Rogers slow to move on MLB Network
January 14, 2010 · 27 Comments
The Bob Costas interview with Mark McGwire received good reviews this week, although some critics felt Costas could have pushed McGwire harder for specific information on his steroid use.
Whatever the case, Costas had the scoop and so did MLB Network, which aired the piece.
MLB Network, since its launch a year ago, has been well received the United States. But it’s not available in Canada and it doesn’t appear that it will be any time soon.
Rogers, which owns a license for a proposed channel called Baseball TV, is mum on the subject of bringing MLB Network content to Canada.
By email, Jan Innes, vice-president of communications for Rogers, stated, “There is nothing to report at this time. Our discussions are still ongoing.”
The “discussions” would be tied to Rogers partnering with MLB Network to produce MLB Canada, or purchasing content from MLB Network for Baseball TV.
If the price was right – and it doesn’t appear to be — Rogers would load up its proposed baseball channel with MLB programming and then add the required 20 per cent Canadian content, which could be easily achieved by airing a few Toronto Blue Jays games over the course of the season as well as running daily repeats.
But, the likelihood of a deal getting done for this season seems slim. One source said the idea “seems to have died out.”
There is an alternative to an MLB Canada or a Rogers and MLB Network partnership to produce Baseball TV. It would involve the U.S. channel coming into Canada as it is, without Canadian content, like The Golf Channel or NFL Network. For Rogers, the problem is it would have no equity in the channel and would not earn revenue from it.
Certainly, the absence of MLB Network in Canada is a disappointment for baseball fans. But it’s also self-defeating for Rogers, which owns the Jays and uses Jays telecasts as a principal property for Rogers Sportsnet.
MLB Network would encourage interest in baseball. Given the track record of the Jays, Rogers could use some help keeping the fans interested.
Sportsnet approved to go national
Last week, the CRTC granted approval to Rogers Sportsnet to air an unlimited amount of national programming.
Sportsnet, a regional service, can now do just about anything it wants with its signal. It no longer has regional commitments.
It could close down one of its feeds, such as the East region, and opt for only three feeds — Pacific, West plus a Ontario-East merger. If it wanted, it could launch a national feed to compete with TSN.
These changes are the result of the CRTC’s decision to deregulate the cable industry.
As for TSN, a national service, its restrictions also will be lifted. If it wanted, it could increase its regional coverage. The best news for TSN relates to its companion channel TSN2. Licensed initially as a replay service, TSN2 will be allowed to air a much first-run programming as it desires. And you can be sure TSN2 will take advantage of that.
What to expect? It wouldn’t be a surprise if Sportsnet combined the Ontario and East feeds. And Sportsnet, in the future, could challenge TSN for some national properties.
The service in a position to make the biggest gains from deregulation may be TSN2, which launched 18 months ago. With a large increase in first-run content, it will continue to grow quickly. In the December ratings, it ranked second among all the digital channels, behind only National Geographic.
Natives are restless
We caught Howard Berger, the Fan590’s intrepid Toronto Maple Leaf reporter, on the air this week stating that he was surprised by the bitterness of Leaf fans over the sad state of the team.
He wondered if it had to do with inflated expectations caused by general manager Brian Burke implying at the start of the season the team was good enough to make the playoffs.
We would suggest not. This has everything to do with a sense of hopelessness — that the future, at least for the next two seasons, has been squandered.
It’s all about Burke, after one mediocre season, rejecting the idea of building the team the sensible way, through the draft, and instead opting to give away two first round draft choices and a second to Boston for Phil Kessel, a player who’s streaky but talented, but certainly not a franchise player.
For the fan, it’s not so much what Kessel is or isn’t. It’s about the fact there’s nothing to look forward to. There’s no lottery pick waiting for the team at the end of the season. The rebuilding is over, but the house is a wreck. Now, as Bill Watters said on AM640 in Toronto today, it’s all about Burke trying to renovate as best he can.
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Burke is a typical GM. He felt, not without reason, that the suits at MLSE wouldn't wait through another 4 or 5 years of losing to rebuild the way you have to in the post lockout/salary cap environment. The GM that does suffer through those years isn't around when the team finally does improve (witness what happened in Anahiem to Bryan Murray and Dale Tallon in Chicago). So Burke tried to circumvent the process. He probably told them in his interview how he could get the team back into playoff contention his way. It probably isn't going to work, but if it doesn't it won't be his problem. I suspect if the team hasn't made the playoffs by the spring of 2011, he'll be fired and it will be the next GM's problem.
