One of the most frequent complaints you see in the comments on CBC’s website are people bitching about how the Leafs get so much coverage on HNIC especially considering how much “the Laffs suck” and how CBC gets money from the government and thus must represent all Canadians by covering all teams equally etc etc etc etc.

At the end of the day its viewership numbers that matter, why do you think there are still so many reality shows on TV these days even though 99.99% of them are completely garbage and non-watchable? Why do you think Micheal Bay is still allowed to make movies and further maim and butcher my coveted Transformer franchise? Because they all draw in huge audience/attendance numbers and $$.

Ack, Co-workers just sent me a link to the article saying its about time. When I brought up the same points they responded with “Well how do you know the ratings will be down” As used last year Saturdays off and local coverage only days as examples and even pointed to the playoffs being down as well.

Unfortunately Canada Television ratings are impossible to find. I can’t find anything to back up the numbers. Feck.

They will move the Leafs off the national broadcast if they decide that appeasing bitchy Leaf haters and “reflecting the diverse hockey interests of the country” are more important than ratings and money.

Then again, this is the CBC we’re talking about here, so anything’s possible.

I would have accused them of not doing the research…except they did do the research and then wrote the article anyway even though the research contradicts it!

These guys have no brains.

I just finished going over the ratings numbers from last year and I am sure you will all be shocked ABSOLUTELY SHOCKED to know that when the Leafs did not play on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday. They lose Viewers and a lot of viewers too, I know it is only a small sample size but in the 3 non Toronto HNIC game broadcasts the CBC lost on average almost 24% of their viewers.

A more detailed fanpost with numbers and analysis coming soon!