Fagstein » Sports

Michel Godbout leaving CBC for TVA Sports

Fagstein — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 18:05:21 +0000

Michel Godbout has found a new career opportunity over the horizon

Quebecor's soon-to-be-launched TVA Sports specialty channel isn't just looking to RDS hockey analysts like Dave Morissette and Yvon Pedneault (or La Presse's Réjean Tremblay) for on-air talent. Their hiring spree has also poached CBC Montreal's sports anchor.

Michel Godbout confirmed Monday that he will be leaving the CBC to join the TVA Sports channel set to debut this fall. ~~His last day is July 30~~. (He was cut off early: see below)

Godbout (who is, as you can imagine, fully bilingual) worked for 15 years at Radio-Canada and then CBC Montreal - most famously as the evening news anchor between 2005 (when Dennis Trudeau retired) and 2009 (when Andrew Chang and Jennifer Hall took over a revamped newscast). He starts an anchoring job at TVA Sports on Aug. 22.

TVA Sports, which was approved by the CRTC in February 2010, has already signed deals to carry some Ottawa Senators games and most Montreal Impact soccer games, though it failed to get the government to break the deal the Canadiens have with RDS. Quebecor is also trying to get an NHL team to Quebec City, giving another big reason for fans to subscribe to this channel.

No word yet on who will replace Godbout permanently. CBC Montreal News Director Mary-Jo Barr is on vacation until August.

You can follow Godbout on Twitter at @GodboutSports (fortunately he won't have to change that name - but expect it to be a bit more francophone in the future).

UPDATE (July 21): Thursday was Godbout's last day. He says during an interview this morning on CBC Daybreak that he gave his two weeks' notice on Friday (July 15), but was told that Thursday would be his last day, being let go because he was leaving for a competitor.

Godbout had a brief goodbye on air with Debra Arbec (Andrew Chang was off):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lfYro2kLsVc

CJAD loses Habs broadcasts to Team 990

Fagstein — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 23:16:31 +0000

It was the worst-kept secret in the radio industry: Bell-owned Team 990 has secured the English-language radio broadcast rights to Canadiens games for the next seven seasons.

No financial details have been announced for the deal, but it's clear that the station is putting some serious dough into this contract, because losing out again to Astral-owned CJAD was simply not an option. You can't have an all-sports radio station that doesn't carry broadcasts of the most popular sports team.

No announcement has been made about the play-by-play team yet, most likely because one hasn't been decided. Still, rumours are spreading wildly, everything from Shaun Starr and Elliott Price to having the CJAD team move over to using the TSN play-by-play to bringing back Dick Irvin and the reanimated corpse of Danny Gallivan.

Okay, I made that last one up.

Convergence!

Though it's great news that this little station that could has scored this contract, it's a bit worrisome for critics of Canada's media oligopolies. When Mike Boone wrote about the deal a couple of weeks ago, he said it was helped significantly by a deal Bell signed for regional English-language TV rights on TSN. Bell's business agreements with the Canadiens are many (though Bell itself does not own the team), from the naming rights to its arena and practice facility to its French-language TV rights to mobile rights to broadcasts.

This deal takes Bell one step further toward doing with the Canadiens what Quebecor wants to do with a Quebec City hockey team and what Rogers wants to do with most of the professional sports coming out of Toronto.

There's also, as one Team 990 personality told me during their recent 10-year anniversary party, the problem that the station might be restricted a bit in what it can say about the team. Doing impressions of Jacques Martin might not fly so well when you're the official broadcaster.

What about CJAD?

Though it certainly can deal with not having the Canadiens easier than Team 990 did, CJAD is still going to have to find a way to fill hundreds of broadcast hours every season. And they're going to have to deal with the loss of advertising that comes with losing such a big audience-getter. There's no word yet on what they're planning to do.

There's a story in The Gazette and some discussion in the Radio in Montreal group.

UPDATE: Some comments from the peanut gallery on Hockey Inside/Out.

Bru-winning front pages

Fagstein — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 19:26:13 +0000

It's always fun to peruse the Newseum gallery of front pages of winning and losing cities after a major sports championship. Unfortunately for Vancouver, trouble-makers ruined what should be awesome defeat fronts. Oh well.

