Winners, Losers and Talking About The Game

Michael Hedges Jaunary 13, 2020 Follow on Twitter

Television thrives on predictability. For two decades reality TV definedthe medium - from Big Brother and Survivor to Dancing With Stars and the ubiquitous Got Talent franchise. Broadcasters have been thrown off their pace by the ascendent streaming services, not limited to Netflix, taking advantage of new technologies and spending fortunes on top drawer productions.

Sports on TV is, arguably, the most predictable. Viewers are hugely loyal. Knowing this, broadcasters will pay anything for sports rights. The advertising people are happy. The rights holders are very happy. Sports broadcasters, though, are challenged by every game being different and also the same.

Ice hockey is a big deal in Russia, almost as much as in Canada; like rugby in New Zealand, baseball in Cuba and football in Spain. Russian television covers ice hockey completely and totally - all the teams, all the stars and all the tournaments. Russian ice hockey fans know this.

Just finished last weekend was the World Junior Ice Hockey Championships (WJC) in the Czech Republic. The WJC is for players under 20 years and is watched closely by NHL agents and scouts. Russian all-sports channel Match TV broadcast all the qualifying matches live and was expecting to carry the final match (January 5): Russia v Canada, a very big ice hockey rivalry. For some reason, not exactly clear, that match was carried by major state broadcaster Channel One. Neither Match TV nor Channel One gave comment or explanation on the change, noted Vedomosti (January 9)

Match TV is principally operated by Gazprom Media. It is all-sports. Some daytime programming is devoted to healthy lifestyles. In 2015 Russian Federation President Vladimir V. Putin “ordered” the creation of an all-sports television channel, consolidating efforts of several broadcasters. Free-to-air Match TV took to the airwaves by the end of the year, distribution provided by state broadcaster VGTRK, operator of Channel One and many other channels, dislodging Russia-2.

In 2018 Gazprom Media acquired controlling interest in KHL TV, the Kontinental Hockey League’s channel, and consolidated operations with Match TV. The Kontinental Hockey League was formed in 2008. Nineteen of its 24 teams are in Russia. Gazprom Media also operates co-branded all-sports pay-TV channels Match! Arena and Match! Game.

With the abrupt channel change for the WJC final match, Match TV was left with a hole in the schedule, always dreaded by TV programmers. Somebody there decided to broadcast the 2011 WJC final match, also between Russia and Canada, played in Buffalo, New York, against the Channel One broadcast. It turned into a stroke of PR genius.

Granted, the Channel One broadcast of the 2020 WJC finals drew 6.6 million viewers, according to measurement service Mediascope, with the Match TV broadcast of the nine-year old contest attracting 1.3 million viewers. But Canada won the 2020 match 4 to 3. In the 2011 match Russia won 5 to 3. Guess which match the Russian ice hockey fans were talking about?

Not only the fans: news channel Moskva 24, operated by the City of Moscow and VGTRK, congratulated the Russian team in a news broadcast than night. Russian politicians joined in. NHL St. Louis Blues player Vladimir Tarasenko, who was in the 2011 match, watched the replay thinking it was the live match until he recognized himself, reported Meduza (January 6). Fans and commentators noted that on Match TV the letter R appeared, signifying a repeat. Indeed some fans howled, ironically, about fake news. Said tabloid Moskovskij Komsomolets (January 8), “Thanks for the game.”

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