[das_hips]

Companies who spend money on advertising like to make sure that their advertising dollars are put to good use. Some people refer to this as "return on investment". So, if you sell, oh, I don't know, let's say beverages, and you have been approached by a professional sports franchise to advertise on, oh I don't know, let's say their rink boards, they need to show you numbers that prove to you that advertising on their rink boards is a good return on investment because of the number of people watching their professional sports franchise.

I'd love to conduct your study for you, but I'm guessing that with your self-admitted ignorance as to how or why someone would actually want to research consumers, you'll be even more shocked to discover how much market research projects cost (sarcasm intended).

The only thing that I have to add to the whole CBC discussion, is that based upon the Saturday schedules thus far, and as is scheduled to continue, the CBC plays almost every Senators game played on Saturdays, and while about half of them will reach a nation-wide broadcast because of their opponent, or the start time, about seven or eight of the Saturday night games the Senators play will be broadcast in the Ottawa area only. If the CBC can find it profitable to do this for the city of Ottawa, how can it not be profitable to do the same for Calgary, or Edmonton when the two cities are only marginally smaller, and especially for Vancouver, a city more then twice the size of Ottawa. Factor in the some-what dispersed support of the Senators in this city (there is certainly an allegiance of Habs and Leafs fans living in the capital, I think 'Goulet' could provide that), the unbalanced linguistics of the city (a sizeable portion of the city is French speaking only), the essential basis of what a prime-time audience can actually provide (in that showing a Leafs game at 4:00 PM PST probably only draws a mediocre audience, while showing both an Edmonton and Vancouver game at 7:00 PM local time would provide a more ideal television audience for advertisers), and a comment from a certain Hipbase member along the lines that "Senators' fans were the worst in the league", and I find it hard to digest that the CBC can't find more airtime for the smaller markets on top of the GTA coverage of a Leafs game.