Buried Curling Treasure: The Great TV Schmozzle

The Curling News

Volume 48, Issue #1 

Volume 49, Issue #1

November 2004 and November 2005

Recently, an international curling event took place in Canada, where the Kelowna Curling Club hosted the second-ever Pan Continental Curling Championships. This event is run by the World Curling Federation as a combined Pacific-Asia and North America qualifier for the world championships, an attempt to mirror the well-established European Championships.

Many in Canada only realized this event was taking place when TSN dropped their over-air broadcast coverage after four draws—and angry fans took to their phones and social media. TSN moved the games to their online streaming service, apparently due to sub-par production (and not low viewership, allegedly).

TSN was not producing the broadcast; they were layering Vic Rauter and Russ Howard audio commentary (from an undisclosed location in Ontario) over top of the WCF video feed. This has been done before, and with increasing frequency in recent years—most recently at world championships hosted outside of Canada.

Brad Gushue also had a few choice words to say about the event, again perking interest in a competition that otherwise may have fallen like a tree in the forest for sports fans in Canada.

The intention of this event makes sense in providing opportunities and a path for countries still developing their curling programs. For some in Canada, it’s likely considered a nuisance. Golf’s Ryder Cup was barely a competition for its first five decades and many fans and even some players had limited interest. Tom Weiskopf famously went hunting in 1977 rather than compete for USA.

The PCCC will find little interest in viewership north of the 49th parallel until Canada loses for the first time and fails to qualify for the world championship. Don’t snicker, Canada, it could happen sooner than you might think.

This Buried Treasure feature will take a look back at another TV tornado that angered Canadian fans. Do you remember “CBC Country Canada?”

That’s okay … neither did I.

CBC originally had only a 30% stake in the channel (launched in 2001) but bought the rest from Corus Entertainment a year later. In 2004-05, CBC scooped TSN in negotiating for full broadcasting rights with Curling Canada, then known as the CCA, and CBC Country Canada—along with The Score—became the landing spot for many round robin games during the 2005 Brier and Scotties.

Fans were outraged. Many of them missed Vic, Linda and Ray but others missed games entirely because they didn’t have the new channels. The rants and shouts were heard in various curling circles and a large petition was created and submitted (keepcurlingontsn.com).

Moreover, the vitriol curling fans laid on CBC’s terrified audience relations people was so shocking, the story appeared in a chapter of the then-CBC president’s book seven years later.

One year after that, the soap opera continued as the CCA-CBC contract was cracked open and TSN was hurriedly brought back into the fold as sub-contractor to CBC. Country Canada was re-branded as Bold in 2008 and later sold to Blue Ant Media in 2012.

It is now known as Cottage Life and my mother watches it often. “Engineering Catastrophes” has her convinced to never cross a bridge ever again.

One year after that, TSN gained full broadcast rights, including final weekend coverage, starting with the 2008 season. Despite owning the contract at the time, CBC was apparently not invited to bid.

Let’s look back to archived TCN issues from that time–November 2004 and November 2005.

For those wondering why Canada doesn’t have a brick-and-mortar Curling Hall of Fame, it’s not for lack of trying. This front-page article might be filed into the category of “too soon” as the Brandon development never materialized. The Canadian Curling Hall of Fame is merely a website and the history of curling remains a collection of private items (banners, brooms, sweaters, photos, etc.) curated by individuals and curling facilities across the country.

I’m skeptical a single building will ever be built, but perhaps it’s better to think the museum of curling exists as exhibitions in each of the many clubs across the land.

Allen Cameron, a former TCN scribe who now has some 10+ years under his belt as Director of Communications and Media for Curling Canada, provides both analysis and opinion on the CBC deal. The foreshadowing is apparent in his second to last paragraph: “Is it perfect? Far from it.”

Larry Wood provides his thoughts on the television deal which includes the term “TV nabobs” not once, but twice … in the same sentence! You can look up the meaning for “nabob” but rest assured, it is not a compliment.

Larry goes on to report on the splitting of men’s and women’s events for the world championship (they were previously held as a single event from 1989 to 2004). Colleen Jones shares her concern for events held outside Canada: “I think the women are going to have to curl naked in order to get people out there. I’m not kidding. You’re going to have to hope for an Anna Kournikova to come along and really jazz it up.”

In the April 2005 issue, Larry followed up with some perspective on the television “schmozzle” with one of his signature rants. This one includes a quote from Scent of a Woman, a reference to the old black-and-white cowboy show Bonanza and advice on selling your TV set to buy a ticket to watch in person.

The November 2005 issue of TCN led with a cover story on the continuing television coverage debacle and the return of TSN for the 2005-2006 season. It includes quotes from across the timeline of events.

Later, Larry Wood takes a look back at 2005 and provides his perspective on the women’s worlds, “a shambles plunging headlong toward a disaster” and parting thoughts on the fallout from the TV deal.

Doug Maxwell also provides investigation into what he calls a “schemozzle” of a deal and how it was perhaps more than just a problem of channel selection.

Finally, perhaps harkening back to Colleen Jones’ “curl naked” quote mentioned earlier, here’s an article on the OG version of the Curling Cares Fundraising Calendar. Photographer Ana Arce from Andorra organized and shot the very first calendar which received massive media coverage during the Torino Olympics and a reprint was needed to fill orders. 

George Karrys was originally brought in to handle North American sales and took over the project in 2011. 

The 2024 edition is on sale here.

Track back to the Curling Legends Facebook page for a bonus: two additional content items from these issues.