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Canada's loss in Olympic hockey yesterday will make a bad situation worse for CBC executives who were counting on big ratings in the final few days of the Games to salvage some disappointing audience numbers.
Viewership for the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s coverage of the Turin Olympics has failed to meet expectations and the situation could have improved dramatically had the Canadian men's hockey team challenged for a gold medal.
Instead, the loss will cause viewership for the remaining hockey games to plummet by several million people, though executives say it's tough to say by exactly how much.
The drop in viewership comes amid soft ratings that have forced the CBC to start showing reruns of commercials free of charge in an effort to appease advertisers.
“The CBC was really counting on Canada being in there to help them alleviate the shortfalls that they've seen so far,” said Diane Devries, associate media director at Cossette Media, which handled the Olympic buy for Bell Canada's beaver campaign.
“They can't be happy over there right now.”
CBC officials tried to play down the loss. But earlier in the week, the public broadcaster said an appearance in the marquee gold medal hockey game would be key to reviving ratings.
However, Doug Brooks, general manager of media sales and marketing for CBC Television, said the network hadn't based its financial forecasts on Canada being in the gold medal game.
“We're still quite confident that we'll be able to manage through it,” Mr. Brooks said. “If your business plan is based on athletic performance, then you probably have a pretty risky plan there, so we tend to go with a fairly conservative number.”
Of the top 20 shows on Canadian television last week, the Olympics only registered twice, showing up in 18th and 19th place, well back of hit shows such as Desperate Housewives, American Idol, Grey's Anatomy, House and 24.
Ms. Devries said the CBC will be obliged to make up for the audience shortfall. One way the broadcaster could do that would be to offer advertisers extra spots during the Turin Games.
But Ms. Devries said Bell has so many ads running during the Olympics that it doesn't want to take extra spots, because that could lead to an oversaturation of its beaver commercials. Instead, Bell will save its credits and use them for a big event down the road.
“High-profile events like the Olympics only come around once every two years, so you either take it in the next Olympic Games or you look at what else they have to offer, which tends to be hockey.”
The gold medal match between Canada and the United States at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games produced the largest audience in Canadian television history. The game was watched by more than 10 million viewers — one third of Canada's population.
Canada's victory also helped advertisers in a less tangible way. Media buyers say that beyond eyeball numbers, they're looking for a quality, engaged audience. When they feel good about what they're watching, those feelings tend to reflect on advertisers.
“[Canada's loss] will have a negative impact on the quality of eyeballs,” Ms. Devries said.
The head of the company that did Olympic buying for Bombardier Inc.'s campaign played down the fact that Canada won't be in the hockey medal round.
“Our Olympic investments are not just in the gold medal hockey game. They're in women's hockey and they're in biathlon and they're in downhill ski racing and every other event,” said Mark Sherman, chief executive of Media Experts.