RDS: RDS gets Habs' regional rights - 12 years deal

[tez]

You get them, the Atlantic provinces are in the territory.

Sweet, thanks!

 

[Bloumeister]

Love the timing of the announcement, right after Bergeron La Guidoune jumped ship.

L'Antichambre is pumping their own tires. Talking about how great their deal is, how great RDS is, they respect their employees, their president is awesome, blablabla..
What the heck is this crap. Talk about hockey and leave it at that.

En manchette ce soir:

 

[fsdev905]

So what does this mean for me?
I'm in Toronto paying $7/month for RDS.
Will my games be blocked out?

 

[Aspirine]

Why don't you guys get hockeystreams and let all the cable hassle down.
Glad I'll be hearing more of Pierre Houde. Tons of respect for the dude. Just listening to Crête pronounce names at the intermission feels like changing planets, I can't imagine Langevin and Pedneault... But who cares, Habs hockey is Habs hockey.

 

[Runner77]

En manchette ce soir:

How old is that pic of Bergeron? Photo stock reserves running low, huh?

I too saw RDS head honcho Jerry Frappier, lathering it thick, patting himself and his employees on the back, making weird grimaces, lol.

Which brings me back to Bergeron jumping ship -- some are saying the timing isn't as ill-advised -- he may have been convinced by someone at TVA that the Nords are not too far off the horizon. Looks like a longshot to me.

 

[Phil Parent]

So what does this mean for me?
I'm in Toronto paying $7/month for RDS.
Will my games be blocked out?

Yeah. Sorry, you're screwed. It only goes as far west as Ottawa, Hawksbury and the likes. The French-ish areas of Ontario.

I'd suggest you join hockeystreams. It will cost you less. Don't fork over for the NHL Network.

 

[albator71]

Yeah. Sorry, you're screwed. It only goes as far west as Ottawa, Hawksbury and the likes. The French-ish areas of Ontario.

I'd suggest you join hockeystreams. It will cost you less. Don't fork over for the NHL Network.

I live in a small town in Northern Ontario where its 80% french and the Habs are the team most people cheer for if we don't get the Habs on tv here its gonna get ugly.

 

[Mike Mike Caron]

I wish Denis Gauthier, Gaston Therrien and François Gagnon left the boat to TVA sports before this annoucement...

 

[jaffy27]

I live in a small town in Northern Ontario where its 80% french and the Habs are the team most people cheer for if we don't get the Habs on tv here its gonna get ugly.

Let me guess, it's either Kap, Hearst or Smooth Rock

 

[Rickkins]

I guess that means that English Quebecers are screwed again, unless they have Bell....

 

[RC51]

With the TVA 12 year deal and the 100% of the future Nordics games, if TVA would have landed the extra 60 games, TVA would have locked up hockey in Quebec. RDS would have had to cancel 5-7, hockey360,the NHL broadcast team, Antichambre, that the entire 5-11pm prime time slots. WOW. RDS had to outbid TVA just to stay in the game. Sure RDS could have replaced this time with other sports, on HABS HOCKEY NIGHTS you would be DEAD, nothing else on the planet is watched on these nights, unless your a non-hockey fan and you watch movies. SO what change the name to RDF- Reseau Des Films

 

[MrGreencity]

I knew Bell wouldn't let TVA and Québecor win that easily.
I couldn't imagine myself watching the games without Pierre Houde screaming his famous "Et c'est le but!".

 

[yoyo999]

Yeah. Sorry, you're screwed. It only goes as far west as Ottawa, Hawksbury and the likes. The French-ish areas of Ontario.

I'd suggest you join hockeystreams. It will cost you less. Don't fork over for the NHL Network.

Because in the rest of Canada RDS is considered a specialty channel, I doubt the other teams will bother blacking out a network that just isn't that popular for 3 hours at a time. RDS is not available on regular cable in the GTA or our west, so it's not really competing for viewers with sportsnet or citytv. They also probably figure that if people go out of their way to get RDS, they won't be converted to another team's fanbase.

Outside of some habs fans or expats, how many people outside Quebec have RDS? I don't have numbers but I would wager not many. Bars do, but they likely order centre ice. It seems like a lot on this board, but we're a habs board.

With that being said, it would certainly be within their right to black it out and it wouldn't surprise me, but I think you'll be ok.

Maybe someone who had RDS before they had the full national rights, (split with SRC) and can elaborate.

 

[Adriatic]

I like the fact that there will be more networks with Hab games. Competition is always a good thing. Really don't like when one network has all the monopoly like RDS had all these years. Also lol at people thinking Langevin will be doing the Habs broadcast on TVA.

 

[DekeLikeYouMeanIt]

If you're further west than Belleville/north than Pembroke, you'll get game blackouts.

 

[Price My Man Crush]

Damn.. you're probably right. Im in west Canada too. I also don't think TVA Sports is available with Telus. It also wouldn't make sense to get it if they're only getting 22 games..

Where the **** am I going to watch Habs games next year?

Hockeystreams.com my man!

 

[coolasprICE]

Hockeystreams.com my man!

how does hockeystreams look on a 60 inch tv?

I bet it would look like crap.

 

[Price My Man Crush]

how does hockeystreams look on a 60 inch tv?

I bet it would look like crap.

The streamings are in HD, you put your window on full screen and you're ready to watch.

 

[coolasprICE]

The streamings are in HD, you put your window on full screen and you're ready to watch.

i realize it's in hd but would there not be a dif. in picture quality if you were to make a side by side comparison with a cable / fibe hookup ?

 

[thewall]

I live in Hearst ontario, small french community and you are telling me we won't have HAbs game on tv anymore? wow.. 90% of the town are Habs fans... I'm not an happ camper!

 

[pezcore]

ok so lemme get this straight

Quebec, Martimes part of Ontario

French
60 games on RDS (Regional)
20ish games + playoffs on TVA

English:
CBC (Unconfirmed amount of games)
20ish games on TSN Habs (Bell Only Regional)
Sportsnest (Unconfirmed amount of games)

Rest of Canada

French
20ish games + playoffs on TVA

English:
CBC (Unconfirmed amount of games)
Sportsnest (Unconfirmed amount of games)

 

[Fozz]

RDS sucks
TVA sucks

There's no easy way out

I've always wanted a feed with on ice audio only, just like they did in the playoffs when the broadcasters were on strike 20+ years ago... That was amazing.

 

[Fozz]

Why don't you guys get hockeystreams and let all the cable hassle down.
Glad I'll be hearing more of Pierre Houde. Tons of respect for the dude. Just listening to Crête pronounce names at the intermission feels like changing planets, I can't imagine Langevin and Pedneault... But who cares, Habs hockey is Habs hockey.

I like my hockey in full HD on my 60" TV, thanks.

 

[Price My Man Crush]

ok so lemme get this straight

Quebec, Martimes part of Ontario

French
60 games on RDS (Regional)
20ish games + playoffs on TVA

English:
CBC (Unconfirmed amount of games)
20ish games on TSN Habs (Bell Only Regional)
Sportsnest (Unconfirmed amount of games)

Rest of Canada

French
20ish games + playoffs on TVA

English:
CBC (Unconfirmed amount of games)
Sportsnest (Unconfirmed amount of games)

OP, just edit your post and put these infos in it.

 

[overlords]

I've always wanted a feed with on ice audio only, just like they did in the playoffs when the broadcasters were on strike 20+ years ago... That was amazing.

I often bring that up as my ideal. One of my favorite childhood memories was waching some of those games with my dad.