Webcasting? Internet Streaming? CBC? WCF? WTF?

I swore I wouldn't write about this topic any more, but wtf is going on??? We have been told that CBC is streaming the WCTV webcast of the 2008 World Curling championship round robin games involving Canada, and indeed the cbc sports website says they will be carrying the webcast. But (and perhaps I'm missing something) WTF is it???

Where will YOU watch the 2008 Men's World Curling Championship?

We were discussing this last night at the local curling club. It turns out you won't be watching much of the 2008 Men's world curling championship on CBC-TV, who has the exclusive telecasting contract in Canada. Why not?

• Several of the games will be shown on "Bold", formerly known as "Country Canada", CBC's alternate channel for things they don't think are important enough to show on the main CBC network channel. To get Bold (what a pretentious, wannabe name), one must have a digital box or satellite dish in our area.
• But many of the games involving Canada will be available only via webcast at CBC.ca. So if you don't have high-speed internet, you're s.o.l. And even if you do have access to these games, the betting at our club was that they'll be done on the cheap via CurlTV. Not that I want to knock CurlTV; rather, I'd expect more from CBC.
  
  Update: We are unable to get anything from the CBC.ca website; thanks, again CBC! If you are able to get even the draws involving Canada, and you live in Canada, please post a comment explaining how!
  
  Update #2: Finally, it's there. But why the screwups???
  
  
• and heaven forbid you might want to watch a game between two other teams, not including Canada. We have found no way for you to do so if you live in Canada.

So why is CBC doing this to us?

• Are they punishing Canadian viewers because they lost the bid to cover curling in the future?
• Are they embroiled in some battle with CTV to see who can control CurlTV?
• Are they just plain idiots?
• And after several years of repeated travesties, why and how does CBC still obtain any rights to curling telecasts at all? Who made these contracts with CBC without specifying more carefully what would be expected of CBC? And why would they make such contracts?

Or are there some rational explanations for CBC's continued botching of the telecasting of curling?

What Else Can CBC Do to Ruin Curling???

Regular readers of this blog will know that nearly everything CBC does involving curling has problems (aside from their major coverage on their regular network of the semi-finals and finals -- those are well-done). And....They've done it again!!

Not only have they hooked up with CurlTV (which I am happy to have rather than have no coverage), providing a poor picture in their webcasts of the morning draws, but this morning they ended their webcast before two of the draws were completed! One, between Quebec and the Territories was tied going into the 10th end; the other, between Ontario and New Brunswick had Ontario up by one going into the tenth. So why did they go off the air??? To save money? To further irritate curling fans? It certainly wasn't because they had something else they intended to air at 1pm (EST).

I would like to think there is a logical, rational explanation for their decision. But I doubt if there is.

And to top things off, curlcast seems not to be providing data updates, and TSN has not yet updated its reports, so I don't have any idea what happened in either of those two games!

Thank you SOOOOO much, CBC!

Canada Cup 2008

After squeaking past Jennifer Jones in the semi-finals, Kelly Scott's rink lost solidly in the finals to Lawton's rink, which demonstrated superiority at nearly every aspect of the game. But the big blow was a steal of three by Lawton, from which Scott was unable to recover.

On the men's side, in the battle of the Kevins, Kevin Koe's rink defeated Kevin Martin's rink in the men's final. The game was quite defensive most of the time as the teams alternately forced each other to take single points in the early ends. In the 10th end, Martin had a good chance to set up a steal of one to force an extra end, but his shot sailed about two feet too far, sealing a victory for Koe.

It was odd, seeing the men's final begin before the women's final had ended. It was especially odd since it looked as if cameramen had been on the ice that the men used. I had a sense that the tv contract was responsible for this overlap in coverage. Given that the women's match was not close in the last ends, I didn't mind not seeing every shot of both matches, but ordinarily I would.

CBC Coverage Sucks Again!3 Lead Stones Not Shown in Each End

Thanks for almost nothing, CBC. Here we are in the fourth end of the 2007 Women's Worlds, and we still haven't seen the first three lead stones of any end. CBC is too friggin' busy showing too many commercials. And then, when they go back live to Japan, they point the camera somewhere other than the ice while Don blathers about something from a prepared script.

btw, even though Canada is leading going into the fourth, Denmark is looking pretty darned good.

Open Letter to CBC Sports

Please please PLEASE add the Canada-Denmark matchup in the page 1-2 playoffs at the 2007 Women's World Curling Championship to your broadcast schedule. At this point, I don't even care if you have to add it on Country Canada (which I have not watched since your last curling debacle); please, you will have the announcers and crew there anyway. Just have them do two games on Saturday.

Televising the Playoffs from the Women's Worlds -- Has the CBC Done It Again?

According to this site, Team Canada will play Denmark in the 1-2 playoff at 2am EST on Saturday. But even though they will have a crew in place, is CBC televising the game? Nope. They will, however, be televising the bronze metal game at 7am which, if Canada defeats Denmark in the 1-2 playoff, will not feature Team Canada.

I guess by televising the last two games, given Team Canada's record, CBC is guaranteed to be showing Team Canada at least once. Too bad they won't be showing 1-2 playoff on Saturday morning. And too bad we in Canada cannot even pay to watch that game on the NBC sports internet service.