Any updates on NHL's deal with Canadian TV networks?

[MaskedSonja]

In terms of the CDN TV deal Bettman was on hockey central @ noon yesterday and they talked briefly about it. Gyst of it as I recall:
-CBC has been a great partner
-its more than about money; its also about accessability; online streaming, tablets etc.
-said the NFL model in the States in regards to multiple national packages is an interesting one
-doesn't want to negotiate publicly so didn't say much

Its on the podcast if anyone is interested in listening to the full thing (and whats to correct add to what I wrote)

The part about being access stands out for me-it's effect is something that can't be understated. I don't alot about CBC's accessability in that regard-I do know that CTV showed that access during the olympics, really promoting the whole "watch it anywhere" idea, iphones,tablets,TV,Laptop-that would be a strength for them. I know CBC has some of that going on, but I seem to get the impression that-compared to CTV and Rogers-it's not their strong suit.

CBC was able to push the OTA for decades as a far reaching access across Canada, and it is important particularly for those areas of Canada which may not have a lot of internet access. However, each year, there's more growth across Canada of wifi/cell/fibrecable being laid (heck I live in a rural town of maybe 1000 people and WE are getting cable laid), and the OTA loses a bit more in that argument.

 

[puckluck19]

http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/11/09...r-craig-mactavish-promised-when-he-took-over#

Bruce Garrioch with a blurb about the latest

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman would like to have all the TV deals in place with the major networks — CBC, TSN, RDS and Sportsnet — by next month’s board of governors meetings. With the current deal of $185 million expiring, a league source said Bettman is determined to double the TV money to the $400-million range. The deal is expected to keep Hockey Night in Canada in its current form, but the CBC may end up with less playoff games and possibly lose the rights to some major events like the all-star game and Winter Classic. The expectation is that Sportsnet — which now owns 37.5% of the Leafs with TSN — will be part of the national package, possibly on Sunday nights.

 

[Fugu]

The expectation is that Sportsnet — which now owns 37.5% of the Leafs with TSN — will be part of the national package, possibly on Sunday nights.

Not too surprising. The broadcasters' main interest in owning sports teams is to control their access-- plus it's probably fairly lucrative. Snider's involvement with Comcast Spectacor and Versus probably influenced the move from ESPN to VS after the second lockout as well.

 

[cheswick]

My question how will this affect the amount Canadian teams will get for local rights? The Leafs already have a fair proportion of games sold nationally, leaving fewer to sell locally. Its in essence a type of revenue sharing. While the Leafs can afford will this deal take from the pockets of the smaller Canadian markets? Or is the increased national broadcasts to focus mainly on US teams.

 

[Fugu]

My question how will this affect the amount Canadian teams will get for local rights? The Leafs already have a fair proportion of games sold nationally, leaving fewer to sell locally. Its in essence a type of revenue sharing. While the Leafs can afford will this deal take from the pockets of the smaller Canadian markets? Or is the increased national broadcasts to focus mainly on US teams.

It could be an interesting situation for the owner. Do they pay themselves more by keeping the Leafs locally-- they still have to count market value as HRR if received by the Leafs + subscriber fees and advert $$. Or-- is it more lucrative for the owner to broadcast more Leafs games nationally, paying the NHL $___, but making money on national coverage/advertising.

 

[saffronleaf]

The NHL shouldn't negotiate with CBC until they expel Healy.

 

[rojac]

My question how will this affect the amount Canadian teams will get for local rights? The Leafs already have a fair proportion of games sold nationally, leaving fewer to sell locally. Its in essence a type of revenue sharing. While the Leafs can afford will this deal take from the pockets of the smaller Canadian markets? Or is the increased national broadcasts to focus mainly on US teams.

My guess is that while there will continue to be HNIC on Saturday nights, but CBC will have rights to fewer games on that night (either through scheduling less Saturday night games for Canadian teams or simply giving CBC to fewer games on that night -- possibly just the two doubleheader games allowing local coverage of the others). This would balance out, to some extent, the games in the Sunday night package.

 

[MaskedSonja]

Not too surprising. The broadcasters' main interest in owning sports teams is to control their access-- plus it's probably fairly lucrative. Snider's involvement with Comcast Spectacor and Versus probably influenced the move from ESPN to VS after the second lockout as well.

What an interesting time we live in: NHL owners who own TV/Media powerhouses dividing up the NHL broadcast pie, with the "TV" paying out to the "teams"-a simple cut out of the middleman

So in theory, between Bell/Rogers paying for the television rights, and then getting monies back via not only the advertisers who want to sell but also their cut of NHL revenues-how much are they actually "paying" for the rights in the end?

