Sport heavyweights suddenly say no to curling
A difficult season for American curling fans just took a turn for the worse.
Days after learning that two popular Canadian championships won’t be aired stateside, news has broken that U.S. rights holder NBC won’t be televising any games from the world women’s and world men’s championships.
“This is like two kicks to the gut coming out of an Olympic year,” said Tony D’Orazio, a curler from Rochester, NY who also runs the Bring Curling To Mainstream America Facebook page.
“Curling has grown in America largely because Americans have been able to see the competitive aspects of the sport on mainstream sports networks,” said D’Orazio. “Take that away, and the grassroots growth is at risk.”
The bad news started with word that ESPN3 has dropped streaming coverage of Canada’s national women’s and men’s championships, the Scotties Tournament of Hearts and Brier. ESPN owns 30% of Canada’s The Sports Network, and TSN has made those feeds available to their U.S. shareholder for free since 2012.
U.S. curling fans were aghast when it became clear ESPN was out of the deal which had cost them zero money in rights fees or production costs.
It’s believed the agreement began with Curling Canada’s desire to provide Canadian championship coverage for “snowbirds” who vacation in the United States during the winter.
ESPN did not respond to multiple approaches by The Curling News to comment on the matter.
Earlier this month, the Beijing 2022 U.S. Olympic teams skipped by Tabitha Peterson and John Shuster won their national championships in Denver.
Peterson will battle at the women’s world championship Mar. 18-26 at Sandviken, Sweden while Shuster will represent Team USA at the world men’s championship in Ottawa, Ont. from Apr. 1-9.
Traditionally, U.S. Olympic rights holder NBC airs U.S. games at the world championships on a variety of channels, including NBCSN and the Olympic Channel.
NBC Sports confirmed the decision not to renew a contract with the World Curling Federation. WCF head of media Chris Hamilton said the decision was made at the end of the 2022 curling year.
“Last season, (NBC) broadcast a reduced number of games on Peacock and at that time, let us know that there would be no coverage following the worlds that season,” said Hamilton.
“However, it is important to note that this doesn’t just apply to curling. NBC have ended a number of contracts with sports organizations and reduced their overall sports broadcasting on their channels.”
The NBCSN channel closed early in 2022, and much of its programming was moved to USA Network and NBC’s burgeoning Peacock streaming service. The Olympic Channel shut down in September of 2022.
NBC, a longtime U.S. Olympic rights holder, holds a $7.75 billion contract to air the summer and winter Olympic Games through 2032.
An NBC Sports spokesman told The Curling News that “NBC Sports remains committed to covering Olympic sports and the journeys of these athletes between Olympic and Paralympic Games, however the rapid changes in the media landscape have led us to recalibrate our coverage in many ways, including more original programming such as Chasing Gold, which shines a spotlight on athlete stories across the panorama of Olympic sports.”
American curlers and curling fans can find ways to watch both Canadian and world championship curling, but it now costs money—although some fees are more than reasonable—or time, as in waiting until the completion of live broadcasts.
On Curling Canada’s new plus.curling.ca platform, majors like the Scotties and Brier are available for free 24-48 hours after the original broadcasts, and non-Season of Champions events are available live for CDN $9.99 per event—or free after the event’s conclusion.
Meanwhile, WCF is in its second season of providing live or archived games via The Curling Channel, which uses the Recast platform. It’s a micro-transactions site, where users can watch advertisements to earn viewing credits, or simply pay a small amount (less than a Canadian dollar) to watch a game.
It’s been a tough year for U.S. curling fans.
During the Beijing Olympics, where competitors in three disciplines missed the medal podium, NBC continued a recent practice of airing commercials in the middle of ends of play, causing a firestorm of negative reaction.
In late summer, a long-running spat between USA Curling and one of its largest membership groups spilled into the open, and the Grand National Curling Club was eventually kicked out of the organization.
In early October, the owners of one of America’s most popular new dedicated curling facilities were told they would be evicted.
The Southern California Curling Center is now closed indefinitely.
Around the same time, a firestorm over USA Curling’s then-CEO Jeff Plush erupted with the release of the Yates Report into allegations within U.S. women’s soccer.
The USA Curling board of directors initially resisted calls for Plush to resign or be dismissed, but both Plush and the board were eventual casualties.
USA Curling’s interim CEO Dean Gemmell has made strides in recent months, improving transparency via multiple town halls and launching renewed social media and communications efforts. In addition, new curling facilities—like January’s Traverse City Curling Club in Michigan—continue to sprout up across the land.
But this news from two large American sports broadcasters, both with decades of involvement in the sport, has to hurt.
“NBC and ESPN have the rights to the most competitive tournaments the sport has to offer, but they’re failing curling fans by not broadcasting them,” said D’Orazio.
“I really hope this is an anomaly, and Americans will get to see a United States team compete in the world championships next month.”