Agreed… Burke really is most concerned about his own pocket, and in the past has proven to lie and blunder his way to mediocrity. He ran both Hartford and Vancouver into the ground, and then sucked his way into the Anaheim job where all the hard work was done by Bryan Murray. But of course Bluster Burkie was then ordained as hockey genius after winning the cup … mostly by those whom he bullied over the years, after he managed to sign Pronger and Scott Niedermayer. In those days he had all the money available to buy a winner and was allowed to by Ducks ownership. He can't do that anymore, as he has f'ed up the Leafs salary cap this year and has no room to sign a high-end free agent this off-season… he has the next 6 months or so to prove himself as the so-called genius, otherwise will be just another blunder of a signing by MLSE.
Geez, I really hope the teachers want out and sell to Jim Balsillie. Then Burkie and his obnoxious side-kick Whiner Wilson, will be out post-haste and a real G.M. and coach can be hired… not loud-mouthed egomaniac turds.
Brian Burke! The biggest over rated loudmouth buffoon in Hockey. Nice job MLSE you hired another dud. This guy has done absolutely nothing in his career and MLSE makes him out to be some kind of saviour! Good Grief, look at Chicago and learn how to build a winner! They were patient and astute. They have a top G.M. and a Top notch coach, all being guided by Scotty Bowman. MLSE could have had the same arrangement but they were too stupid to take Bowman up on his offer. I hope the Laughs never make the playoffs!
What Burke is doing is asking Kaberle to waive his No-Trade through the media, instead of directly. And by mentioning it, he knows the local media will ask Kaberle about it in every interview, until he is pestered into waiving it.
It’s the same way he negotiated with the Bruins with the implicit threat that he would give an offer sheet, even though he said he wouldn’t. You can bet if the Bruins hadn’t negotiated, he would have written an offer sheet, just like Lowe did.
He pretends he is above all that muck, but he’s as bad as the rest of them.
I think that Sportsnet will bid for national packages like the Raptors and the NHL. They won't get out of local hockey because they make money at it. They also do a gret job of selling ads region by region. If I run a BC based business, I can buy Pacific and show my ads there without spending any money reaching people in the other regions who have no interest in my product. It would lower a few costs behind the scenes, and allow them to be a player for some of the bigger properties, that's it. You won't see local NHL games in other team's markets, because the teams and the league would never allow it. It's the NHL who makes those rules, not Sportsnet or the CRTC.
One thing is certain – whatever the right decision is for Sportsnet's new options, Beeforth and Co. will do the opposite.
So William how long before Dowboy plagiarizes this post/article as his own in the G&M?
It is embarrassing how he used your Askin posts from this week in today's G&M.
Do he do any actual research, or does he just let his fingers do the walking (googling)?
That being said, I am very appreciative of your work Mr. Houston.
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So how long before Sportsnet can renegotiate with the NHL to lift the blackouts on its regional sportscasts?
Will a bidding war start for National rights? Would CBC be knocked out of the running for Saturday night games. Since TSN and RSN get subscriber fees, they can easily outbid CBC for the rights. We saw the same scenario in the States with ESPN getting Monday Night Football and College BCS Bowl games. I wonder if this is the true hidden agenda behind the "Save Local TV" campaigns.
The NHL TV contracts run until 2014 so it's too early to speculate on what the next contract will be. But in the last negotiation, CBC anted up big to keep HNIC ($100 million/year) so my guess is that they'd go big again to keep the property.
I was suprised to see that TSN2 ranked behind the National Geographic channel in terms of digital viewership. The solution is clear. TSN must sign the star of the National Geographic channel, Dog Whisperer Cesar Milan. The results will be two-fold. You scoop the competition. Also, he can be an NHL insider with the sole role of taming the excitable Pierre Maguire.
Hey Howard, you're an idiot. Players seeing that a fairly negotiated security clause is being tossed out as soon as things turn south will be a huge DISINCENTIVE for players to sign here, and agents will steer their players as far away from Toronto as possible if that's the case. Remember how the "Muskoka Five" were treated as villians for not wanting to waive their clauses? No agent would subject their clients to that sort of villification.
Berger is showing himself to be a giant fanboy who's too close to the team. Either that, or he wants to create news when there isn't any. In either case, the more I listen to him as of late, the worse my opinion of him gets.
What's the problem with ASKING Kaberle to waive the clause? You could always try to work out a deal with a team that Kaberle wants to go to.
Berger's right. By not pursuing all options, Burke isn't doing his job.
Burke is really good at collecting a large paycheque. Other than that, he is just another G.M. in a league of mediocrity. Do you think Lou Lamoriello or Ken Holland would take the stance Bluster Burkie did with Kaberle? I doubt it.
But, Burke did say that he would not ask Kaberle to waive his no trade clause… he did not say that he wouldn't ask his agent, so he can cover himself, if and when he chances his stance in a few weeks.
