CHL on verge of getting star treatment on Sportsnet

When the 2014 Memorial Cup tournament opens on Friday, junior hockey will be getting its biggest exposure next to the annual world championship event.

If things go according to plan, there could come a day when the Memorial Cup rivals the worlds for both glamour and attention. While that may seem far-fetched considering that the world event draws audiences in the millions while the Memorial Cup is watched by hundreds of thousands, there are big plans for increasing the television exposure for Canada's junior leagues.

Rogers Communications, which gave the Canadian Hockey League its biggest rights deal ever with a 12-year contract earlier this year, considers the CHL a big part of its hockey strategy. The fact that you will probably see more junior hockey on Sportsnet and other Rogers platforms starting next season is directly attributable to the corporation's massive $5.2 billion deal with the National Hockey League.

That's why Rogers paid millions for its CHL deal when previous arrangements basically involved production costs and revenue-sharing deals.

``The Canadian Hockey League is a perfect complement to our NHL coverage," says Rob Corte, vice-president of live events and news production for Rogers Sportsnet.

Rogers knows it is facing a major challenge with so much invested in the NHL package. It has to take already huge hockey audiences and find a way to make them even bigger -- and younger. One way it plans to do that is by increasing exposure of hockey at the junior level -- not only during events like the Memorial Cup and regular CHL time slots, but on shows like Hockey Night In Canada.

``Our philosophy is stars first," says Corte. ``What we're going to do now is take the stars of the Canadian Hockey League and introduce them to the public at an earlier age and take them all the way through their NHL years.

``The CHL will be getting significantly more promotion as part of the NHL package. You're going to hear more stories, more analysis and see more highlights from the CHL across all of our platforms. You can image on Hockey Night In Canada, more references to the Canadian Hockey League and the stars plaing in that league. Just by the nature of being associated with the NHL on a consistent basis, you're going to see a lift to the CHL."

In addition, it's pretty certain that you will see more CHL games on national TV. Right now, Sportsnet airs 39 CHL games a year. Corte says the network is in talks to boost that to about 50.

That certainly can't hurt, but the CHL has a long way to go. The Memorial Cup does very well -- it averaged 244,000 viewers per game last year and the final has attracted as many as 800,000 viewers (2005.) Last year's average was down slightly from 2012, but those are pretty good ratings -- especially considering that they're built on weak regular-season and playoff numbers.

The CHL's Friday night package on Sportsnet generally draws pretty small audiences. For example, last Friday's Ontario Hockey League playoff game between Guelph and North Bay averaged only 78,000 viewers -- one of the least-watched events of the week.

But Corte says Sportsnet has made a commitment to the CHL and will continue to give it good time slots. Last Friday night, for instance, the junior game was on Sportsnet's main network while the Toronto Blue Jays game against the L.A. Angels was shuffled off to Sportsnet One.

``We're very serious about the CHL and that's the type of treatment it's going to be getting going forward when we start our new 12-year deal next year," Corte says. ``The CHL is going to be given good time slots and network reach so it can reach as many viewers as possible."

Sportsnet will give the tournament first-class treatment, even breaking in a radio-frequency camera that will give viewers some unique access during pre-game warmups and during breaks in the action. In addition to carrying every game in prime time, an X-night commitment, it will air a one-hour preview show and carry all games on radio.

It has even devoted a good chunk of the latest issue to Sportsnet Magazine to junior hockey.

It's an admirable plan, though you have to wonder if there's any way to get Canadians excited about amateur sports. Millions watch the world junior championship, but abandon the juniors when the regular-season games resume. The same thing happens with all those Olympic sports that dominate our lives once every four years and are basically ignored for the next three.

But, regardless, all that attention can't hurt the CHL.