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Habs schedule on TV


Stephane Pichette

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Haha, I originally was going to quote you directly, but figured that would be a jerk move if you still had an old school connection. Just curious, what are you up to these days in terms of speed?

I'm up to the blistering speed of a 60-65 kbps download. That may not seem like much, but that's roughly 20x better than what I used to have.

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I am not paying for Centre Ice just to have access to the 50 Habs games that I won't have access to. I can't believe this is happening. We have had access to all Habs games both regular season and playoffs since about 1987-88. I guess Le Club Hockey du Canadien de Montréal don't care about their fans outside of Québec.

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Nothing confirmed but there seems to be some speculation that Sportsnet will be announcing something regarding Montreal broadcasts country-wide sometime next week. What that announcement could be, no one seems to know. Again, this is just a rumour but if true, hopefully it's good news.

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Nothing confirmed but there seems to be some speculation that Sportsnet will be announcing something regarding Montreal broadcasts country-wide sometime next week. What that announcement could be, no one seems to know. Again, this is just a rumour but if true, hopefully it's good news.

By the sainted ghost of Howie Morenz, please please please let it be so...I'm dying over here :pray:

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I just can't believe that in 2014-15 I would lose access to most Habs games on TV. Restricting access to televised Habs games because I don't live within the Canadiens 'broadcast region' is absolutely asinine. I still hold out hope that Habs games on RDS won't be blacked out in my region.

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I just can't believe that in 2014-15 I would lose access to most Habs games on TV. Restricting access to televised Habs games because I don't live within the Canadiens 'broadcast region' is absolutely asinine. I still hold out hope that Habs games on RDS won't be blacked out in my region.

I'm hopeful too (but doubt it will happen) but at the same time, we've been spoiled over these years. Let's flip the scenario here from a Montreal fan in Ontario to a Toronto fan living in Quebec. It's 2014-15 and that person can't watch all of Toronto's games on TV either. In previous years, they could only watch roughly 45 games - CBC and TSN only - and it's about the same now if not a little less. If you're a Calgary/Edmonton fan in Ontario or Quebec, you only get 22 games nationally. It's not as if us out-of-town Montreal fans are getting treated differently than those of other teams. For the first time in quite some time, we're getting treated the same. (And yes, that sucks... :) )

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I'm hopeful too (but doubt it will happen) but at the same time, we've been spoiled over these years. Let's flip the scenario here from a Montreal fan in Ontario to a Toronto fan living in Quebec. It's 2014-15 and that person can't watch all of Toronto's games on TV either. In previous years, they could only watch roughly 45 games - CBC and TSN only - and it's about the same now if not a little less. If you're a Calgary/Edmonton fan in Ontario or Quebec, you only get 22 games nationally. It's not as if us out-of-town Montreal fans are getting treated differently than those of other teams. For the first time in quite some time, we're getting treated the same. (And yes, that sucks... :) )

I think the issue is that, in an age of digital, instant-access-to-everything media, it seems absolutely inane to give people a choice between blackouts and crazily expensive alternatives. This is practically an engraved invitation for people to aggressively pursue illegal feeds. The old model always was garbage but makes massively less sense in the new media landscape. F**k these profiteering dinosaurs.

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I think the issue is that, in an age of digital, instant-access-to-everything media, it seems absolutely inane to give people a choice between blackouts and crazily expensive alternatives. This is practically an engraved invitation for people to aggressively pursue illegal feeds. The old model always was garbage but makes massively less sense in the new media landscape. F**k these profiteering dinosaurs.

One of the fine print items in the NHL's revised Terms of Service has something to do with cracking down on VPN bypassing on Game Centre Live, just further pointing those (who have a competently-high speed connection) in that direction.

MLB apparently is kicking around the idea of dropping local blackouts on their online service (MLB Gameday I think is what it's called), it'll be interesting to see if they go through with it as the other leagues may eventually follow suit.

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On the radio yesterday, TSN's president acknowledged that the fact that TSN got Ottawa's regional rights is what is preventing them from renewing Montreal's regional English rights as both share the same territory and the same TSN channel (TSN 5). Of course, this is largely a cop-out answer as Sportsnet West has both Edmonton and Calgary games on the same regional network without any issues but it would appear that if that's the attitude TSN is taking, there are no plans for them to renew Montreal's English regional rights for a long time (the Ottawa deal is 12 years). Any hopes of them having English regional games (which are relevant to those out-of-market as well as these would be on CI/GCL) rest with Sportsnet it appears.

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I think we can get rid of the word 'speculation' in front of my note from the other day about Sportsnet apparently announcing something about the Habs broadcasts. September 3rd is apparently when we'll know more:

https://twitter.com/MooreScottmoore/status/502417124703633408

(It doesn't say anything about national coverage though as I had been led to believe.) I'm guessing September 3rd is when they'll announce the PBP teams and stuff like that as well plus their regional broadcasters.

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I have still yet to see anything official regarding the blacking out of Habs games on RDS in Northern Ontario.

RDS isn't going to put in their press release that they can't show games nationwide anymore. That's not something they're going to willingly promote. There are links to multiple credible articles in this thread where it clearly states what the defined broadcast region for RDS and their English regional rightsholder, should this reported deal with Sportsnet go through, is. We don't need to see anything more than that to know our fate.