Victory:

Defeat:

Local flavour:

Luuuuuu-ser

Fagstein — Thu, 16 Jun 2011 07:12:42 +0000

If only...

Now they're destined for wherever they sent that 2010 Flyers merchandise, or the 2009 Red Wings stuff.

Alouettes broadcasts return to CKAC

Fagstein — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 20:43:38 +0000

For the second consecutive year, the Alouettes have prematurely ended their deal with their official French-language radio broadcaster and switched to its major competitor.

It was announced on Tuesday that the Alouettes will be returning to Cogeco's CKAC Sports for the 2011 season. CKAC will broadcast 20 games (the regular season has 19 18, so this covers all of those and the two preseason games), plus all playoff games.

Pierre Martineau, a spokesperson for Cogeco Diffusion, says the deal is for this coming season only, and some games will also air on Cogeco's regional FM stations.

Having CKAC Sports broadcast the games seems like such a no-brainer, and indeed they broadcast the games for many years, signing a five-year deal in 2007. But that deal was mutually dissolved so that the Alouettes could strike a deal with Astral Media's NRJ for broadcast rights in 2010. That deal was supposed to last until 2013.

The switch to NRJ wasn't perfectly smooth. NRJ is a music station (like CHOM, which also broadcasts some Alouettes games), and license limits meant they couldn't broadcast five games last season, according to La Presse.

Fans also weren't crazy that NRJ used the RDS play-by-play audio instead of their own staff, though CKAC did the same thing.

A representative of the Alouettes did not immediately respond to voice mail messages requesting comment.

The Alouettes' English radio rights are held by Astral, with games airing on CJAD and CHOM until 2013. It's unclear if the move away from Astral on the French side will have any impact on the English rights. No doubt the Team 990 would be more than happy to pick up rights to Alouettes games, much like they would love to take rights to Canadiens games away from CJAD someday.

Last month, CKAC announced an agreement to air Canadiens games for two more seasons, ending in 2013-14.

Koivu fan #1

Fagstein — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 19:28:02 +0000

I've never been too crazy about people who carry giant signs into sporting events, particularly those whoring themselves out to the television rights-holders by trying to get the initials "TSN" or "RDS" or "NBC" into a "go team" message.

But let's give a nod to the anonymous front-row fan holding the "Koivu #1" sign, who combined good placement with perfect timing and is seeing that sign everywhere.

(The photo was captured by at least three photographers: Shaun Best of Reuters, Graham Hughes of Canadian Press, and Pierre Obendrauf of The Gazette).

There was a Facebook campaign (and others, I'm sure) for fans to vote Saku Koivu the first star of the night. It would have succeeded, except Koivu took a late penalty that led to the tying Canadiens goal (he was also in the box for their first goal - perhaps we should add two to his Canadiens assists total?). Under the three stars rules, the person who scores the winner in overtime or a shootout is automatically the first star.

Of course, none of that really mattered. The fans got to show their appreciation, and see Captain K on Montreal ice, perhaps for the last time as an NHL player.

Assshh!

Fagstein — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 06:34:14 +0000

Remember kids, when the Alouettes offence is on the field, fans should be quiet so the players can hear each other.

So Assshh!

And when the other team's offence is on the field, be as loud as possible so they can't hear each other.

That's when you can be an Assshh-olé.

The Expos: Even the best memories are heartbreaking

Fagstein — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 17:58:12 +0000

Annakin Slayd, known best for his songs about the Canadiens (so popular they've been parodied) but also a die-hard Expos fan, has produced a music video honouring Montreal's former baseball team.

The look back comes just as Andre Dawson is set to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame tomorrow as an Expo (even if he preferred a Cubs cap on his head).

And if that isn't enough, here's another video (well, it's more about the song than the video) to remind you of the Team of Heartbreak:

And a preview of what might be the last Expos Hall of Famer someday, Vladimir Guerrero:

Meanwhile, The Gazette's Andy Riga explores what to do with that giant monstrosity that the Expos used to call home, including what to do with the space around it, what to do about its roof, and what to do about getting events there. There's also some numbers worth looking at, and his blog has a whole truckload of suggestions from readers about the stadium's future (some serious, some not so much).

