(ಠ_ಠ)
2014-12-14 21:48:08 UTC
I watched the Jets and Canucks lose tonite and it cost me 0.
Enjoy that while you can. They're weaning their hockey games from CBC to theirown SUBSCRIPTION-ONLY channels.
They'll keep you hooked on 'free' for awhile longer, then as the games progress
towards playoffs and the Stanley Cup, you're going to find the games on the
subscribed channels only.
Welcome to Rogers ownership of hockey night in Canada . . . .
____________________________
montrealgazette.com December 13, 2014
It's a strange new world, but we keep watching
[- - -]
And, as was so often the case this fall, conversation at some point turns to
the strange new world of hockey on TV that’s recently been imposed on us. This
is the first season under the blockbuster 12-year, $5.2-billion deal between
telecom giant Rogers and the National Hockey League, and it’s a radical change
for hockey fans across Canada.
Until this year, your Saturday nights were pretty simple. If you wanted the
Habs in English, you watched Hockey Night in Canada on CBC and got your blood
boiling during the first intermission as Don Cherry waxed not-so-poetic about
his love for the Leafs, the Bruins and our country’s military men.
Now it’s, not to put too fine a point on it, full-on confusion. The Canadiens
game might be on City — where’s that, you may well ask — or on Sportsnet. Or on
Sportsnet 360, which I’d never heard of before this fall. The one sure thing is
the Montreal game won’t be on CBC on a Saturday night, because that choice spot
on the dial is reserved exclusively for the Maple Leafs because … well, because
we apparently live in the Leafs Nation.
(Funny eh? We thought the coverage couldn’t possibly get more Toronto-centric
than it was under the CBC regime but at least the CBC, under fan pressure, had
added many more Habs games in recent years. But Rogers has made its preference
clear, never ever allowing anyone but T-Dot’s losing hockey club to occupy the
prime position at 7 p.m. Saturdays on CBC.)
On the French side of the dial, you now have to have a subscription to TVA
Sports to get the Habs game in the language of Béliveau on a Saturday night. In
fact, you now need subscriptions to both TVA Sports and RDS if you want to
watch every game in French. If you want all of the NHL games in the language of
Gretzky, then you need subscriptions to all the Sportsnet channels, including
Sportsnet 360 and FX Canada.
So it’s confusing, costs you more money, isn’t nearly as Habs-friendly as
Rogers sports guru Scott Moore promised and hockey fans across the country
still have to deal with the irritating fact that so many games are blacked-out
in different markets. More on that last point later.
New blackouts
The other irritant for hockey fans in general and Habs fans in particular are
the blackouts. Many viewers outside Quebec who want to see Canadiens games are
finding themselves out of luck. The RDS games are only available in the
Canadiens’ “regional” TV market, which has been defined by the NHL as going
from Belleville, Ont., east to St. John’s, NL. Before, the RDS Habs games were
all available right across the country.
“It’s increased the offer but at the same time, it has fragmented the offer,”
said Richelieu. “Not all the consumers have subscriptions to the channels. It’s
more choice and you have to pay for it. We’re hearing some consumers
complaining about that.”
Richelieu says the lack of availability of games nationally is a huge issue.
“In my opinion, this is problematic, especially if you’ve subscribed to a
(cable or satellite) package,” said Richelieu. “I don’t think it’s fair to not
allow consumers access to Winnipeg Jets games because the viewer is in the
Montreal Canadiens or Ottawa Senators region. If you pay for the package, you
should have access to all the games. This issue of regionalizing the games in
order to extract as much revenue as possible from this TV deal is definitely
unfair to consumers.
