U Sports on CBC Gem

[grasshopper1917]

Sitting here watching the Capers men team in the Usports soccer semi-final on my TV via CBC gem. Also in YouTube VIA CBC sports. Has been a great game and great exposure. CPL needs to get some exposure like this. Have multiple friends watching this game - many curious about CPL but there is no opportunity to watch it anywhere. Surely a massive missed opportunity that need to be corrected.

 

Go Capers!

[BearcatSA]

52 minutes ago, grasshopper1917 said:

Has been a great game and great exposure.

I am honestly not taking the piss when I ask this but how.many people actually watch CBC Gem?

[SpursFlu]

5 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

I am honestly not taking the piss when I ask this but how.many people actually watch CBC Gem?

Not many but I also noticed these games pop in to my youtube feed

If the point of CBC is to promote Canadian culture they should really launch a sports network. 💯 Canadian content. Would be great 

[BearcatSA]

2 minutes ago, SpursFlu said:

If the point of CBC is to promote Canadian culture they should really launch a sports network. 💯 Canadian content. Would be great 

I doubt that would be happening under future Prime Minister Polllievre. 

[grasshopper1917]

25 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

I am honestly not taking the piss when I ask this but how.many people actually watch CBC Gem?

I would wager at least 100X more then watch One soccer.

[BearcatSA]

27 minutes ago, grasshopper1917 said:

I would wager at least 100X more then watch One soccer.

But I would wager that most of them wouldn't be watching CPL on Gem.

Edited November 11, 2023 by BearcatSA

[grasshopper1917]

11 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

But I would wager that most of them wouldn't be watching CPL on Gem.

My point is it give a casual fan a way to check out a CPL match. Right now there is absolutely no way for a casual soccer fan to watch the CPL to my knowledge. In fact unless your in a CPL market your likely not even going to know the league exists if your a casual sports fan/

[BearcatSA]

13 hours ago, grasshopper1917 said:

My point is it give a casual fan a way to check out a CPL match. Right now there is absolutely no way for a casual soccer fan to watch the CPL to my knowledge. In fact unless your in a CPL market your likely not even going to know the league exists if your a casual sports fan/

Each of your points resonates with me.  It is a cross country league but yet very parochial in nature.  It needs much broader broadcast exposure.  But in a few years from now, after a shift in ruling ideology,  I am convinced that the CBC will likely become a destitute version of PBS or NPR and there won't be any $ available for casual fans to watch for free via this network/organization.  So it's One Soccer (via Fubo or some other bigger time streaming entity) or bust.

Edited November 11, 2023 by BearcatSA

[SpursFlu]

2 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

I doubt that would be happening under future Prime Minister Polllievre. 

Well it's never too late to stop being clowns. Especially if your existence depends on it

[Aird25]

15 hours ago, BearcatSA said:

I am honestly not taking the piss when I ask this but how.many people actually watch CBC Gem?

We watch a fair bit it CBC Gem, which is now making me feel old. My folks do too though, and so does my brother in the UK. It's free and there's good content. If Pacific games were on there I'd probably cut Fubo even though I occasionally watch other things 

[BearcatSA]

58 minutes ago, Aird25 said:

We watch a fair bit it CBC Gem, which is now making me feel old. My folks do too though, and so does my brother in the UK. It's free and there's good content. If Pacific games were on there I'd probably cut Fubo even though I occasionally watch other things 

I think a future budget-cut CBC won't be showing much in the way of sports, let alone pro soccer. 

I agree with the CPL's need for wider, easily accessible exposure but it won't be via this avenue.

 

[SpursFlu]

The CBC has received 1.2 billion dollars annually since 2018 from our Government. And that doesn't include any kinda revenue they were able to create. Budget cuts?

Maybe what we need is someone going in and doing an audit to see where that money went. It definitely didn't go to promoting Canadian culture and creating entertaining content. 

Canadians like sports, Canadians like Canada, Canadians can be entertaining if given the opportunity. CBC isn't a TV station, it's supposed to be a communication platform 

Edited November 11, 2023 by SpursFlu

[Aird25]

1 hour ago, BearcatSA said:

I think a future budget-cut CBC won't be showing much in the way of sports, let alone pro soccer. 

I agree with the CPL's need for wider, easily accessible exposure but it won't be via this avenue.

 

I'd love to better understand your reasoning for budget cuts 

[BearcatSA]

1 hour ago, Aird25 said:

I'd love to better understand your reasoning for budget cuts 

These are the finite number of dollars that we have in our budget and we can only pay for things that are the most cost effective for us in all fiscal areas?  

A gov't change with "Defund the CBC" as one of its high profile planks is going to have considerably less money.  So that will mean as long as Coronation Street and other such programming is available for their core viewership, things will keep going, though on a much more minimal scale.

I watched CPL on CBC in its inaugural season.  I think it was on Gem, as well.  But that has been gone for awhile now, I believe.