And the Bleacher Report has compiled a list of the top 25 Expos.

Happy World Cup, everyone

Fagstein — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 09:34:12 +0000

A huge crowd of France supporters flood St. Denis St. after World Cup semifinal win on July 5, 2006.

I love the World Cup.

After a month of the most important sporting tournament on Earth, I still think watching soccer on television is incredibly boring compared to other sports. And it shows no evidence of supplanting hockey as the No. 1 sport in this city. The game is badly officiated, mostly because its governing body doesn't want to enter the 20th century, much less the 21st. And many of the players are overpaid whiners whose sole purpose, it sometimes seems, is to turn the most incidental contact with an opposing player into a theatrical death scene.

And I still think soccer's offside rule is stupid.

But there's something about the way the World Cup takes over Montreal's fans. Because Canada isn't nearly good enough to make it to the final tournament, there is no home team, and everyone is free to choose sides. Many go with countries of origin, or maybe the team of their favourite player, or the country they once lived in.

No matter what country wins a game, whether it's a big player like Brazil or Germany, or a tiny speck on the globe like Uruguay or Ghana, there's always a parade of elated fans, honking their horns and waving their flags like they just had sex with a supermodel and realized they won the lottery.

During the 2010 cup, I spotted more than one Uruguay flag, and even once caught a flag that I later determined was that of the Ghana Football Association. I have no idea where that one came from - do they even sell them here?

Like during 2006, there were unofficial headquarters for the various countries based on their ethnic ghettos. Some were obvious (Italy, Portugal, France), while others weren't so much (Ghana, Uruguay, Argentina). Sadly, because of work I couldn't visit any of the postgame celebrations. They're truly fun to watch.

A Portuguese soccer fan is welcomed to the celebration of France's win

But what I love even more about the World Cup is that the fans here aren't fanatical.

It was July 5, 2006, and France had just beaten Portugal in the semifinal off a penalty kick by a guy named Zinedine Zidane (whose name would become infamous a few days later). While the Portuguese fans were consoling themselves on St. Laurent Blvd., the France fans were cheering and waving flags on St. Denis.

Eventually, some fans with Portugal flags came by. Instead of being made fun of or yelled at, they were invited to join the party.

Fans from France and Portugal embrace each other

They were celebrating France's win - and hence Portugal's defeat - but they were also celebrating the kind of great soccer event that comes only once every four years. They were celebrating because it's fun to celebrate.

Today, the 2010 World Cup comes down to one game between two countries that have never won the great tournament before. One of those countries will experience the kind of joy and national pride that will be spoken of for years (at least four, anyway). The other will feel the crushing disappointment of having come so far and fallen so short of ultimate victory.

But whether it's the Netherlands or Spain that comes out on top, somewhere in Montreal there will be a parade of fans leading us to a party. And everyone, no matter what colour their flag, will be invited to share in the celebration.

I just wish it could happen more often than every four years.

British tabs and their sober second thoughts

Fagstein — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 18:29:57 +0000

And the United States, who was eliminated the day before? Well, the best from that is the New York Post:

Trades are killer on magazine news cycles

Fagstein — Wed, 23 Jun 2010 02:41:31 +0000

L'actualité ~~this week~~ recently had a profile of Canadiens goaltender Jaroslav Halak teased big from its cover.

On the cover: "Que réserve l'avenir du gardien du Canadien?"

And in the piece itself:

Son mari envisage une seule « folie » : faire fi de sa peur de l'avion et s'envoler pour Montréal si Jaro se rend en finale de la Coupe Stanley l'année prochaine. Et, qui sait, en profiter pour voir un défilé rue Sainte-Catherine...

Thankfully, there's little chance of that now.

There's also a photo gallery of Halak's hometown of Bratislava, Slovakia, and a blog post about Halak's trade to St. Louis ~~to downplay somewhat how much the magazine is two weeks behind the news~~.

Gazette starts up Alouettes website

Fagstein — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 01:04:12 +0000

After seeing the success of its Habs Inside/Out website, The Gazette (my employer) has gone the next logical step and setup a similar one for the Alouettes, Montreal's Canadian Football League team.

