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2013-14 NHL Season Thread


dlbalr

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There are some changes on the horizon for Canada's NHL TV landscape. It looks like CBC will lose some of their playoff coverage and the All-Star Game while Sportsnet may now get an exclusive day (Sunday Night Hockey). TVA is poised to take a bigger piece of the french language pie as well.

http://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2013/11/25/Media/Canada-TV.aspx

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This is huge news for us as fans living in Canada. CBC will be very well the same as they will still host the double headers on Saturday nights as well as playoff hockey. Essentially Bell was swapped for Rogers. Meaning Sportsnet will take over for TSN's NHL coverage and TVA will take over for RDS.

As a Rogers customer this is probably a good thing for me since as of now they charge quit a bit to get TSN and RDS since they are Bell. Currently have 4 sportsnet channels and sportsnet 360. Lots of opportunities for games to be on.

As for getting Habs games I'm not sure what this means. I have no idea how good of netwerk TVA is? Does this mean that there will become a Sportsnet Habs like the TSN Habs? This deals leaves alot of questions in that regard.

It would make sense for sportsnet to hire a bunch of new staff to work their games. Their current staff is not of the greatest quality.

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It would make sense for sportsnet to hire a bunch of new staff to work their games. Their current staff is not of the greatest quality.

Their current people are quite poor. If they get guys like Cuthbert and Miller, with Duthie to host, it will be like nothing happened except everything's blue. Doubt it will happen like that, however.

The biggest loss for me will be Pierre Houde, if he doesn't make the switch. He's my favourite play-by-play guy and it will feel weird watching the Habs without him.

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So RDS is out for next year right? Guess I'll have to drop it from Shaw and pick up TVA (or whichever new channel carries the habs) Does this meanthat TVA will be showing all habs games?

I'm a little upset here, I added RDS for their HABS coverage........

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RDS apparently still gets 60 games, though I wonder if those will now be subject to regional restrictions (blacked out for anyone not in Quebec). This is terrible news for Canadians not living in Quebec as additional channels will now be required to have a shot at watching all games...if not the Centre Ice package which I believe also got handed off to Rogers.

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So RDS is out for next year right? Guess I'll have to drop it from Shaw and pick up TVA (or whichever new channel carries the habs) Does this meanthat TVA will be showing all habs games?

I'm a little upset here, I added RDS for their HABS coverage........

Ditto. I think I have TVA in my french package, so I'm hoping that I'll be ok. I'm in Ontario and I'll be pretty pissed if I lose my games.

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I read somewhere that the 22 guaranteed games to TVA are all Saturday games. If RDS can somehow maintain the other 60 on a national basis, that would lessen the blow (but I have my doubts about that since TVA got exclusive national rights in this).

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They say the agreement means there will be no more regionalization of games and no more local blackouts.

Does that apply just to Sportsnet though? The games they televise on East, Ontario, West, and Pacific are all subject to local blackouts presently. Those are being dropped as part of this agreement. (What they don't say is that some of those other games will likely move to the SNET companion (PPV) channels.) TSN still will have games into next year on TSN Habs and TSN Jets (I don't know what they're going to do for the 10 regional Toronto games) but those still will be subject to regional restrictions as they're not party to this deal, nor is RDS. At least that's my interpretation of all this.

In other news, Rostislav Klesla is on waivers from Phoenix. That's a bit surprising, even though he hasn't played that well since coming back from a concussion.

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This is terrible news for Canadians not living in Quebec as additional channels will now be required to have a shot at watching all games...if not the Centre Ice package which I believe also got handed off to Rogers.

Isnt that the way that it is currently set up as of now? For instance in Ontario TSN2 is a additional channel, RDS is an additional channel and in some case just the TSN is an additional channel. It really depends on who your provider is. This is a good deal for Rogers customers since they have access to many sportsnets. This is not a good deal for Bell satelite customers.

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Isnt that the way that it is currently set up as of now? For instance in Ontario TSN2 is a additional channel, RDS is an additional channel and in some case just the TSN is an additional channel. It really depends on who your provider is. This is a good deal for Rogers customers since they have access to many sportsnets. This is not a good deal for Bell satelite customers.

All Canadian NHL games are shown on TSN, not TSN 2 (they just have the NBCSN games with American teams on that network) so there isn't an additional cost outlay there. TSN, as far as I know, is a mandatory channel on all providers; if I'm mistaken feel free to correct me. If you have RDS, you have all of the games, it's as simple as that. That will no longer be the case. From my standpoint, as long as RDS keeps the other 60 games and it's not subject to Quebec-only blackouts, I'll be safe. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, RDS not surprisingly is keeping quiet on this.

Edit: Early reports suggest whether it's TVA or RDS, the 60 remaining games will be subject to Quebec-only restrictions.

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ere is a copy of the internal CBC release sent to staff today...

Quote:
While this isn’t the outcome we had hoped for, I’m pleased to say that through an agreement with Rogers, CBC will retain HNIC on Saturday nights, including 320 hours of prime-time hockey and the Stanley Cup Final for the next four years.

This may not be the ideal scenario but, it is the right outcome for Canadian hockey fans and is an acceptable adaptation to the role of the public broadcaster in the modern world of professional sports rights. A world in which partnering with a wide array of other actors is a key to success.