 

[narduch]

My own speculation is One Soccer is happy with their current deal with Fubo and an uptick in subscriptions due to the rise of the CanMNT that they aren't interested in the kind of deals they made with CBC in 2019 anymore 

[SpursFlu]

27 minutes ago, narduch said:

My own speculation is One Soccer is happy with their current deal with Fubo and an uptick in subscriptions due to the rise of the CanMNT that they aren't interested in the kind of deals they made with CBC in 2019 anymore 

Makes sense. Looks like the CBC missed its chance to get on board and instead spent 6 billion dollars in the last 5 years God knows where. Maybe we'd even have a women's CPL by now if the CBC had turned around and invested in Canadian culture and Canadians. They could have made a hefty investment under the stipulation that every CPL team field a women's team as well

Edited November 11, 2023 by SpursFlu

[red card]

On 11/10/2023 at 9:35 PM, grasshopper1917 said:

My point is it give a casual fan a way to check out a CPL match. Right now there is absolutely no way for a casual soccer fan to watch the CPL to my knowledge. In fact unless your in a CPL market your likely not even going to know the league exists if your a casual sports fan/

Casuals haven't driven the success of pro footy leagues in Canada/US. Gateway for casuals watching on tv to the sport isn't club football but World Cup/Euros and Olympics for women.

MLS only started lifting off after it shifted away from catering to casuals/soccer moms. Linear tv wasn't a key driver either as MLS audience levels have largely stayed the same over the past 20 years.

NWSL has grown in the past decade despite 0-5 matches/yr on US broadcast tv. There was also less than 10/yr on cable till 2017. Even then, the 22 matches were shown on a non-sports channel called Lifetime.

CPL needs to first win over existing followers of football. It needs to win over the 200k+ who have subscribed to fubo to watch the Premier League & Serie A. 

In regards to CBC, not enough people watching to boost CPL's reach as CBC's share of tv viewing is less than 5%. Main demo watching is over 65 which is of no interest to CPL sponsors. When CPL was on CBC in 2019, average audience was only 54k. In 2020, it was 48k

CBC Gem has a bit larger reach. It was used by about 9% of internet users at the end of 2020. This placed it placed 7th behind 6 paid services led by Netflix at 68%. Though, as with CBC tv, no individual program has broken through via CBC Gem. CBC shows like Schitt's Creek became popular only when they hit Netflix. 

On CBC Youtube, only 7.9k in total watched at least 30 seconds of the 2 uSports women's semis and 11.8k in total for the 2 men's semis. Zero engagement in terms of comments.

 

Edited November 12, 2023 by red card

[red card]

5 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

Makes sense. Looks like the CBC missed its chance to get on board and instead spent 6 billion dollars in the last 5 years God knows where. Maybe we'd even have a women's CPL by now if the CBC had turned around and invested in Canadian culture and Canadians. They could have made a hefty investment under the stipulation that every CPL team field a women's team as well

CBC's public budget hasn't changed in the past 30 years.

CBC English tv ad revenue has fallen because it's viewership has fallen off the cliff. Some of this is due to the general fall in linear tv viewing but CBC also missed the golden age of quality tv shows, screwed up it's flagship news show and lost Hockey Night in Canada. CBC French tv has done much better to be relevant as it's ad revenue is higher than CBC Englsh tv.

So, after committing to the Olympics, CBC's budget was completely priced out of sports about a decade ago. It now largely picks up world feeds of Olympic related sports that no one else bids on in Canada. For Canadian sports orgs, it's a last resort to get distribution when there are no paying offers. 90% of it is streamed rather than shown on CBC tv. 

A women's footy league may get some interest since CBC has committed to gender parity in sports coverage. But moneywise, the league should probably only expect to recoup some production costs.

 

 

[SpursFlu]

43 minutes ago, red card said:

CBC's public budget hasn't changed in the past 30 years.

CBC English tv ad revenue has fallen because it's viewership has fallen off the cliff. Some of this is due to the general fall in linear tv viewing but CBC also missed the golden age of quality tv shows, screwed up it's flagship news show and lost Hockey Night in Canada. CBC French tv has done much better to be relevant as it's ad revenue is higher than CBC Englsh tv.

So, after committing to the Olympics, CBC's budget was completely priced out of sports about a decade ago. It now largely picks up world feeds of Olympic related sports that no one else bids on in Canada. For Canadian sports orgs, it's a last resort to get distribution when there are no paying offers. 90% of it is streamed rather than shown on CBC tv. 

A women's footy league may get some interest since CBC has committed to gender parity in sports coverage. But moneywise, the league should probably only expect to recoup some production costs.

 

 

1.3 billion a year and you can't afford the CPL? Give me 1.3 thousand dollars a year and I'll make more entertaining content than the CBC. 

The fact that you said oh yah a women's league they'd be in to that. You hit the nail on the head. They spend money not on what people want to watch but on pushing an agenda. So you basically inadvertently pinpointed the problem with definitely the CBC but most media outlets crying poor at the moment. With more competition and options for eye balls, the approach has turned from, what do people want to watch? to what do we want people to watch

And with 1.3 billion a year, more people watch a guy in his basement with a few buddies BSing and instead of these executives being fired and held accountable, it's just excuses and excuses. I don't buy it. They can sleep in the bed they made

Edited November 12, 2023 by SpursFlu

[Joe MacCarthy]

On 11/10/2023 at 9:32 PM, BearcatSA said:

I am honestly not taking the piss when I ask this but how.many people actually watch CBC Gem?