From the National Post:

The one schedule that remains unfulfilled is the English-language regional telecasts for the Montreal Canadiens. The regional agreement between the Canadiens and TSN expired last season and has not been renewed. RDS is showing 60 regional Canadiens games, which means that all 82 games will be available in the Canadiens’ viewing area, just not all of them in English.

From one of the other links in this thread:

TV broadcast region: Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario east of Belleville/Pembroke.

The Canadiens see the biggest change in terms of rights because RDS is no longer the only game in town. It used to carry all Habs games nationally, but in the Rogers deal it lost the national rights to TVA Sports. It managed to get the exclusive on regional rights, but that will mean the network is blacked out west of Belleville/Pembroke, Ont. during those games.

The bolded/underlined are the key parts. RDS has regional games only, the region is defined, and it's stated what will happen for those not in the region. We're getting blacked out and we don't need an official announcement to see that.

(Of course, we still need to wait for this September 3rd announcement from Sportsnet to see if there are any late surprises, such as a regional broadcast deal and/or something else.)

Edit: Here's a press release from the Habs when they announced the deal. In there, it identifies that RDS can only show games inside the designated broadcast region. That's probably as close to an official announcement as you're going to get.

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Yesterday, Edmonton's regional schedule was released by Sportsnet. Why am I mentioning this? One of their games against the Habs (Monday, Oct. 27) has been changed from a regional game to a national one. That bumps the number of English national broadcasts for the Habs up to 33.

http://www.sportsnet.ca/fans-to-see-every-minute-of-edmonton-oilers-season-exclusively-on-sportsnet-and-rogers/

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Teaser!

Multi channels Multi media. Multi screen. Multi users

Equals Multi $ from my pocket to rogers big boat

http://mobilesyrup.com/2014/06/03/rogers-debuts-sportsnet-now-a-multi-channel-multi-platform-sports-solution/

http://freedomship.com/ ironically named?

Edited by LeGrandMitch
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I assume this means that those with Sportsnet East can get basically all the games now? There aren't any blackouts?

For those with Sportsnet East inside the designated viewing region, yes. For those who have it but are outside the region, they will be blacked out. Sportsnet's pronouncement of no more blackouts more or less meant very little as there will still be many blackouts on their channels.

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For those with Sportsnet East inside the designated viewing region, yes. For those who have it but are outside the region, they will be blacked out. Sportsnet's pronouncement of no more blackouts more or less meant very little as there will still be many blackouts on their channels.

I'm pretty sure I'm in the East region!

https://www.eastlink.ca/portals/0/cabledigitaltv/sports/sportsnet%20nhl%20regional%20restrictions%202011-12.pdf

It's a few years old, but I think (hope) it's still accurate.

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I'm pretty sure I'm in the East region!

https://www.eastlink.ca/portals/0/cabledigitaltv/sports/sportsnet%20nhl%20regional%20restrictions%202011-12.pdf

It's a few years old, but I think (hope) it's still accurate.

It's the same viewing region as TSN Habs had to work with last year. You mentioned before that you couldn't access TSN Habs last year so I suspect you won't get these games either unfortunately.

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It's the same viewing region as TSN Habs had to work with last year. You mentioned before that you couldn't access TSN Habs last year so I suspect you won't get these games either unfortunately.

It's weird because I've always gotten the Sportsnet East broadcast though... I know they're the same region on paper, but it's like TSN and Sportsnet draw their boundary line a little differently. I guess only time will tell.

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It's weird because I've always gotten the Sportsnet East broadcast though... I know they're the same region on paper, but it's like TSN and Sportsnet draw their boundary line a little differently. I guess only time will tell.

Okay, that is a little odd. If you got the SNE or SN-Sens games last year, then maybe you are okay. We'll soon find out I guess.

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So we have more news and more confusion from Sportsnet's announcement today.

Fans that are Rogers subscribers that also subscribe to TVA Sports can buy a French package of games on GameCentreLive for $59.99. This package would provide all Montreal and Ottawa games in French...you just have to watch online. If you're not a Rogers subscriber, the cost for GCL remains $199.99. There's also mention of this:

Also starting this season, fans with a regional Sportsnet subscription with a participating BDU can live-stream their local team’s regional games.

I'd expect that this is being done through SN Now. The catch, however, is that this is only available to Rogers subscribers at the moment.

It also mentions availability of RDS games on Centre Ice. I can't seem to tell (the wording in the press releases/FAQ isn't the best) which of the following applies with regards to this:

- The RDS games can be watched on Centre Ice with a full subscription to CI;

- The RDS games can be watched on CI but you must pay the extra $59.99 on top of the regular CI price to get the RDS feeds;

- The RDS games can be bought on CI without having to fully subscribe to the rest of CI, and only the $59.99 charge would apply.

Only one of those three statements can be true and from reading elsewhere, no one seems to be sure which the correct interpretation is. (For the record, I'm hoping for #3 but expect #1 to be correct.)

http://www.sportsnet.ca/hockey/nhl/rogers-nhl-gamecentre-live-lifts-more-blackouts/

http://www.rogers.com/web/support/nhl/gamecenter-live/1

--------

Also announced today, RDS will broadcast all the preseason games. Of course, regional restrictions will apply (I get the sense I'm going to be using that phrase regularly for the next 12 years...).

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