bigdan]

mva - are you jealous that the Sydney Olympics was a success?

[mva]

Nope.
Just reporting what is widely believed.
Melbourne was in the top 3 candidate cities, Cole took a bribe from Atlanta - Melbourne lost.

[bigdan]

What may be widely believed may also not be fact.

Anyways....I've checked CBC's schedule, and from the looks of things CBC is only airing a daily 1 hour package, with some stuff on Newsworld....is that true?