OT: Habs English Regional Broadcast Rights

[Harry Kakalovich]

I'm sorry if there is a thread covering this topic, but I believe the English Regional rights with TSN expire at the end of the season. Any news about a new contract? Who will have the English Regional Habs broadcast rights next year?

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[expy]

I like TSN more than all the other Habs broadcasts.

 

[JianYang]

I'm sorry if there is a thread covering this topic, but I believe the English Regional rights with TSN expire at the end of the season. Any news about a new contract? Who will have the English Regional Habs broadcast rights next year?

It's been the same deal with all Canadian markets for years. Rogers and tsn will carry all the games.... It's just a matter of which ones are regional or national.

When Rogers had the regional rights, they used to have Bartlett doing Pbp with Jason york doing the colour. Don't remember the panel exactly other than chantal Desjardins.

TSN generally has the better talent.

 

[GoodKiwi]

Hasn't been confirmed but it should be TSN. Rogers dropped the rights due to low ratings and they have enough NHL content otherwise. They're not interested.

There's also a possibility no one will pick it up. Candiens regional English rights are not a very good investment. This is why SN and TSN have been playing hot potatoe with it.

 

[JianYang]

Hasn't been confirmed but it should be TSN. Rogers dropped the rights due to low ratings and they have enough NHL content otherwise. They're not interested.

Financially it makes sense. TSN must get alot of synergies by leveraging off the rds regional telecasts.

Its just a more efficient way of doing things, and something Rogers can't do.

 

[GoodKiwi]

Financially it makes sense. TSN must get alot of synergies by leveraging off the rds regional telecasts.

Its just a more efficient way of doing things, and something Rogers can't do.

The English channel has awful ratings. RDS gets vast majority of the eyeballs. These rights are too expensive for what they bring in return. At least that is the prevailing sentiment coming out of Rogers and I've heard the same from TSN recently). Nothing confirmed though, just whispers.

 

[JianYang]

The English channel has awful ratings. RDS gets vast majority of the eyeballs. These rights are too expensive for what they bring in return. At least that is the prevailing sentiment coming out of Rogers and I've heard the same from TSN recently). Nothing confirmed though, just whispers.

I think it works the same way for nationally televised games. The english broadcast attracts a much lower audience, and so it only makes sense to me that if they are going to have English regionals, then Rogers televise in English on national days when they can leverage with tva, and TSN broadcasts the English when they can leverage with rds.

 

[sheed36]

If the ratings are indeed poor for TSN's Habs English regional coverage I wonder if that's due to the games being televised on TSN2 which isn't included into Bell's lower priced satellite packages.

I don't get TSN2 with my current Bell package and only get TSN1,3,4,5. The Leafs and Jets regional games are on TSN3 and TSN4 which are blacked out for me but I do get Sens regional games on TSN5.

I haven't checked lately but when the Habs English regional games first moved to TSN2 from Sportsnet East I did have the option of adding TSN2 to my current TSN lineup for about $7 a month. They removed that option the following year and it's not available for me anymore (or it wasn't anyhow).

The last I checked and for me to get TSN2 I would've needed to change my current Bell satellite channel package to the next tier up or buy the separate sports package which also included the current Sportsnet and TSN channels which I already had so not sure how that would've worked for me.

In the end I decided it really wasn't worth the additional cost to me to go either of these routes (I already pay Bell enough as is) to just get Habs games on TSN2 since I could already listen on TSN690 and also had the option of finding the games online if need be.

 

[JianYang]

If the ratings are indeed poor for TSN's Habs English regional coverage I wonder if that's due to the games being televised on TSN2 which isn't included into Bell's lower priced satellite packages.

I don't get TSN2 with my current Bell package and only get TSN1,3,4,5. The Leafs and Jets regional games are on TSN3 and TSN4 which are blacked out for me but I do get Sens regional games on TSN5.

I haven't checked lately but when the Habs English regional games first moved to TSN2 from Sportsnet East I did have the option of adding TSN2 to my current TSN lineup for about $7 a month. They removed that option the following year and it's not available for me anymore (or it wasn't anyhow).

The last I checked and for me to get TSN2 I would've needed to change my current Bell satellite channel package to the next tier up or buy the separate sports package which also included the current Sportsnet and TSN channels which I already had so not sure how that would've worked for me.

In the end I decided it really wasn't worth the additional cost to me to go either of these routes (I already pay Bell enough as is) to just get Habs games on TSN2 since I could already listen on TSN690 and also had the option of finding the games online if need be.

I think the English ratings have always been low far before tsn 2 was even a thing.

The prinicpal market is Atlantic Canada and English Quebec. It's small.

 

[GoodKiwi]

I think the English ratings have always been low far before tsn 2 was even a thing.

The prinicpal market is Atlantic Canada and English Quebec. It's small.

Yes, this is exactly why Sens got 5 and Habs went on the spillover 2 even though 5 covers the same region.

 

[sheed36]

Yes, this is exactly why Sens got 5 and Habs went on the spillover 2 even though 5 covers the same region.

Any idea how the Sens regional ratings on TSN5 (which is available on the lower priced Bell channel packages so more subscribers likely have TSN5) compare to the Habs regional ratings on TSN2?

 

[GoodKiwi]

Any idea how the Sens regional ratings on TSN5 (which is available on the lower priced Bell channel packages so more subscribers likely have TSN5) compare to the Habs regional ratings on TSN2?

I was told they're better for OTT. By how much I don't know. The Habs trail all Canadian teams in EN regional ratings. Big gap between MTL and all teams but Ottawa. Those are the bottom two. These aren't this years figures, they're from 2-3 years ago. I haven't looked into TV ratings in a while, but I used to be into that hardcore.

The thing is MTL EN regionals are much more expensive than Ottawa's. Much more.

 

[sheed36]

I was told they're better for OTT. By how much I don't know. The Habs trail all Canadian teams in EN regional ratings. Big gap between MTL and all teams but Ottawa. Those are the bottom two. These aren't this years figures, they're from 2-3 years ago. I haven't looked into TV ratings in a while, but I used to be into that hardcore.

The thing is MTL EN regionals are much more expensive than Ottawa's. Much more.

Since the Habs seem to be last for TSN regional coverage ratings I really do think with TSN3, 4, and 5 being available in the lower priced channel packages and TSN2 not being included (and being an additional cost) it's somewhat playing a part in the Habs lower ratings here.

I guess TSN figured by putting the Habs with their large fanbase on TSN2 they would get Hab fans to pony up and also add this extra TSN channel but that doesn't seem to have happened. Plus many probably had and were already paying extra for RDS so no need to pay an additional cost for TSN2.

Damn.. This board is still messed up and still crapping out from the new format it seems.