Rogers Comes Through - Habs Fans Across the Nation Get Access to All 82 Games!

[RGM81]

When it came to the Habs it's always been an interesting situation in Canada. One that is as unique as the team itself.

The Habs have always been available on RDS, a subscription cable package, allowing any fan anywhere in Canada to watch all 82 regular season games (in French) for $7 a month or whatever the local cable company charged. That was considered a national broadcast. Because those games were available on a locally available channel, they were blacked out on platforms such as GameCentre Live or NHL Centre Ice (for sure on the former, not sure on the latter). I had subscribed to GCL for the 2012-13 season and promptly cancelled it once all feeds of Habs games were blacked out.

Now, the new arrangement with Rogers reduced RDS (a Bell property) to a regional package. No longer would it be available on a national basis, we were told the games would be blacked out when they aired. For Canadiens fans outside the designated viewing region (Belleville and all points east) that was only option to see every game, and it had been taken away. That naturally touched off a firestorm amongst fans.

This solution is workable. I have no problem watching the games on my laptop. GCL can also be routed through your gaming console (Xbox, PS3/4, etc.) so that you can watch on TV. I don't know what the quality will look like, probably depends on your modem speed.

We still get 60 games in French, to go along with the 25+ games that are available through the national package in English. In short, we're covered.

[30ranfordfan]

Right. I understand how the Bell /RDS thing worked in the past - and with Rogers taking over, it just nulls that out.

If you're okay with watching on a laptop (sure, there are way to stick that on your TV too) who am I to say "no", I guess? Just not my thing though.

Of course, I'm becoming an increasingly jaded sports fan. If I only get to see games 3, 13, 26, 55, and 82 out of a meaningless 82 game schedule during the race for Connor McDavid..... am I really missing much?

When it came to the Habs it's always been an interesting situation in Canada. One that is as unique as the team itself.

The Habs have always been available on RDS, a subscription cable package, allowing any fan anywhere in Canada to watch all 82 regular season games (in French) for $7 a month or whatever the local cable company charged. That was considered a national broadcast. Because those games were available on a locally available channel, they were blacked out on platforms such as GameCentre Live or NHL Centre Ice (for sure on the former, not sure on the latter). I had subscribed to GCL for the 2012-13 season and promptly cancelled it once all feeds of Habs games were blacked out.

Now, the new arrangement with Rogers reduced RDS (a Bell property) to a regional package. No longer would it be available on a national basis, we were told the games would be blacked out when they aired. For Canadiens fans outside the designated viewing region (Belleville and all points east) that was only option to see every game, and it had been taken away. That naturally touched off a firestorm amongst fans.

This solution is workable. I have no problem watching the games on my laptop. GCL can also be routed through your gaming console (Xbox, PS3/4, etc.) so that you can watch on TV. I don't know what the quality will look like, probably depends on your modem speed.

We still get 60 games in French, to go along with the 25+ games that are available through the national package in English. In short, we're covered.

[RGM81]

Haha be nice to the Sabres fans. They've suffered enough and the season hasn't even started yet.

[HOCKEY68]

Unless I'm missing something, we've had the ability to watch any game we wanted for years - as long as we're willing to pay for it. How long as the Center Ice package been available?? I think it costs like $150 a year, but it's there.

You don't get all 82 Habs games on center ice,if this thing about being able to watch all 82 games is only on a tablet or streaming via the internet,i'm keeping my dollars in my pocket!

[30ranfordfan]

Granted, I think this was the 2005-06 & 2006-07 seasons, but a friend of mine had the centre ice package for two seasons. He's a Habs fan living in South Western Ontario.

At the time, buying centre ice got him every Habs game. If the game was available to him through his cable subscription (CBC, TSN, whatever) I don't believe it was "in" the package.... but he got all the out of market games.


I've heard some really good stories with these packages though. I've got a buddy @ work, big NFL (Lions) fan. He does not have cable, at all. He gets a few channels over the air, and streams any shows he wants to watch. He gets nothing for live sports though - so he shelled out for Sunday ticket, to watch all the Lions games (this was a couple of seasons ago).

By the mid-point of the season, the Lions were playing well and the Bills (as usual) were awful, so Sportsnet switched their coverage. He'd go to get the HD feed in Sunday ticket - and it wouldn't be there. Only the standard def. He'd call and complain... they tell him "watch it on sportsnet" and they'd get very confused when he said "I don't have sportsnet" (regular ol' sportsnet, of course, is standard in everyone's package). He fought with them three weeks in a row.... and ended up chewing them out and got a partial refund (and never bought it again).



Bringing this back to the NHL..... I still can't believe anyone actually watches stuff on their phones (like you see in commercials) tablets, or laptops. I'd be okay if the streaming was free....... but it's not.

