CBC Newsworld began a policy of charging premium rates for certain scheduled and unscheduled news programs last month, beginning with its broadcasts of Prime Time News with Peter Mansbridge during the nhl hockey playoffs.

Since the start of the playoffs, cbc has been airing ptn on Newsworld in its regular 10 p.m. time slot.

After the game ends, the news is rerun on the cbc broadcast network, where it normally appears.

Gary Greenway, director of marketing and sales for Newsworld, says ptn usually draws one million viewers nightly.

‘It’s possible we could flip a lot of those viewers over to Newsworld at 10, although certainly not the audience the main channel would get,’ Greenway says.

Print and radio advertising, as well as stringers along the bottom of the screen during the hockey game, tell viewers they can still get ptn in its regular time slot on Newsworld.

Greenway says a premium rate averaging 20% to 25% more than the regular rate, which is based on typical audience numbers, will be the tab for advertisers during ptn and other special events, including coverage of elections, the federal budget, royal visits and the Commonwealth Games.

Over the past two to three years, Greenway says the news channel has been tracking viewership, adding it has now gathered enough audience history and credibility to start charging premium rates.

Newsworld’s research shows its coverage of high-profile events, both unexpected and scheduled, can draw significantly higher-than-average audiences.

For example, its coverage of the presentation of the federal budget in February drew better than four times the normal number of adults 25-54.

In terms of overall viewers, the budget delivered 33,000 in a time period that usually reports 6,000.

Unexpected news events also mean audience peaks for Newsworld.

Special coverage of the bombing of the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma drew 37,000 adults 25 to 54 between nine and 10 p.m. on the day of the tragedy when normal viewership would have been 9,000.