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

[MrMastodonFarm]

Originally Posted by jammies

I, for one, cannot wait until I see a graphic of a Calgary Flames helmet and an Edmonton Oilers helmet crashing together and blowing up. It's clearly what hockey has been missing all these years.

I personally hope Sportsnet Magazine goes bi-monthly now.

[d_phaneuf]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Lets face it, if Sportsnet manages to keep the sound and play in synch for most of a game, we'd be "blown away".

there's like a 95% chance that's what they have been holding back and are ready to break out in 2014/15

[Red Menace]

So, I live in Montreal and am forced to buy centre ice to be able to watch all the Flames games. Does this new deal mean I will be able to see all the SN West games that are currently unavailable to me without centre ice?
Or just the games that are deemed "national" games?

[sureLoss]

Originally Posted by Red Menace

So, I live in Montreal and am forced to buy centre ice to be able to watch all the Flames games. Does this new deal mean I will be able to see all the SN West games that are currently unavailable to me without centre ice?
Or just the games that are deemed "national" games?

It was reported earlier in the thread that Rogers will be selling a premium service to lift the regional broadcast restrictions that will cost less than centre ice

[Hemi-Cuda]

Sportsnet is a bush league organization, but the real bad guy in this is the NHL. This does nothing but hurt Canadian hockey fans by giving a single company such a large monopoly over a product. There's more than money to think about in a deal like this, there's also a brand to protect. And Sportsnet has been terrible at trying to promote the NHL, they can't even get the friggen audio in sync for live games

I'd actually be for some kind of government legislation to be implemented for scenarios like this. It's anti-competitive, it will likely drive up the price to get all the channels you need to watch your home team, and you're essentially letting a single family dictate how Canadians can watch our national sport. This was a terrible day for hockey fans in this country

[TurnedTheCorner]

Originally Posted by Red Menace

So, I live in Montreal and am forced to buy centre ice to be able to watch all the Flames games. Does this new deal mean I will be able to see all the SN West games that are currently unavailable to me without centre ice?

No, it does not mean that.

Originally Posted by Red Menace

Or just the games that are deemed "national" games?

They're not "deemed" national. The broadcast is either a regional or national broadcast, depending on which night it's on. You will be able to watch national games, and the national windows are Wed, Sat, and Sun. You will not be able to watch regional games without Centre Ice, same as now.

Originally Posted by sureLoss

It was reported earlier in the thread that Rogers will be selling a premium service to lift the regional broadcast restrictions that will cost less than centre ice

Yes, this Rogers product (call it Centre Ice Lite for now, until it is better defined) would allow people to watch regional out of market games broadcast on other Roger regional deals. Should this come about, it would be a cheaper option than Centre Ice if all you're looking for is Flames games. It would allow you to watch the same regional Flames broadcasts people in the Flames region can see.

[Righteous1]

Originally Posted by MissTeeks

Kypreos is promising big things:

Hope_Smoke‏@Hope_Smoke40m
Kypreos on Fan 590 "people who are looking at how we did hockey the past few years will be blown away by what we have in store"

Hope_Smoke‏@Hope_Smoke39m
Kypreos "we are going to take it to a new level."

Hope_Smoke‏@Hope_Smoke16m
Kypreos said watching hockey now will feel like watching NFL football in terms of how they are going to put on a show.

lol everyone gets fired from snet and replaced by tsn personalities

[Dagger]

I'm already blown away that they'll go out and spend $5.2 billion but somehow Kypreos still appears to be part of their long term plans.

[superfarmer]

It's a second rate garbage network. We can only hope that better people are put in place of the amateurs we have now. The NHL will regret this

[Dagger]

Their coverage is absolutely terrible, but I'm thinking that they'll become the equivalent of Sky Sports in Canada.

[Red Menace]

I wonder how many of the TSN guys move over, or even when they can. I imagine many are under contract for a number of years. Would be a shame if Cuthbert & Miller weren't calling national games every week.
I would guess MacKenzie stays with TSN until retirement, but are Lebrun and Duthie stuck in purgatory?
Don't care too much for anyone else on the network, with the possible exception of Mike Johnson, who is pretty good.

