Davidson: All 31 Euro games to air on TV in Canada

sstackho · June 11, 2004

All 31 European soccer championship games to air on TV in Canada

BY NEIL DAVIDSON

CP

642 words

10 June 2004

16:41

The Canadian Press

English

TORONTO (CP) _ Compared to the 2002 World Cup, the menu for the Euro 2004 soccer championship is less all-you-can-eat, more manageable fare.

There are just 16 teams compared to 32 at the World Cup and the time difference with Portugal is only five hours ahead of EDT instead of the half-day-plus chasm between Canada and South Korea and Japan.

But unless you do shift work or are independently wealthy, Euro 2004 will probably be another good workout for your VCR with all 31 games on TV.

TSN is running the show at this end, using the world feed for game coverage with its own analysis wrapped around the games. The network is farming out coverage of eight contests to Fox Sports World Canada when there is a scheduling conflict but those matches will be replayed same day on TSN for those without digital boxes.

RDS, TSN's French-language sister network, is also showing the tournament.

It all starts Saturday with host Portugal playing Greece (TSN, 11:30 a.m. EDT) and Spain taking on Russia (TSN, 2:30 p.m. EDT)

Euro 2004 organizers expect a cumulative worldwide audience of seven billion for the 31 matches.

In all, TSN is showing 20 matches live and Fox Sports World Canada seven, with the remaining four matches shown on same-day tape delay. That's because the final round of group matches are played simultaneously in each of the four groups, so two games kick off at the same time June 20-23.

Most nights, TSN will be airing a replay in prime time for the East.

For those planning their taping, matches either kick off at noon or 2:45 p.m. EDT in the first round. Check local listings for times from the quarter-finals on.

TSN plans 18 pre-game shows and 12 post-game shows, with Vic Rauter, veteran analyst Dick Howard and former Canadian national team player Carl Fletcher.

Fletcher, a thoughtful athlete with 40 Canadian caps to his credit, takes over for Craig Forrest, who is now with Roger Sportsnet.

TSN will use the world feed, with more than 15 cameras at each venue, provided by the Portuguese host broadcaster. That means the network has access to video 30 minutes before and after each game for maximum colour and atmosphere.

``Not getting that, if we'd picked up another feed hypothetically like a BBC feed, we would have been at the mercy of another broadcaster,'' said Jim Panousis, TSN's senior producer for its Euro coverage.

``That was a big win for us, acquiring access to the world feed.''

The commentators accompanying that feed include the highly respected Martin Tyler of Sky TV plus the likes of Peter Brackley and Gary Bloom.

TSN has had the world feed before, but as Panousis notes, ``every time you go into one of these projects you're dealing with a different group on the other side and you have to re-establish everything again.''

There will be no commercial interruption of play.

The partnership with Fox Sports World Canada came into play because of some scheduling conflicts TSN had, ranging from this Sunday's Formula One race to U.S. Open golf.

``This was a win-win-win,'' said Panousis. ``A win for Fox, a win for TSN and a win for the fans, I believe.''

TSN has run tests prior to the tournament start but Panousis says the satellite used for the feed is the same as the one the network employs for Formula One programming.

In the U.S., Fox Sports World is showing limited first-round live coverage and taped airings of the latter stages. The games are also available on a pay-per-view basis.

sstackho · June 11, 2004

Sports Column

Truth & Rumours

TSN's commitment reflects growing interest in world soccer

WILLIAM HOUSTON

869 words

11 June 2004

The Globe and Mail

S3

English

Euro 2004 will begin tomorrow, but it will get serious quickly when France plays England on Sunday.

Vic Rauter, who will anchor TSN's three-week coverage of the European soccer tournament, sees that game as a possible preview of the final.

“There's no doubt that France is the favourite, despite crashing at the World Cup in 2002,” he said. “They've got all their top players and they're all healthy.”

England also will contend, he said, as well as Italy, Germany and several other countries. After France, it's a wide-open field.

“You've got 16 countries playing, of which I would suggest eight or 10 have a chance of winning,” he said. “If you get on a run, you never know what happens.”

In North America, where big is measured by the Super Bowl and World Series, the scale of the Euro tournament might not be appreciated. But on the world stage, it ranks third in size and popularity after the Olympics and the World Cup.

“It's huge,” Rauter said. “We're planning to go to the stadiums 10 minutes before the games to catch the teams coming out. The atmosphere in these stadiums is something that we as Canadians rarely experience.”

TSN's audiences reflect a growing interest in world-class soccer events. The 1996 Euro tournament final drew 436,000 viewers. Four years later, the total jumped to 618,000.

TSN will use the English-language broadcast feed. Rauter said the play by play will be called by Britain's leading announcers. The network will bookend each game telecast with a studio panel discussion involving Rauter, analyst Dick Howard and newcomer Carl Fletcher, a former Canadian national team member.

The games will be aired live, then repeated in prime time. However, eight games that conflict with TSN's scheduled programming will be shifted to the digital channel, Fox Sports World Canada.

Coverage will start tomorrow at 11:30 a.m. EDT on TSN with Portugal, the host country, playing Greece.

sstackho · June 11, 2004