High-definition television has sports networks in the kind of tizzy that has not been seen since the advent of colour TV half a century ago.

"Many people say watching sports in high-def is actually more compelling than being at a game in person," says Doug Beeforth, president of Rogers Sportsnet, which has been rolling out HDTV broadcasts since September 2003.

"The clarity and depth of the picture, with 1,080 lines of resolution, and the enhanced CD-quality audio are just amazing. But it's the aspect ratio that makes HD ideal for pretty much every sport," he says - referring to the technology's wide-screen image, which reveals far more than can be seen in standard-definition broadcasts received on regular TV screens.

"Take baseball as an example," Beeforth says. "In the traditional 4:3 aspect ratio, the camera behind home plate can capture the batter, the catcher and the pitcher. But with the same camera angle in high-def, with a 9:16 aspect, viewers can see those three players plus first base. So they can watch the pitch and also see whether the batter makes it or is tagged out."

The same visual advantage pertains to hockey and football, says Phil King, president of TSN (The Sports Network). "When you go to a hockey rink or a football arena, you can see the whole field of play, which can't be captured on a square screen.

"In high-def, it can be. So the fans just love it, especially for any sport that's got a lot of movement and a lot of players doing things simultaneously. Even with something like golf, you can see the ball far more clearly."

TSN got into HDTV about 18 months ago. Since then, says King, "our HD broadcasts have tripled. We pick up a fair amount of HD programming from U.S. broadcasters, whether it be ESPN or TNT or HBO, and we're now up to 645 original hours per year now, not including repeats, which bring it up to over 800 hours."

TSN's HDTV 2005 broadcasts include all the home Blue Jays games, 25 NFL games, 20 CFL games, 18 NASCAR races, The Masters and PGA championships, 10 NBA regular-season and playoff games, complete coverage of U.S. Open tennis, 17 HBO championship boxing events and eight NCAA football matchups.

Sportsnet "probably broadcasts more sports in HDTV than any of our (Canadian) competitors," Beeforth says. "This year, we'll do about 275 events in HD. (These include) all the Blue Jay home games, plus a number of their away games and a fair number of other Major League Baseball games that don't involve the Jays. We're also doing a significant number of NBA games."

Leafs TV and Raptors TV have only "dabbled" in HDTV broadcasts since launching in September 2001, says Tom Anselmi, executive vice-president and COO of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns both channels. "We've been carrying some of our Raptors broadcasts in HD with our broadcast partners at Sportsnet. But that's only 10 games out of an 80-game schedule."

As for other Canadian broadcasters, CTV currently has no plans to broadcast sporting events in HDTV. "We leave that to TSN which, as part of Bell Globemedia, is our sister service," says communications director Mike Cosentino.

Simulcasts with U.S. networks will be Global Television's only sports forays into HDTV this year. Coverage includes the Super Bowl and The Masters golf tournament.

CHUM stations have nothing in the works in the sports context, although Citytv launched CityHD, Canada's first digital over-the-air signal, in March.

CBC followed suit soon afterward, debuting over-the-air HDTV channels in English and French, says Joel Darling, executive producer of Hockey Night in Canada. Darling says CBC's first HD broadcast was the outdoor NHL game at Edmonton's Commonwealth Stadium in 2003.

"That same year we did the all-star game from Minnesota, followed by Hockey Day in Canada, a game between Montreal and Toronto in February 2004," he says. "In the last full season of NHL hockey, we did two regular-season games and the all-star game in HD. And last summer, we did the final two games of World Cup of Hockey in HD."

What's preventing sports broadcasters from proceeding with HDTV even more quickly than they're currently doing, says TSN's King, is "the financial reality that HD costs 20 to 30 per cent more to produce than traditional television."

So far, there is no way to recoup that added expense by charging more for advertising, he says, because - with fewer than 300,000 HDTV sets in Canadian households - there is not yet enough critical mass to even be reported by broadcast monitor AC Nielsen.

"That will only happen when at least half of all Canadian viewers switch from analogue to digital," King says, "which I believe is being projected as 2008."

For the next few years, sports broadcasters will be obliged to absorb the extra costs of HDTV on their own, King adds.

(Terry Poulton can be reached at poulton@businessedge.ca)