[DOOM]

^

Lebrun will easily find a similar role on another network, imo

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by GreenLantern2814

If they're going to spend that much money, what's another few hundred grand to get people who know what they're doing? I don't buy that argument for a second. The $5.2 billion was a starting point.

If you believe the Rogers money tree grows upwards forever maybe but $5.2 billion is a massive commitment even for Rogers. This wasn't money burning a hole in their pocket. It was a massive gamble that may or may not pay off.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Red Menace

I wonder how many of the TSN guys move over, or even when they can. I imagine many are under contract for a number of years. Would be a shame if Cuthbert & Miller weren't calling national games every week.
I would guess MacKenzie stays with TSN until retirement, but are Lebrun and Duthie stuck in purgatory?
Don't care too much for anyone else on the network, with the possible exception of Mike Johnson, who is pretty good.

In the world of TV, I doubt very much guys like Miller and Cuthbert have multi-year deals. However, it might be interesting if neither of them thought TSN would be in a position where they wouldn't have NHL hockey.

Gord Miller likes being a big deal too much to just do WJC games and be the 2nd CFL guy.

[The Familia]

Originally Posted by Hemi-Cuda

Sportsnet is a bush league organization, but the real bad guy in this is the NHL. This does nothing but hurt Canadian hockey fans by giving a single company such a large monopoly over a product. There's more than money to think about in a deal like this, there's also a brand to protect. And Sportsnet has been terrible at trying to promote the NHL, they can't even get the friggen audio in sync for live games

I'd actually be for some kind of government legislation to be implemented for scenarios like this. It's anti-competitive, it will likely drive up the price to get all the channels you need to watch your home team, and you're essentially letting a single family dictate how Canadians can watch our national sport. This was a terrible day for hockey fans in this country

Couldn't agree more with your comments. Pretty soon Rogers will own the whole country. They already own phone service, cable/satellite, sports teams, TV stations, news networks, radio stations, etc. If they charge a penny more for what I am currently recieving (hockey viewing wise) I will officially drop hockey and the NHL. I already have a problem with the NHL. Lockouts, over paid players, over priced merchandise, boring games, lack of rivalries, over priced tickets, etc. have all led to a distancing of NHL hockey for me. I will not accept paying more for a league that only values money. It makes me sad thinking how much the NHL is selling its soul for. HNIC as we knew it won't exist. Rogers has their dirty fingers involved and it will not be the same.

[Red Menace]

Reminds me a bit of the time when NBC lost the rights to MLB, and Bob Costas had like a lifetime deal with them. And Costas while pretty great at all sports is an absolute baseball fanatic...and hasn't done much baseball broadcasting since....though I guess he is now doing some on MLB network.

[lifetimefan]

Kypreos is an arrogant SOB and Maclean talks out his butt far more often than adding anything useful as an analyst.
Hopefully RSN will be able to lure some talent now that they have the big contract.

Cuthbert and Miller still do CFL games, so I doubt they're going anywhere.
The only guy I'd want from that crew is Crawford.

[pylon]

Wow, the SNET hate here is pretty misguided. TSN has never given any focus to the west, and we got nothing but table scraps. The same could be said to a certain degree about HNIC. You all should be happy, the good guys that actually give a crap about the west, and have our broadcasting rights won. I will take mediocre comprehensive coverage on SNET any day of the week, over glancing 'whatever' coverage that looks pretty from TSN any day of the week.

Save the complaining until we see what SNET has to offer next season. But at the end of the day, this was BY FAR, the better result for the western teams.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

If you believe the Rogers money tree grows upwards forever maybe but $5.2 billion is a massive commitment even for Rogers. This wasn't money burning a hole in their pocket. It was a massive gamble that may or may not pay off.

It is a gamble, but it's a gamble on arguably the single most valuable television property in Canada. Those massive tv deals have really hurt CBS NBC and FOX with the NFL, right?

[$ven27]

Interesting to say the least, Right now it sounds bad but who knows who they'll bring In, how they'll update/improve things,etc.