It's called Als Inside/Out, and the name and logo make it clear that these are sister sites, even though the older one will probably get all the attention. It officially soft-launched on Saturday (to coincide with the team's home preseason game in the revamped Molson Stadium). A brief welcome from Alouettes reporter Herb Zurkowsky greets the fans, who are invited to take a peek (and subscribe via Facebook, Twitter or RSS), but the Gazette will put off really advertising its new baby until it's gone through some more testing, and don't be surprised if stuff stops working while its creators play with it.

There are some noteworthy differences between the two websites. First is on the back end: Habs Inside/Out is based on Drupal, while Als Inside/Out is running on WordPress (the same engine that's behind this blog).

The second is on the editorial side and reflects the difference in scale between the two teams: The Canadiens have a beat reporter (Pat Hickey), columnists (Red Fisher, Dave Stubbs, Jack Todd), and bloggers (Mike Boone, Kevin Mio, Hickey and Stubbs). The Alouettes so far have just Zurkowsky, whose coverage of the Alouettes is second to none (even getting him recognized by the Canadian Football Hall of Fame), though he'll no doubt be getting help from his colleagues.

Then again, a look at Zurkowsky's blog The Snap (one of The Gazette's most popular) and his seemingly endless string of feature stories between games during the season makes it clear he could provide plenty of content to keep the site running. (The Als Inside/Out site effectively replaces The Snap.) The fact that the Als play only 13 18 games a season (plus two preseason games and up to three playoff games) compared to the Canadiens' 82 regular season games (and a handful of preseason games and up to 28 playoff games) will also mean a bit less traffic for the younger sister, though Zurkowsky's ability to pull good stories out of nowhere in that dead space between games should not be discounted.

Emry, Richardson are invited bloggers

In addition to Zurkowsky and other Gazette staff, Alouettes players Shea Emry and Jamel Richardson are also expected to pitch in and blog before and after games. (The Impact's Nevio Pizzolitto has been doing something similar for the soccer blog - expect a similar level of not-so-professional writing.)

They're also planning a "cheerleader of the week" feature (I'm assuming those will include photos), and like Habs Inside/Out there will be photo galleries and breaking news.

We Photoshopped stop signs to say his name

Fagstein — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 03:06:46 +0000

From radio guy and music parodist Patrick Charles, a quickly created song about Jaroslav Halak is a freely-downloadable MP3:

(They made a) Bad Trade, a parody of Daniel Powter's Bad Day.

The stages of loss

Fagstein — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 18:33:39 +0000

Denial:

Anger:

Bargaining:

Depression:

Acceptance:

Deflection:

Gazette World Cup ads to kick your balls with

Fagstein — Sun, 13 Jun 2010 09:03:36 +0000

Cute little 30-second ads for World Cup coverage in my employer's newspaper from Guillaume Blanchet.

http://vimeo.com/12427369

Stan-tastic front pages

Fagstein — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:03:15 +0000

Victory:

Chicago Tribune

Chicago Sun-Times

Red Eye (Chicago)

Southtown Star (Chicago)

Northwest Herald (Crystal Lake, Ill.)

Daily Herald (Chicago)

The Times (Munster, Ind.)

Defeat:

Philadelphia Daily News

Metro (Philadelphia)

Philadelphia Inquirer

(Really, Inquirer?)

New York Times:

Flyers win Stanley Cup

Fagstein — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 03:50:59 +0000

... or not.

On second thought, maybe it's cruel to throw in the faces of these poor players and fans that they came so tantalizingly close to winning the Stanley Cup and their dreams have been irreconcilably crushed, yet again.

But then, these are the Flyers we're talking about.

NHL can make history by opening up

Fagstein — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 21:06:16 +0000

This video is one of many, many parodies of the National Hockey League's History Will Be Made ad campaign for the 2010 playoffs.

Some are hilarious. Some are awesome to watch. Some are head-scratchers. Some talk about the history that wasn't made. Some are bitter (with reason). Some look like they'll be killer until a monumental letdown at the punchline.

Some make fun of officiating. Some make fun of journalists. Some just make fun of Ryan O'Byrne.

