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Canada's record-breaking gold-medal
performance at the Vancouver Games might make it easier to create a
specialty sports TV network dedicated to amateur athletics, the chief
executive of the Canadian Olympic Committee said.
"We hope these Games will give this plan a push forward," said Chris Rudge.
Rudge said the committee presented a plan for an amateur-sports network to
the CRTC more than two years ago, but the federal regulator has yet to
review the proposal or hold public hearings on the idea.
The success of these Games might speed that process along, he suggested,
since the higher public exposure for Vancouver's Games has cemented
amateur sports in the minds of millions of Canadians and created new
heroes for the country, he added.
"These games have been transformative in terms of Canadians embracing all
of these athletes to the degree that they have," said Rudge.
Under the committee's proposal, The Canadian Amateur Sports Network would
carry high-performance sports such as skiing, snowboarding, speedskating
and track and field 24 hours a day in English and French. The network
would show amateur athletes competing in regional, national and
international events in Olympic and non-Olympic sports.
The CRTC application asks that CASN be carried on all basic digital
services of Canadian cable and satellite TV providers. It would add at
least 60 cents a month to the basic household TV bill.
Rudge said the committee would own up to 12% of the sports broadcaster and
private investors would hold the rest. The English and French networks
would pay their own production costs and generate up to $30 million a year
to plow back into amateur sports.
The sports official said Canadians' desire to watch amateur athletes on TV
"is as much a function of familiarity as anything else."
"If they see more of them they will want to see more of them. They'll
start to understand their personalities and they have the opportunity to
become the kind of household names that hockey players, basketball players
and baseball had in the past.''
There's been no word on why the CRTC hasn't yet reviewed the COC proposal.
Source: Marketing,
03/01/2010
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