My friend Stan

You may have heard that CBC just won (well, bought) the rights to keep broadcasting NHL hockey for the next six years. I’m not the world’s biggest hockey fan, but without it this place really would have gone to hell in a handbasket.

The thing I’m most excited about is the web rights:

Also, a multimedia package including live and on-demand video streaming of all CBC’s hockey broadcasts will be available online at CBC.ca in the near future. That means fans in Canada will be able to watch any Hockey Night in Canada broadcast on CBC.ca, regardless of what game is being broadcast in their area of the country.

Now that’ll be cool.

So I’m happy. More than happy, actually - given all the naysayers who predicted we’d lose hockey, and pronounced doom for the mother corp, I’m ecstatic. I was tempted to drop all pretense of professionalism and title this post, “In your face, CTV!” But I wouldn’t do that…

Instead, here’s a picture of me and the Stanley Cup. The corp celebrated the NHL deal by bringing the cup to the CBC building for an employee photo op, plus - what else - some Tim Horton’s coffee and donuts.

I suppose I could have waited for Toronto to actually WIN the Stanley Cup….

Posted by: Paul Gorbould | 03-26-2007 | 04:03 PM
Posted in: CBC | Sports