Lots of people, there is a popular addon for Kodi that I help test.  Tons of great docs on there, one I just watched was Doug and the Slugs and Me.

[Joe MacCarthy]

On 11/10/2023 at 9:40 PM, SpursFlu said:

Not many but I also noticed these games pop in to my youtube feed

If the point of CBC is to promote Canadian culture they should really launch a sports network. 💯 Canadian content. Would be great 

CBC Sports is one of the best outlets for sports there is.  Although they are out of the pro sports business (aside from airing hockey) they cover almost everything else.  Again, referring back to the Kodi media player I was heavily involved in the CBC Sports addon.  It is very popular amongst Kodi users.  The problem is many people don't know of the existence of the site and its videos and live broadcasts.  It's also not organized as well as it could be to promote events or let you know they are there.

I was going to post about the USports finals but didn't get around to it.

[Joe MacCarthy]

On 11/10/2023 at 8:36 PM, grasshopper1917 said:

Sitting here watching the Capers men team in the Usports soccer semi-final on my TV via CBC gem. Also in YouTube VIA CBC sports. Has been a great game and great exposure. CPL needs to get some exposure like this. Have multiple friends watching this game - many curious about CPL but there is no opportunity to watch it anywhere. Surely a massive missed opportunity that need to be corrected.

I used to watch the CPL on CBC GEM, (before they allied with One Soccer?)

[BearcatSA]

15 minutes ago, Joe MacCarthy said:

Lots of people, there is a popular addon for Kodi that I help test.  Tons of great docs on there, one I just watched was Doug and the Slugs and Me.

Doug and the Slugs was first on the main channel and then put on Gem, just like the Lightfoot one, Team Canada 72, and others.

It is a very good resource for that and many Britsh shows.

[Joe MacCarthy]

On 11/10/2023 at 11:12 PM, BearcatSA said:

Each of your points resonates with me.  It is a cross country league but yet very parochial in nature.  It needs much broader broadcast exposure.  But in a few years from now, after a shift in ruling ideology,  I am convinced that the CBC will likely become a destitute version of PBS or NPR and there won't be any $ available for casual fans to watch for free via this network/organization.  So it's One Soccer (via Fubo or some other bigger time streaming entity) or bust.

CBC is already committing to going all streaming but I would be interested in what thoughts they have on ATSC 3.0 (NextGen TV) which apparently is already doing experimental broadcasts in Toronto (Humber College)

 

[red card]

21 hours ago, SpursFlu said:

1.3 billion a year and you can't afford the CPL? Give me 1.3 thousand dollars a year and I'll make more entertaining content than the CBC. 

The fact that you said oh yah a women's league they'd be in to that. You hit the nail on the head. They spend money not on what people want to watch but on pushing an agenda. So you basically inadvertently pinpointed the problem with definitely the CBC but most media outlets crying poor at the moment. With more competition and options for eye balls, the approach has turned from, what do people want to watch? to what do we want people to watch

And with 1.3 billion a year, more people watch a guy in his basement with a few buddies BSing and instead of these executives being fired and held accountable, it's just excuses and excuses. I don't buy it. They can sleep in the bed they made

Beyond Olympics, sports is an insignificant part of CBC's mandate. There are basically no sports shown on linear French CBC tv. Aside from Olympics, sports isn't mentioned in their annual report. Olympic rights of $60-100 million per Olympics likely accounts for 99% of CBC's sports rights budget.

CBC also mostly went out of the business of paying to show pro sports around 2014. So, like in 2019, OneSoccer would need to basically give away their product to be shown on CBC. But that would be counter productive today since OneSoccer is trying to show Rogers/Bell the high value of their content in order to get included in their sports channel pak.

You're also incorrectly assuming people don't watch women sports. This has changed beyond gymnastics and figure skating. This year, we have seen record tv viewers in the US for women's volleyball, basketball & softball shown on ABC/ESPN & Fox/Big Ten. In the past 3 months, 92k attended a women's volleyball game in Nebraska and 55k attended a women's basketball game in Iowa.

Women's World Cup was down in the US/Canada due to time difference & early exits. But records were set in about 10 countries. A Matildas match was the most watched tv program of any type ever shown on Australian tv.

FIFA has started to unbundle tv rights for men & women World Cups. NCAA is likely to unbundle women sports from men's football/basketball next year. WNBA's media deal is expected to go from $40m/yr to $100m/yr when up for bids in a year or two.

NWSL just got a media deal that went from US$1.5m/yr to US$60m/yr (minus production costs/marketing). A private equity firm paid $50m expansion fee for San Fran's NWSL team. 2 year old Angel City FC is valued at $180m.

 

Edited November 13, 2023 by red card