Familiar face
ROGERS SPORTSNET CONFIRMS RON MACLEAN IS BACK AS HOST OF HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA.
Rogers Sportsnet unveiled significant changes to its Hockey Night in Canada broadcast team Monday, confirming the return of Ron MacLean and the departure of George Stroumboulopoulos while announcing other layoffs involving on- air and production staff.
MacLean, the longtime hockey broadcaster who last hosted Hockey Night in Canada during the 2013–14 NHL season, will resume his hosting duties in the fall, and will be joined by former ESPN broadcaster and HNIC contributor David Amber, who will host the late games on the Saturday broadcast.
The recent NHL season was the second in which English- language broadcast rights in Canada were held exclusively by Rogers Communications Inc., under a 12- year, $ 5.2- billion deal. The CBC licenses the Hockey Night in Canada brand to Rogers for its Sportsnet-produced Saturday NHL broadcasts, which air on CBC TV.
Sportsnet also announced that George Stroumboulopoulos, the former talk show host it brought on in 2014 to succeed MacLean in an attempt to revamp the Saturday HNIC broadcasts, will leave the company “to explore new creative opportunities.” Stroumboulopoulos is currently driving across the United States of America on a motorcycle while intermittently posting on Instagram.
“George for two years probably put up with a lot,” said MacLean. “He is out there on his motorcycle, apparently.”
“Two years ago we made some changes to Hockey Night in Canada,” s aid Sportsnet president Scott Moore. “We were enthusiastic. At the end of the day, they did not resonate with hardcore hockey fans.”
Sportsnet also confirmed it recently laid off five production staff members on its hockey broadcasts, and “less than 14” total production and on-air staff. Glenn Healy, P. J. Stock, Billy Jaffe, Chantal Desjardins, Corey Hirsch and Leah Hextall are among the on- air talent who will no longer appear on the network, or on HNIC broadcasts.
ESPN announced that Hextall will be joining its broadcast team for the World Cup of Hockey.
In the wake of the layoffs, Sportsnet intends to reduce the number of regional preshows it produces for games across the country. Moore said the station will now focus resources on its weekday Hockey Central 6: 30 p.m. broadcast as a lead-in to regional games.
“One national show will allow us to use the resources better,” said Moore. “It hasn’t changed t he number of games we’re going to do. We want to give the staff a focus. The focus is on our national nights, in particular Saturday nights. When you produce as many shows as we were producing there was a tendency to forget Saturday night needs to be special.”
Rogers had in recent months denied it had any regrets about its broadcasting deal with the NHL, which this year coincided with poor performances from all seven Canadian NHL franchises, none of which made the playoffs. First-round NHL playoff ratings in Canada this year were down by as much as 61 per cent compared with 2015, according to Numeris.
In April, Moore acknowledged in a memo to Sportsnet staff the decline in ratings and subsequent drop in advertising revenue were related to the disappointing results for the NHL’s Canadian teams. Gord Cutler, a senior vice-president who led production at Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada, was also fired that month.
“Week- in and week- out, Hockey Night in Canada is the highest rated sports program in the country,” said Moore. “Winning resonates with all fans and viewers, and audiences will grow as Canadian teams do better. As mentioned recently by our CEO Guy Laurence, the NHL made a profit these first two seasons. Today’s announcement is about listening to our fans while evolving our broadcasts to honour tradition and keep them fresh.”
According to data released last week by the CRTC, in the first year of the NHL deal with Rogers, Sportsnet saw its pre- tax profits climb to $53.7 million in 2015, up from $ 43.6 million the year before although slightly behind 2013’s $56.7 million.