 

[Fugu]

What an interesting time we live in: NHL owners who own TV/Media powerhouses dividing up the NHL broadcast pie, with the "TV" paying out to the "teams"-a simple cut out of the middleman

So in theory, between Bell/Rogers paying for the television rights, and then getting monies back via not only the advertisers who want to sell but also their cut of NHL revenues-how much are they actually "paying" for the rights in the end?

There are similar set ups in the NHL right now-- NESN/Jacobs and MSG/Dolans (although there's greater separation now in the business structure, iirc). They do have to designate a nominal fee for broadcast rights that's counted as HRR. Kdb may come along and post the verbiage if he's so inclined. What money actually transfers hands depends on the accountants and ownership structure, I'd gather.

 

[Riptide]

So in theory, between Bell/Rogers paying for the television rights, and then getting monies back via not only the advertisers who want to sell but also their cut of NHL revenues-how much are they actually "paying" for the rights in the end?

Yes, but the monies they're getting back are 1/30th of what they're putting in. Less actually as I believe league expenses (Central Scouting, overhead, etc) comes out of the central revenue pot (of which League TV deals go into).

 

[FakeKidPoker*]

Would like to see Sportsnet get some National rights.. hopefully at the expense of TSN whose coverage really lacks.

Competition should drive both networks.

 

[Brodie]

Sunday nights are interesting... does TSN show SNF?

 

[saffronleaf]

$400M a year is crazy. Double what NBC pays, more than double what Canadian networks paid before. Is it worth it for only 7 teams? Maybe the NHL is giving assurances that an 8th franchise will be added.

I mean you compare that with the CFL, which in Canada is drawing ~700,000 per game, and a Grey Cup that draws millions. And they're getting around ~$40M a year.

Or the NBA, getting ~$900M in a market of 330M people and 29 franchises.

 

[GuelphStormer]

$400M a year is crazy. Double what NBC pays, more than double what Canadian networks paid before. Is it worth it for only 7 teams? Maybe the NHL is giving assurances that an 8th franchise will be added.

I mean you compare that with the CFL, which in Canada is drawing ~700,000 per game, and a Grey Cup that draws millions. And they're getting around ~$40M a year.

Or the NBA, getting ~$900M in a market of 330M people and 29 franchises.

i agree and perhaps "nine is fine" too.

regardless of the holy grail NBC contract being placed up on a pedestal by anyone and everyone while they muse about franchise location, and gary's dream of continuing to grow the game into non-traditional markets, the simple fact remains that NHL hockey is waaaay more popular in canada than in the US and despite our relative size, it is the canadian teams, both gate and broadcast, that financially drive the whole league.

take the maple leafs out of the league and the while thing falls apart. the entire league goes belly up. these sorts of canadian broadcast figures underscore that. it's now just a matter of how much gary feels he shuold continue to leverage the gravy train north of the border to underwrite money losing franchises south of it.

 

[htpwn]

http://www.ottawasun.com/2013/11/09...r-craig-mactavish-promised-when-he-took-over#

Bruce Garrioch with a blurb about the latest

You know how people say a market cannot "deserve" a team?

$400 million makes a persuasive argument to the contrary.

 

[EpicGingy]

Sunday nights are interesting... does TSN show SNF?

The owners of TSN, CTV, usually broadcast it on their channels. TSN focuses on the CFL.

 

[CK17]

The owners of TSN, CTV, usually broadcast it on their channels. TSN focuses on the CFL.

TSN airs SNF, CTV airs Amazing Race, Once Upon A Time, Castle, The Mentalist.

 

[Chileiceman]

The owners of TSN, CTV, usually broadcast it on their channels. TSN focuses on the CFL.

No, TSN shows Sunday Night Football. CTV only shows games in the 1 PM slot.

 

[New User Name]

That has to be a typo. From 185 to 400 million?

Sheesh....kind of funny really in a sad way.

 

[Brodie]

I wonder how a Sunday night game would play against SNF, especially being the third national game... seems like a crappy slot for Sportsnet.

 

[MaskedSonja]

There are similar set ups in the NHL right now-- NESN/Jacobs and MSG/Dolans (although there's greater separation now in the business structure, iirc). They do have to designate a nominal fee for broadcast rights that's counted as HRR. Kdb may come along and post the verbiage if he's so inclined. What money actually transfers hands depends on the accountants and ownership structure, I'd gather.

