Thursday, March 23, 2006

An Open letter to the CBC

March 22, 2006
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
P.O. Box 500 Station A
Toronto, ON, M5W 1E6

Dear CBC,

On behalf of the Board of Directors, fans and NxNE staff, I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your outstanding contribution to Ottawa Senators hockey this year. Your coverage of the Ottawa Senators has been impeccable, giving most of Canada a whopping 9 games. With your great work, there are exactly no new Ottawa Senators fans this year and now only 47 % of the country doesn’t know they are in the NHL. With all of these great strides many NxNE fans have said was "the best coverage ever."

From the exceptional educational sessions from Bob Cole and Harry Neil to the gala celebrating Tie Domi’s 1000th game, this year’s coverage exceeded even our expectations. With every Saturday night dedicated to a sub-.500 team, the coverage has grown substantially more insignificant as every week passes, both in terms of participation and support. Naturally, the success of a season’s coverage is dependent on many factors, the most significant of which is the time and effort provided by dedicated and unbiased professionals such as yourselves.

As you know, I have requested countless times that you show all Canadian teams evenly - a fair request seeing that it is tax payers money who makes the CBC possible, but of course, nothing changes. Feedback from Internet forums and verbal comments to the CBC indicates that viewers from everywhere in eastern Canada except Toronto were wholly unimpressed with the quality of games, presentation and color analysis. It is with unbridled enthusiasm that I hereby refuse to watch another CBC telecast until this bias is rectified.

Thank you again for providing a sub-par experience for fans and the industry.

Most sincerely,

Matt Williams
President
NxNE

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Amen brother.

CBC could care less unless:
a)you are the Leafs, or
b)you are playing the Leafs.

Evidently quality hockey is not a prerequisite for air time.

Anonymous said...

Did anybody catch one of the CBC executives on the Team 1200 earlier this week? He originally defended their decision by saying that there are two more Ottawa games on the CBC this year than last year - funny how the schedule has changed and we now have two more divisional games against Toronto this year. I'm not a mathmetician, but this all seems to add up to the CBC being in bed with the not-too-subtle folks at MLSE.

Anonymous said...

Unfortunitley ladies, I feel your pain. The CBC is driven by one thing - Money. The Leafs, being in the biggest market and having the largest fan base, are traditionally on Saturday night because they bring in the biggest rating and thus generate the most revenue for the CBC. Having said all of that, the CBC not showing Ottawa games in the Ottawa region is inexcusable.
If a senators game was shown in place of a Leafs game in Toronto the CBC building would be burned to the ground. So that will never happen.
Relax young senator fans, in three weeks the playoffs will start and our team will be on coast to coast and my beloved leafs will be golfing and counting their money to sign Chara to a fat deal in the off season. Or the Leafs will sneak into the playoffs and upset the Sens (for a fifth time) in seven games. I am currently sculpting the Micheal Tellquist statue to errect outside the ACC when he leads the Leafs to the Stanley Cup.

Anonymous said...

Well said Mr. Williams. I agree with the views and opinions expressed in your letter and hope there are more letters to come. Tie Domi's ceremony was on par with watching a bag of pucks. The one positive thing about watching the Leafs, is getting to see Belak and Berg getting deked Jr. B style, week in and week out. I know it's not great but it makes up for a little. Leaf fans are banking on Redden and or Chara this summer but don't cross your fingers. Micheal Tellquist to save the day!. . . .

Anonymous said...

Matty that was brilliant.
Well written, sarcastic, funny and nothing but truth. I especially like the bit about Domi and perhaps you should have mentioned the CBC's ommission of the ceremony dedicated to a certain immortalized, skilled Montreal Canadian, who happened to also die the day fo the ceremony. Nobody seems to know about that because leaf nation had to get every minute of its game.
Down with the CBC, and Go SENS GO
Q-ball