Regarding the Howard Berger bit: I was mortified to hear his take yesterday (Thursday) on Burke not asking Tomas Kaberle about lifting his no-trade clause. Burke's stance was that he wouldn't ask Kaberle to waive it, and that the players needed to feel like they were being treated fairly. Berger then sounded off for almost two whole minutes about how this was a bad move, when was Burke gonna stop acting like a nice guy (Brian Burke??? Really???) and that if Burke persuaded Kaberle to waive it, it would ENCOURAGE free agents to come to Toronto because players would see that the GM was doing everything he could to win.
Hopefully the CRTC changes will be positive for RSN. Right now, quite honestly, the network is a joke – poker, UFC, a lame hockey show. It's a network that doesn't know what it wants to be. "We need to make a change from Rob Faulds, here's Jamie Campbell. Oops, that didn't work, let's bring back Buck and pretend it's 1992 again." Or, "We should be the national NHL carrier, er, no, let's just be a regional carrier." "Let's be more newsy, we'll hire Scott Morrison, uhm, no let's be more hip and not wear ties." "Let's hire a lawyer to run our programming department." Does Doug Beeforth even work there anymore? The place is a mess.
Agreed1 I can't watch this piece of crap! It is absolutely a joke. Blow it up and start over. Absolutely no direction what so ever!
LOL!
William, do you know if TSN has plans to have an entirely different schedule on TSN2? I would love if TSN2 aired some ESPN programs like NFL Live, Jim Rome is Burning, Mike & Mike in the Morning and Outside the Lines.
I don't think that Sportsnet would achieve much by merging any of their feeds. If East/Ontario became one, then they wouldn't be able to show a Senators and a Leafs game at the same time. Also as it is now, they can air up to 4 different baseball games at any one time as well. I think that the main reason why they applied for this, is so they can go after national NHL rights again. In the past few years (since losing NHL rights), they spent a lot of their national time (I'm not sure exactly how much it was) showing Jays games. Without restrictions, they would be able to still show the same number of Jays and MLB games nationally, but show 2-3 NHL games nationally a week as well if they were to get the contract when it comes up again in a few years.
I don't have a lot of memories of the 80s, but I can't remember a time when the public has been so fed up with the Leafs. It's funny too, it seems the more turned off the public gets with the team, the more intense the coverage becomes.
Hockey will always have a special relationship with Toronto, but if either the Jays or Raptors can put together a contending team before the Leafs turn things around, I think you'll see a situation similar to the early 90s, when hockey took a back seat for a few years. I think the city is dying for a team to pull for and it really looks like the Leafs are starting to erode their incredibly loyal fanbase. At least in my opinion.
I too would like to see TSN2 relaunched as its own standalone channel. Have you heard any possibility on this happening soon, Mr Houston?
Good Lord, isn't it obvious Burke doesn't know what he's doing? First he tried to lock up every bruiser in the business except Mike Tyson, then gave up three critical draft choices for Kessel. Sad, sad story for a sad, sad franchise.
What would be the advantage for Sportsnet of combining the East and Ontario feeds? As it is, the only 'regional' programming consists of NHL hockey, different baseball schedules in the summer and a few other dribs and drabs throughout the year – what would Sportsnet gain by combining feeds?
And wouldn't it be to the detriment of consumers (certainly those consumers who've gone digital and receive all four feeds), in that there might be fewer baseball games to choose from the on the Sportsnet channels on summer nights?
So if the Ontario and East feeds are merged, would I be able to watch Sens games now since its my home feed? Or would the feed still be blocked?
And how much regional commitment did Sportsnet have before? Aside from the different hockey games the feeds were almost indistinguishable.
The feed would still be blocked, just as it was for people outside the Leaf region a few seasons ago when TSN had some regional Leaf games.
the way Rogers has mis-handled baseball as a television property is shocking. they have a national platform to promote Canada's only baseball team and consistently botch the job.
So true, Mike.
You'd expect Rogers to overhype and oversell the Jays on Sportsnet, since they own both properties, but if anything they actually manage to undersell the Blue Jays. Obviously hockey is huge here, but Jays games still get very good ratings, even with a terrible team. Yet Sportsnet seems to treat the broadcasts like filler between Hockey Central shows and poker. Not only that but the broadcasts come across as cheap and unprofessional. And, frankly, it doesn't seem like many on air staff at Sportsnet who really care for baseball. I think you sense more enthusiasm for MMA.
That's disgraceful, when you consider what YES has done for the Yankees and NESN for the BoSox. Meanwhile, I get better Jays coverage on blogs than I do Sportsnet. At least they replaced Jamie Campbell. That's a start I suppose.