I knew about the others, I was using MLSE as the first example, my thought was meant to include those names you mentioned as well-just found it interesting how it all works out with Media companies buying rights/receiving monies (even if it is 1/30)-the comment was more on the whole 21st century ownership/media/sport connections in general, not so much "omg what happened to everything being seperate!!!" type of thing lol.

@Riptide-yea, that'a good point about the 1/30 I hadn't thought of. I just was in almost awe of the whole aforemetioned ownership/media/sports fandango

 

[Guardian17]

Any word on whether or not CBC will lose its exclusivity to show games in Canada on Saturdays?

My brother lives in Calgary and has NHL Centre Ice.

On Saturday, November 2, the Jets played the Hawks on HNIC.

The game was shown locally in Winnipeg, but, it was blocked on NHL Centre Ice.

The only way my brother could watch the game was to go to the CBC website.

He called Shaw Cable and was told it was a rights issue with CBC.

 

[RandR]

You know how people say a market cannot "deserve" a team?

$400 million makes a persuasive argument to the contrary.

I think the key question is whether expanding to another Canadian city would add a significant number of extra hockey fans to the national TV audience or if it would do little for national TV numbers and instead cannibalize an existing regional market.

I wonder if anyone knows of any stats showing if the addition of the Jets caused any significant increase in HNIC or TSN's national audience numbers or allowed CBC or TSN to get more advertising dollars (aside from TSN Jets regional coverage).

BTW, I think that is unlike the U.S., where I believe expanding to Seattle would create a lot of new hockey fans in the Northwest U.S. for NBC and NBC Sports.

Any word on whether or not CBC will lose its exclusivity to show games in Canada on Saturdays?

My brother lives in Calgary and has NHL Centre Ice.

On Saturday, November 2, the Jets played the Hawks on HNIC.

The game was shown locally in Winnipeg, but, it was blocked on NHL Centre Ice.

The only way my brother could watch the game was to go to the CBC website.

He called Shaw Cable and was told it was a rights issue with CBC.

It is not that only CBC can show games in Canada on Saturdays. For example, BlackHawk games shown on WGN are not blacked out on Saturdays for me, regardless of who they are playing. Someone can correct me if I am wrong, but I think the point is that if CBC (or anybody) is broadcasting a game where you live then NHL Center Ice will black out that game for you because you can already watch it (assuming of course that you get that channel on TV via cable or satellite or whatever). For example, when NHL Center Ice was on free preview at the start of the season, whenever the Senators were on TV I am pretty sure it was blacked out on whatever NHL Center Ice channel it was showing on TV, regardless of who was covering it and what night it was on. I think a network (or station) would rightly complain if they paid the NHL (or regional team) for TV rights and then the NHL took away some of their viewers by showing the same games to their audience.
---

On the original topic, I hope CBC gets to keep exclusive national rights on Saturdays, and only loses those occasional weekday games and some playoff games.

 

[puckluck19]

Any word on whether or not CBC will lose its exclusivity to show games in Canada on Saturdays?

My brother lives in Calgary and has NHL Centre Ice.

On Saturday, November 2, the Jets played the Hawks on HNIC.

The game was shown locally in Winnipeg, but, it was blocked on NHL Centre Ice.

The only way my brother could watch the game was to go to the CBC website.

He called Shaw Cable and was told it was a rights issue with CBC.

http://www.nhl.com/scores/htmlreports/20132014/GS020199.HTM

That game was a 1pm start (calgary time) and was shown coast-to-coast on CBC as part of a triple-header that day on HNIC. The only 7pm ET game was VAN/TOR.

 

[Riptide]

That has to be a typo. From 185 to 400 million?

Sheesh....kind of funny really in a sad way.

185m for the Wednesday night slot for TSN, some games on RDS and CBC with HNIC. The speculation of 350-400m is with the cost for those going up, and the NHL adding a Sunday night timeslot. If they can schedule a Sunday night game, and sell that slot for something between the cost of the Wed and Sat night slots... that could put them over the 350m range.

CBC already admitted that they make ~140m (or was it 170m??) off of advertising for Hockey Night In Canada. So jacking that slot up 50% isn't completely out of the question. Then the money from TSN/RDS - call that another 100m. That's 250m right there. Add in the Sunday slot for 100m, and your golden with 350m. But if the networks start bidding against each other, then those prices could go even higher.

Sure it's a ton for 35m people... but when a couple million watch HNIC, that works for the networks.