Could the timing be any more calculated and in-your-face? Less than a week into the 2012 Olympics the IOC annouces that CBC will be the Canadian broadcaster for the 2014 winter and 2016 summer Olympics.

Sure there is the speculation about how much this is costing CBC given their recent $115M budget cut. From the financial perspective it is a curious topic since the 2010 & 2012 rights cost Bell & Rogers, who teamed up to oust CBC after many years, a hefty $153M.

But what does it mean for those of us who simply are wanting to watch? More of Ron MacLean. That was obvious. But lets go a little deeper shall we. These days few people prefer SD and most have HDTVs. CTV and Rogers have plenty of channels on which to offer coverage in HD – CTV, CTV two, TSN, TSN 2, the four regional Sportsnet channels, and Sportsnet One. Most of those channels are also available in SD for those so inclined. What does CBC have? CBC is carried in HD by every cable and satellite company. There is also Bold but not so many companies currently carry it in HD and it has been available for a while now. Bold has the Calgary Stampede each year and most of the companies servicing Calgary don’t offer Bold HD.  There are also CBC News Network and Documentary. Neither is particularly a common place to tune in for sporting events.  One particularly large service provider doesn’t offer CBC News Network HD.  Bell, Rogers, and CBC each offer streaming video on their websites but with the internet connexions most Canadians have watching streaming sports videos (or anything really) is about as clear as listening to uncle Joe stutter and slur while drunk.

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