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Sports

What Is the CBC Going to Do Without Hockey Revenue?

What does Rogers' latest deal with the NHL mean for our national public broadcaster and the institution that is Hockey Night in Canada?

A visual metaphor for Rogers laying the contractual smackdown on the CBC via

Two years ago, TSN made the shrewd move of snagging CBC’s famous Hockey Night in Canada opening jingle for every NHL game on their network. At that point, the cocky sports-only network practically told their publicly funded rivals they’d be gunning for their traditional television rights contract with the NHL once bidding re-opened for next season.

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Well, yesterday Rogers sucker punched TSN, foiling their hockey domination plans, then gave the jersey treatment to CBC by taking the exclusive broadcast and multimedia rights contract from the clutches of both networks for a cool $5.2 billion paid over twelve years—a deal that fires up next season. Now the only major sporting league contract TSN has is with the CFL, while the iconic Hockey Night in Canada program will be under the complete editorial and monetary control of Rogers Communications—despite CBC maintaining production rights for two Saturday night broadcasts a week. In other words, both networks were just drained by a monopolistic vampire.

Under the terms of the new deal, Rogers exercises totalitarian control over NHL hockey broadcasting in Canada: exclusive rights to all NHL games, including the Stanley Cup Playoffs and Stanley Cup Final, on all of its platforms and in all languages. In fact, not only does Rogers become the Stalin of hockey broadcasting in Canada, it’s the first time ever that one of the big four sports leagues in North America sold their exclusive TV rights to a single entity.

As the dust settles on the deal, real questions are emerging about the future for both networks and whether or not they can survive the Rogers junta the NHL just decreed. Although Gary Bettman says this deal is a win for the fans, digital streaming rights to all CBC games are kaput: Rogers denied CBC the right to stream online.  Instead, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman insinuated viewers will get the chance to purchase paid-streaming packages with Sportsnet for unfettered access to most NHL games. A sample broadcast grid from last Saturday was provided Tuesday, showing what the current deal would look like for viewers next year, and 10 of 12 games were available.

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For the CBC, losing their flagship program is a big blow to a public broadcaster that considers Little Mosque on the Prairie a laugh fest and national success. The demise of the 61 year-old HNIC show not only means the end of an era, but the loss of blockbuster hockey ad-revenues, coupled with impending job losses. Some critics say the Rogers coup could’ve just cost CBC $200 million annually and 50 percent of their total ad revenue.

After this season, HNIC will be CBC’s in name and in history only. They do get 320 hours worth of NHL hockey every year from Rogers, but will cede all editorial control of HNIC, meaning all rights to the big bucks from ads (even those airing on CBC) and the choice of staff. On top of that, the plan to preserve HNIC, something Bettman was trying to stress, will only last for four years. After that it will be up to both networks to renegotiate, meaning this could be a four year dance around shooting the old dog behind the shed. It also means the colorful HNIC crew (I’m looking at you PJ Stock) cease to be employees of the Crown Corp after this year.

Just as soon as this new Rogers deal was announced, people were already wondering if every Canadian’s favourite cantankerous, albeit slightly racist and sexist granddad—Don Cherry—would be surviving the guillotine. Early whispers are uncertain, he’s about to turn eighty and might’ve called it quits this year anyway, but indications are Rogers will extend him and even give his senescent rambling a seven network broadcast platform. Cherry himself, says he’s uncertain what the new deal means for him or whether or not he’s out of a job, but that could be more old-man confusion than fact.

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As for TSN, the deal doesn’t neuter hockey from its broadcast grid, but it cripplingly reduces the number of games: They’ve got a regional deal with the Toronto Maple Leafs (TSN parent company Bell oddly half-owns them with Rogers) for 26 games a year, and a similar regional package with the Winnipeg Jets. That could mean a brain-drain from the likes of TSN, as their more talented and better connected hockey insiders (in my opinion), may choose to jump ship to Sportsnet for more work. Bob McKenzie, a trade mole among NHL GMs, has already pledged loyalty to TSN, but who knows what the plans will be for other broadcasters once TSN viewership and salaries take a nosedive. Perhaps the only consolation for the network is retaining broadcasting rights to the World Juniors, a huge viewers hog during the holiday season.

Ironically, over the last decade there’s been a well-documented media war between Sportsnet and TSN, having once been two networks under one owner battling it out for hockey viewers. CTV even sold Sportsnet in 2001, keeping TSN because it was deemed more successful and better established. Apparently Sportsnet was always considered the minor leagues of hockey broadcasting, getting the bottom feeder talent and losing the best to TSN. It’s fair to say they just reversed that script.

In the end, TSN was out hustled, and the CBC, according to its CEO Hubert T. Lacroix, just wasn’t in a position to spend taxpayers’ money into the billions like their corporate rivals could. Whatever your feelings are on the public broadcaster, it’s a sad devolution for a once powerful network. After this week’s new deal with the NHL, the CBC has been turned into a hockey-broadcasting carcass picked at by vultures: first TSN ate their theme song, and then Rogers flew away with Ron, Don, and every meaningful crumb of profit the network had built around Canada’s most beloved religious institution: hockey.

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So will this mean more original series are coming to CBC to fill the gap? Will they start pushing lacrosse in primetime? Or will the lack of advertising revenue just mean we’ll be catching more reruns of Royal Canadian Air Farce? Hard to say.

Follow Ben on Twitter: @BMakuch

More on our national pastime:

Stop Whining: Hockey is a Crucial Part of Professional Hockey

Kuch’s Corner: Quit Poppin’ the Cherry