[News] Sportsnet signs 12 year $5.2 billion for NHL CDN Broadcast rights.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

I don't think that will be an issue as Bettman won't be around next negotiations and I have a feeling once this 12 year deal is complete that the NHL will be happy to have another broadcaster handling their product. It appears the league wanted to show TSN who was the boss even if it meant handing over their broadcasting rights to a 3rd rate company with open wallets and empty promises. We are talking about a league that in the past has sold their broadcasting rights to OLN so it's not really a surprise that ego is behind this decision.

I don't think the NHL had much choice but to go to OLN. The NHL still holds a grudge against ESPN (who owns 20% of TSN). ESPN basically gave them a lousy Hobson's Choice take-it-or-leave-it option after a year-long lockout. If ESPN wasn't there when the NHL needed it most, that was viewed as disrespectful. It's because of ESPN that ultimately the NHL had to embarrassingly look to OLN.

However, I don't think it's a 3rd rate company with empty promises. Rogers has a far greater reach into television, internet, mobile and other media. Far greater than BCE.

I'm very excited to see what they come up with in September.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by getbak

No they won't. If anything, they'll talk about the NHL more because they don't have any games to show.

It's like McKenzie tweeted yesterday, he first joined TSN full-time when Sportsnet got the national rights 15 years ago. When he was hired, he was told that it was their goal to still be Canadians' first choice for NHL news and information. The only thing they lost was the rights to air a couple of games a week, they can still cover the NHL in other ways.

The other thing is that the Leafs regional rights are up in a couple seasons. I could see them just throwing the entire bank at those rights. If they can air 50 Leafs games a season, it'll be like they never lost anything to the portion of the population that they care most about.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

Yup.

I brought up the Fox Robots because I find the reaction here very similar to when FOX bought the NFC package from CBS in the 90s. IIRC it was over 1 billion for 4 years. People were outraged! What was FOX? A crap channel who had never even broadcasted a football game. Whereas CBS had done it for years.

But very quickly FOX hired the right people (mostly CBS people) and it sounded the same and looked better. People turned on their tvs at 1pm Eastern on Sunday and still heard Pat Summerall and John Madden.

Now less than 20 years later, everyone is used to the NFL on FOX.

Fox also brought a lot of innovations to the game, such as having a score bug on screen for the entire game (that one affected sports around the world). Perhaps Sportsnet will be looking to do some innovation as well as I'm sure they're going to want to step it up next season.

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

Fox also brought a lot of innovations to the game, such as having a score bug on screen for the entire game (that one affected sports around the world). Perhaps Sportsnet will be looking to do some innovation as well as I'm sure they're going to want to step it up next season.

What could you do in hockey? The FOX Puck was a failure.
Microphones on the goalies? The mics on the refs barely work.

more behind the net angles? Maybe under the score have 5 numbers on each side representing who is on the ice right now?

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

What could you do in hockey? The FOX Puck was a failure.
Microphones on the goalies? The mics on the refs barely work.

more behind the net angles? Maybe under the score have 5 numbers on each side representing who is on the ice right now?

The mics on the refs are in-building, though. Also, more than half the time they're user error.

You could theoretically mic up the coaches, that would be interesting. What about following a single player on Sportsnet 360 for a game that's on the main network? Shots on goal on the screen at all times. Or have the game on the main network and the same game on 360 except it has realtime stats on the screen the whole time?

Who knows what they might come up with. I could see them trying some things, though. And of course some things will be complete failures (like the Fox puck) but I could see them trying and some things sticking.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

The Flood recovery was important.

SN shows a 30 minute pre-game before every Flames game.

No, they don't. Most of the so-called "pre-game" shows this season, especially on SN-Flames, have been the flood show re-run. Important or not, it's still not a pre-game show. It is as much of a pre-game show as you got on the Flames TSN broadcast last night.

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by CliffFletcher

But the money from this TV deal (and the national U.S. deal) goes to all teams equally. If every teams gets $8 mil more a year, it doesn't unbalance the playing field. It's the big disparity in other sources of income (gate receipts, local TV, merchandise) that leads to disparity. One of the reasons the NFL doesn't have a huge imbalance issue is because most of the revenue for NFL teams comes from the TV deals. And every team gets the same amount.

Canadian teams get more "real" money out of this deal than US teams. There's something called "invasion fees" reported in the deal. I don't understand how they work, but one report suggested that Canadian teams get to split 35% of the proceeds of this deal, while the US teams get to split 65% of the proceeds of this deal. This is the real dollars, of course. HRR should go up by the proceeds/30 for each team as I understand it.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by GirlySports

The Flood recovery was important.

SN shows a 30 minute pre-game before every Flames game. Sometimes there is a post-game or the go to connected and then throw is to Kerr and Simmer for a few final comments.

Tomorrow there will be a pre-game at 1:30pm before the Flames-Ducks game.

TSN does nothing. Yesterday was ridiculous. IF The Leafs game had ended before 8 then they would have had a 15 minute pre-game leading into an 8:15 faceoff. But since the Leafs game ran long they turfed that pre-game. TSN2 was available at 8, why not show the pre-game there? nooooo they showing stupid Eastern Conference highlights and barely make it in time for the faceoff. No national anthem!

That's because TSN doesn't care about Western viewers and never has

everytime they have a double header the Eastern game starts at 730 EST rather than 7 like it should, and I would guess over half the time (moreso if it's the leafs) ends up going long and Western viewers miss the start of their teams game, or anything resembling a pre-game for it

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by diane_phaneuf

That's because TSN doesn't care about Western viewers and never has

everytime they have a double header the Eastern game starts at 730 EST rather than 7 like it should, and I would guess over half the time (moreso if it's the leafs) ends up going long and Western viewers miss the start of their teams game, or anything resembling a pre-game for it

Funny I don't recall HNIC doing pre-game for the 2nd of double headers nor do I recall them interrupting Leafs/Habs game to go directly to the late start. You guys realize TSN put the Flames vs Hawks on TSN 2 last night until the Leafs game ended right?

