Somebody has to come up with a 24/7 Curling channel. You know people would watch.
During a teleconference, NBC Sports research chief Alan Wurtzel discussed how curling is scoring again in the Olympics:
“We began coverage on Monday and on that day, 5 telecasts of curling delivered over 5 million viewers. It was the top-rated sport of the day on NBCSN, which, by the way, was the number one cable network. I don’t mean the number one sports network. I mean the number one cable network from noon until 7:00 p.m.
“On CNBC. curling delivered 1.2 million viewers, its highest viewer delivery ever for that Monday time period. And look, maybe a part of it can be attributed to the very fashionable Norwegian pants. You guys be the judge of that.”
Definitely the pants.
Very interesting observation. What we need is some high prize US bonspiels, well televised with top players from around the world (Martin, Howard, Jacobs, Edin, Lui, and of course Ulsrud), and I guarantee you that within 4-8 years we will have abundance of US talent competing and curling as a College sport with significant attraction. In the end, money (viewers) talks.
I think the tv execs believe that curling is a once in every four years thing. If they were basing their decisions on facts then perhaps they would reconsider:
http://www.torontosun.com/2012/03/08/curling-continues-ratings-climb-at-brier
Personally, I’d like to see the Canadian Brier become the North American Brier. Invite a team or two from the U.S.