A little bit about our deal with Rogers. CBC pays no rights costs for the broadcasting of hockey games. Rogers is bearing the sole risk around hockey revenues; (they sell the inventory and keep the revenue – the overall selling process is yet to be defined), while we continue to make Canada’s game available to all Canadians wherever they live.
Quote:
However, starting next year, Rogers will assume all editorial control (all editorial decisions with respect to the content, on-air talent and the creative direction of HNIC – we have the right to be consulted and there is a commitment to excellence) under the new agreement.
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All Canadian NHL games are shown on TSN, not TSN 2 (they just have the NBCSN games with American teams on that network) so there isn't an additional cost outlay there. TSN, as far as I know, is a mandatory channel on all providers; if I'm mistaken feel free to correct me. If you have RDS, you have all of the games, it's as simple as that. That will no longer be the case. From my standpoint, as long as RDS keeps the other 60 games and it's not subject to Quebec-only blackouts, I'll be safe. Whether that happens or not remains to be seen, RDS not surprisingly is keeping quiet on this.

For rogers customers TSN is not a madatory channel. If you to get just the basic package TSN would not be included. Im sure that the regular Sportsnet will act like the TSN with all Canadian NHL games. But as far as getting Habs games I agree 100% with you that it is a bit more difficult. Might need to get RDS as well as TVA

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For rogers customers TSN is not a madatory channel. If you to get just the basic package TSN would not be included. Im sure that the regular Sportsnet will act like the TSN with all Canadian NHL games. But as far as getting Habs games I agree 100% with you that it is a bit more difficult. Might need to get RDS as well as TVA

Good to know, I wouldn't have guessed that, even though the two are major competitors. I have Shaw Direct so both TSN and SN1 (plus the four regional channels) are all part of the basic package. In terms of having more games on Sportsnet than TSN, I have no issue with that (though I hope we don't see Joe Bowen calling Calgary-Ottawa games, they need a couple of new PBP teams unless CBC's are going to cover both platforms), but Montreal games are my primary concern.

I also expect Sportsnet's carriage fees to take a considerable jump which won't be nice.

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Beyond having more games to choose from on a Saturday night and a rapidly increasing salary cap (I think such a big jump will be a bad thing, myself), that was more of a negative article than a positive one. Fans for most of Canada (except for Bell subscribers) get a boost in seeing their team, the one exception appears to be non Quebec-based Montreal fans. Those ones appear to get the shaft in a big way as whether it's TVA or RDS for the other 60 games, it's regional only.

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For past few years for here in BC, RDS has been extra $4/month and TVA sports was $2/month last year, so if that dosnt change wont be a big deal.

Just too bad CBC hadnt drawn the short straw, i simply cant stand idiot Healy-Cherry and crew and refuse to watch any games or pre-game crap done by them. I have avoided Cherry for years and dont miss his foolishness one bit.

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For past few years for here in BC, RDS has been extra $4/month and TVA sports was $2/month last year, so if that dosnt change wont be a big deal.

The issue is that barring some sort of second exclusive national agreement, RDS will be forced to black out their Hab telecasts starting next season outside of the 'Canadiens viewing region.' That'll be a big deal. :)

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Beyond having more games to choose from on a Saturday night and a rapidly increasing salary cap (I think such a big jump will be a bad thing, myself), that was more of a negative article than a positive one. Fans for most of Canada (except for Bell subscribers) get a boost in seeing their team, the one exception appears to be non Quebec-based Montreal fans. Those ones appear to get the shaft in a big way as whether it's TVA or RDS for the other 60 games, it's regional only.

I agree, and I didn't expect a different interpretation. I guess I should have worded it "this article points out some of the positives (amid all the negatives)"

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The issue is that barring some sort of second exclusive national agreement, RDS will be forced to black out their Hab telecasts starting next season outside of the 'Canadiens viewing region.' That'll be a big deal. :)

If blacked out and totally unavailable that would be crappy deal, but I also heard that will not be the case and like normally blacked out regional Sportsnet games, if you get centreice package or pay for extra cannel(s) and pay $, the games are not "blacked out".

Maybe sportsnet will have Ottawa and Montreal games on their "East" channel as they do for Oil/Flames on their "West" one?

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If blacked out and totally unavailable that would be crappy deal, but I also heard that will not be the case and like normally blacked out regional Sportsnet games, if you get centreice package or pay for extra cannel(s) and pay $, the games are not "blacked out".

Maybe sportsnet will have Ottawa and Montreal games on their "East" channel as they do for Oil/Flames on their "West" one?

Yes, if you get Centre Ice, you're covered. For me, that's an increase from $2/month (grandfathered price) to over $30/month, far from ideal. (And with Rogers now owning the distribution rights, that may jump considerably higher since I'm not with them.) As for the RDS games not getting blacked out, people are speculating it but by the definition of the agreement, they can't be national (TVA has exclusive French national rights, not just national French rights on Saturdays).

The TSN Habs regional deal is apparently up this year (Winnipeg extends into 2021 so that news surprised me) so there's a chance that Sportsnet could pick up the regional rights...though the same issue would exist; games on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday will still be subject to blackout. The "no more blackouts" statement uttered during the press conference was quickly amended to note that. There will still be blackout games on Sportsnet, just nowhere near as many.

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