Last year for Canadian Tour coverage on current station

I was particularly concerned this year that Canadian OLN didn't seem to have anything on their website about the Tour until pretty much the last minute (ie. wondering whether they were going to be showing the Tour at all or whether I'd have to subscribe to the French-Canadian Canal Evasion at the last minute instead) - and they're only showing the live coverage, not the prime time repeat, which made me question their commitment to the Tour coverage. Now, apparently there is information that they will not be showing the Tour beyond this year - hopefully someone else will pick it up, I like the rumour in this linked article that it might be the Sportsnet channel owned by the same company (Rogers) as it would seem the Tour fits better on an actual sports channel, rather than an "Outdoor Life" channel where the definition of "outdoor life" seems to include ghosthunting, UFO's, and car repossessions judging by all the promos shown for other shows! I just really hope that it doesn't get missed out such that no English Canadian channel has it for next year.

almost 2 years ago guidemd 10 comments 0 recs |

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I really hope that Sportsnet rumour comes true.

I know it’s a niche market in Canada, but it still seems strange to me that we might be left without any coverage next year for such a big sports event – it’s certainly front page of the newspaper sports section during July.

Thanks for posting this. I was wondering what was up with the OLN coverage too – definitely not an encouraging sign when the prime time broadcast is dropped in favour of “Ghosthunters”! (I think OLN is turning into an “outdoor” channel in the way the History channel is now a “history” channel that shows CSI reruns.) And I’d never heard of the French channel it’s showing on, so that doesn’t even look like a fallback option.

by Krtek on Jul 11, 2010 1:52 PM EDT reply actions

Évasion (the French channel) may only be available in Québec

The broadcast is pretty good, but since it’s a tv channel based mostly on tourism / vacation, sometimes the commentators don’t go as far as they’d like in race analysis as there are many new people to the sport watching. It’s slowly changing for the better as the public is getting more knowledgeable

The owner of Évasion is the promoter for the two ProTour events

by MathieuG on Jul 11, 2010 3:03 PM EDT up reply actions

we can get Évasion here in Edmonton on digital cable (Shaw)

I subscribed to it for a few months a couple of years ago when they had daily Giro coverage, before Shaw picked up RAI-International in our area. And, I checked our channel listing again a few weeks ago when I couldn’t see anything on the OLN website about the TdF (and they didn’t reply to my email asking them about it) – and Évasion was an option again for an extra $2.95 a month I think (but digital only). I remember though when I was initially subscribing, the person I talked to on the phone was really confused and kept saying “oh, you want the Canal channel” and I had to point out several times that “Canal” was just French for channel and that in fact they had several Canal’s on offer, so please don’t subscribe me to the first “Canal” that you see in your list!

I’m thinking I might try to find some sort of viewer feedback for Sportsnet and send them a message saying “please please please carry the Tour next year”, for what little impact it might have. I think that it would be great having it on a real sports channel, they could potentially do a 5-10 minute pre or post show from their main studio and have a phone interview with Ryder or Barry etc to get more of the Canadian perspective, it would be really cool!

by guidemd on Jul 11, 2010 4:48 PM EDT up reply actions

Screw that. I say we buy the rights.

Okay, someone pass the hat around.

by Sui Juris on Jul 11, 2010 6:57 PM EDT reply actions

no big loss as far as I’m concerned, as long as they’re just picking up the versus coverage

I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it

by plinytheelder on Jul 11, 2010 11:28 PM EDT reply actions

except we can't actually get Versus in Canada

so, if no one picks up the coverage then we’re relying on fickle internet streaming feeds next year. no big loss if it just switches stations.

by guidemd on Jul 11, 2010 11:56 PM EDT up reply actions

what I’m saying is that as long as oln just picks up versus, it’s no big loss – they are so bad imo that I’d rather watch france 2 or something on the internet. Only problem, as you say, is unreliability, but it hasn’t been an issue for me so far.

I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it

by plinytheelder on Jul 12, 2010 12:02 AM EDT up reply actions

We sprang for the Versus package this year.

Best $29.95 I ever spent. Riv Girl always misses the last of the stage and we would re-watch the evening package on OLN. Versus on demand replay is great plus Matt Keenan before P&P for an hour or two. Be happy not to pay for OLN on the cable package any more.

by fancan on Jul 12, 2010 8:44 AM EDT up reply actions

but what about their awesome shows like Mantracker and Repoman? ;)

I'm feverished, or the way you want to spell it

by plinytheelder on Jul 12, 2010 9:26 AM EDT up reply actions

Versus sucks big time.

(How do they always manage to cut to commercial at the wrong time?) But I still find it a relief to watch on an actual tv rather than squinting at my computer screen ala Giro and Vuelta.

by Krtek on Jul 12, 2010 1:15 PM EDT up reply actions