The biggest league in North America (NFL) only does pre-games for the early starts and goes directly to the afternoon games right? How many pre-games do you want in a day? I don't recall any western NFL teams whining they don't get pre-game. In fact barely anyone watches pre-game anyway.

[Stay Golden]

As far as websites go i don't bother with Sportsnet for a few years now. TSN jmo has a far better website.
I wonder how many CBC and TSN jobs will be lost over the next year due to this monopoly move by Rogers.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Funny I don't recall HNIC doing pre-game for the 2nd of double headers nor do I recall them interrupting Leafs/Habs game to go directly to the late start. You guys realize TSN put the Flames vs Hawks on TSN 2 last night until the Leafs game ended right?

The biggest league in North America (NFL) only does pre-games for the early starts and goes directly to the afternoon games right? How many pre-games do you want in a day? I don't recall any western NFL teams whining they don't get pre-game. In fact barely anyone watches pre-game anyway.

CBC starts their games at 7 EST, I don't remember many times where they didn't talk about the 2nd game in the 5-10 minutes before it started

They do put them on TSN2 if nothing else is on and that's where I saw it, but there are still some people who don't have TSN2 or may not have it in HD etc.

I dont want a full pre-game as you're right I dont watch them, but some form of buildup would be nice, and all it would take is to start the eastern games at 7 EST (where the majority of them do)

[PeteMoss]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

The other thing is that the Leafs regional rights are up in a couple seasons. I could see them just throwing the entire bank at those rights. If they can air 50 Leafs games a season, it'll be like they never lost anything to the portion of the population that they care most about.

Rogers/Bell co-own the Leafs now don't they? Wonder how those negotiations work?

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Funny I don't recall HNIC doing pre-game for the 2nd of double headers nor do I recall them interrupting Leafs/Habs game to go directly to the late start. You guys realize TSN put the Flames vs Hawks on TSN 2 last night until the Leafs game ended right?

The biggest league in North America (NFL) only does pre-games for the early starts and goes directly to the afternoon games right? How many pre-games do you want in a day? I don't recall any western NFL teams whining they don't get pre-game. In fact barely anyone watches pre-game anyway.

HNIC only has one channel, they don't have much choice.
The NFL is different, the morning pre-game talks about both early and late games. That's why NFL pregame on FOX and CBS is an hour long. Actually, CBC also talks about about the late game a bit during their 4:30 hockey night pre-game.

TSN does neither.

[SofaProfessor]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

What about following a single player on Sportsnet 360 for a game that's on the main network?

Actually, that kind of sounds pretty cool. I think it would work better as a second screen sort of thing. Get the Sportsnet app and follow along with your favourite players on your tablet or smartphone while the game is on TV. Also would be a hit with people who play fantasy hockey.

Too bad that since we're talking about Rogers, you will have to have a Rogers cable and mobile subscription to use the app for a fee of $5 a month.

[Sidney Crosby's Hat]

Originally Posted by PeteMoss

Rogers/Bell co-own the Leafs now don't they? Wonder how those negotiations work?

MLSE has a board. They'll make the best decision for the team, which means the highest bidder of course.

Bell owns 37.5% of the Leafs and Rogers owns 37.5%.

[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by Sidney Crosby's Hat

The other thing is that the Leafs regional rights are up in a couple seasons. I could see them just throwing the entire bank at those rights. If they can air 50 Leafs games a season, it'll be like they never lost anything to the portion of the population that they care most about.

The regional rights for the Leafs are with TSN for the long term. For next season, TSN has 10 regional Leafs games. It increases after that to 26 games per season. http://sports.nationalpost.com/2013/11/26/nhl-rogers-reach-12-year-5-2-billion-broadcast-deal-that-would-see-cbc-keep-hockey-night-in-canada/

[Tsawwassen]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Funny I don't recall HNIC doing pre-game for the 2nd of double headers nor do I recall them interrupting Leafs/Habs game to go directly to the late start. You guys realize TSN put the Flames vs Hawks on TSN 2 last night until the Leafs game ended right?

Yes, TSN2 did have the Flames game from the beginning but it doesn't always happen that way. It was just 2 weeks ago a good chunk of the 1st period of the Oilers game was missed due to the Leafs-Wild game going longer and TSN2 had another game on. Back on March 13 from last season, half of the 1st period was missed of the Red Wings-Flames game. http://forum.calgarypuck.com/showthread.php?t=125800

[Flashpoint]

It just doesn't matter.

You'll be able to watch the Flames much as you do now. Pregame, your family will still be pestering you to get off the couch and do crap. Intermission you're hitting the can and grabbing a brew. Post game, you're on CP jibber jabbering with the rest of us who have an unhealthy fan-team relationship now going on 2 decades.

Oh, and yeah, it'll still be based out of Toronto, eastern biased, and largely unaware of the western conference. That's where the money is, and nobody at any network is staying up past 11 to watch our garbage team.

It would be nice if the chuckleheads on Fan 960 would stop talking about it though. My morning commute doesn't need that much self fellatio from a second rate Canadian sports broadcaster. Just talk more Flames hockey and get over yourselves.

That or ask Rhett. That's always funny.

[Flashpoint]

Also - if you're smart you're listening to Mahr while watching the game anyway. That man provides solid gold eargasims.

[-TC-]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

David Shoalts on TSN's strategy:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sport...ticle15647965/

I suspected something like this went down....I know a guy who had dealings with BCE at a fairly high level and he was taken aback by the attitude demonstrated by fairly senior execs...

A lot of arrogance there...