As the playoffs come to an end, the NHL is tooting its own horn about the campaign, and specifically about the fan-produced videos, which are made possible mainly by the simplicity of the ads' creation - just a piece of video with cheap old-movie-style effects, played backwards in slow-motion with a piece of instrumental music.

It's a case study for the power of viral marketing, and how giving people the power to make their own media can be better than making it yourself.

But while these videos are all over the place, the NHL didn't make it easy for people to use the source material, and the thing executives are heralding now could soon become illegal.

Digital locks

The Canadian government recently introduced a bill, Bill C-32, which would update the Copyright Act to reflect changes in the digital age. I won't go too much into the details (feel free to read Michael Geist if you want to learn way too much about it), but there are two provisions that are pertinent here. One makes it legal to do mashups under certain circumstances (one being that it's not done for profit), which is certainly welcome.

The other is a much-criticized provision that, put simply, says that you can't circumvent a digital protection measure or "digital lock" on copyrighted content. That program you use to download DVDs to your hard drive? Illegal. That program or website that allows you to download YouTube videos? Illegal. It doesn't matter how easy it is to circumvent the lock, as long as the copyright holder tries to lock something down, you're not allowed to have access to it. And you can't have access to the tool that circumvents that measure either.

Among the most protective copyright holders are sports leagues. Before live broadcasts, many of them include a reminder that videos, photos or even descriptions of the game (by this they usually mean radio play-by-play) cannot be retransmitted or republished without the express written permission of the league. Though the NHL isn't as bad as Major League Baseball of the National Football League, those same conditions apply.

Except for recording off a TV, there is no easy, legal way of downloading video of these iconic (or just funny) NHL moments of history in order to create these mashups. Even buying a DVD wouldn't make it legal under this new law because those DVDs have digital locks. Creators have to first get access to the videos through some grey or black market - or find a way to circumvent or break the digital lock - before they can create their mashup. Some methods are really low-tech (like pointing a video camera at a TV screen), while others are the result of what might be considered hacking.

Let the people create

Here's a radical idea: The NHL should post short video clips of the greatest moments in hockey history in open formats and without any copy or access controls (UPDATE: They've already done this with the music used). Let them import the video directly into iMovie or Final Cut or Windows Movie Maker and have fun with them. Don't force your fans to jump through hoops to participate in your marketing campaign.

Rather than cut into their profits, this could instead drive interest in the NHL. Seeing a 30-second clip of Bobby Orr scoring a Stanley Cup-winning overtime goal and flying through the air could lead to people wanting to watch the whole game, or at least wanting to buy tickets to the next Bruins match. Seeing a three-minute montage of great Orr moments would have a similar effect.

The same could be done for recent highlights. Thanks to Yahoo Sports, bloggers and others can post highlights of the previous night's game and discuss them. But while those videos are embeddable - and that's a pretty big step already -they're not downloadable.

Where the NHL will make money is in ticket sales, merchandising, and exclusive broadcast deals for live games. It's not in 30-second highlights of history that everyone can see on YouTube already anyway. It's not like you're getting compensation when those highlights appear on the nightly news.

Put it out there. Let your fans play with your golden moments. Like with the History Will Be Made campaign, you might be surprised how creative they can get with them.

Stand By Your Habs

Fagstein — Sat, 22 May 2010 16:08:19 +0000

Christopher Pennington, author of this pretty good (and bilingual!) Habs anthem from 2008 (available on iTunes), has teamed up withFelicity Hamer of United Steelworkers of Montreal to produce this parody of Stand By Your Man.

The timing couldn't be better. Today is a critical game.

via Amy Luft.

Back on the bandwagon, folks

Fagstein — Fri, 21 May 2010 07:07:51 +0000

Finally, an FTQ campaign I can support.

Speaking of Canadiens pride, local musician Daniel Iorio has written another song about his beloved Habs. This one, keeping particularly current, name-drops Gazette sports scribe Pat Hickey, whose car was vandalized by crazed Flyers fans and has been getting a lot of attention for it.

Listen to The Cheese of Philadelphia:

Fagstein » Sports

Michel Godbout leaving CBC for TVA Sports

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