[shermanator]

Good article highlighting the broadcasting situation the game finds itself in.

Mediapro may not have done as much for grassroots Canadian soccer as it had hoped, but it’s certainly done more than any Canadian broadcaster. Before it launched OneSoccer in 2019, there were generally two ways that Canadians could watch their men’s or women’s national teams: Either Canada Soccer could pay a hefty fee to a broadcaster to produce and air the games, or fans could search the internet for low-quality pirated foreign streams.

Still, not everyone shared that vision.....So, when OneSoccer couldn’t get carriage on the major cable systems, except for Telus, it meant lower potential sponsorship revenue for Canadian Soccer Business – and Canada Soccer itself, which, despite reports to the contrary, still owns the rights to several categories of commercial sponsorships.

Canada’s broadcast system was built to protect Canadian companies – and those who work for and with them – from foreign competition. For decades, it enabled Canadian voices to be heard, to not be drowned out in our own home by the cacophony from the other side of our southern border. But it also meant that private gatekeepers were able to dictate what Canadians could or couldn’t watch. And while the streaming revolution has helped to disrupt that order, the system still favours incumbents.

Canadians shouldn’t have had to wait for a foreign company to show us what we were missing on our own soccer pitch. Still, having seen the possibilities, it would be nice to think Canadian broadcasters might be able to take it from here.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/spor...anadian-soccer