You don't get all 82 Habs games on center ice,if this thing about being able to watch all 82 games is only on a tablet or streaming via the internet,i'm keeping my dollars in my pocket!

You could always run the picture via cable (or I'm sure wireless) from that tablet or laptop to your TV... but if the picture is meant for a smaller device, I question how good it will look on a 50+ inch TV.

[mikecole141]

Actually the Blackouts aren't designed to protect the broadcasters, if that was the case they would argue to get rid of them. The reason for the Blackouts is the NHL protecting what is viewed as the market or predominant fan base of a team, solely for the ability to help make as much off the sale of those regional games. It used to be published how much a game per broadcast cost by team. Edmonton, Calgary, Ottawa, Vancouver and now Winnipeg sell for less than the Habs and dramatically less than the Leafs. If the Leafs are playing and that game is on in Edmonton the same night as the Oilers there is a significant number of Fans changing the channel to watch the Leafs that aren't going to be watching the Oilers. Even if both games are on Sportsnet the Leafs game would be (and still will be under the new Rogers deal as per an email conversation with Scott Moore) blacked out to assist in the best possible price for their regional package and why Centre Ice and Game Centre are still $199.99 that money is collected and split with the 30 teams to compensate for potential lost regional revenue by selling access to all games.

The broadcaster wants the lowest possible price to best recover his costs and this make easier profit per game, but would also pay more for the potential larger audience to have an even better chance to maximize advertising revenue. The team wants the highest dollar amount per game and that is based on belief that confining as much of your local market to watching your games is better than letting anybody across the country watch and hoping they prefer you over another team.

Teams that share traditional markets have it worse as they can't black out the other team in their market but may see lower sell price for their regional package because of a preference to watch the other team, or the other team having a lower price that makes revenue generation easier for ads sold. Which is what originally happened to the Habs this year when both TSN and Rogers both passed on the English rights. Within the local market place it was not feasible under the price the Habs wanted for TSN or Rogers to make enough money as to make a profit based on the advertising revenue. TSN opted to go with the Sens instead.

the negotiations with the Habs gave Rogers a better price per game and in return Rogers created a French package with which to sell seep rarely with the remaining French regional Habs games, which may allow RDS to have higher advertising revenue and still allows Rogers to recoups money on the sale of the individual package and protect their National deal.

[mikecole141]

When it came to the Habs it's always been an interesting situation in Canada. One that is as unique as the team itself.

The Habs have always been available on RDS, a subscription cable package, allowing any fan anywhere in Canada to watch all 82 regular season games (in French) for $7 a month or whatever the local cable company charged. That was considered a national broadcast. Because those games were available on a locally available channel, they were blacked out on platforms such as GameCentre Live or NHL Centre Ice (for sure on the former, not sure on the latter). I had subscribed to GCL for the 2012-13 season and promptly cancelled it once all feeds of Habs games were blacked out.

Now, the new arrangement with Rogers reduced RDS (a Bell property) to a regional package. No longer would it be available on a national basis, we were told the games would be blacked out when they aired. For Canadiens fans outside the designated viewing region (Belleville and all points east) that was only option to see every game, and it had been taken away. That naturally touched off a firestorm amongst fans.

This solution is workable. I have no problem watching the games on my laptop. GCL can also be routed through your gaming console (Xbox, PS3/4, etc.) so that you can watch on TV. I don't know what the quality will look like, probably depends on your modem speed.

We still get 60 games in French, to go along with the 25+ games that are available through the national package in English. In short, we're covered.

The majority of the games RDS carried were regional. But as they were the only French broadcaster, both National and Regional, after SRC gave up simulcast; and long after SRC stopped their own production, no other team or channel complained, and as none of the other teams were producing games in French they were not blacking out the games because they were perceived as not a threat.

That changed with the Rogers deal as TVA has the National Games through a sub-license that they are paying for and are going to be producing other games in French for broadcast.

But you actually don't have to watch as many in French as you think as the announcement put 40-42 games only in English for Regional as the other 40-42 depending on how it settles will be National. so you'll only have to watch about half the season in French. or a little over $1.50 per game. If you buy the English Centre Ice/Game Centre package to get all the Habs games it will cost you an approximate average of $5.00 per game.

I'm considering Centre Ice or Game Centre so I can get access to the 52 Leafs games I won't have access to in Alberta which averages out to a little over $4.00 per game, but as I'll watch a lot of other teams the cost will drop dramatically as I'll watch games all week long outside of when Agents of SHIELD is on and that is only for an hour.

[RGM81]

Yeah I recall reading somewhere that we'll be seeing more Habs games in English than we ever have before. And that's great.

As a "bonus" the Senators are also included in the French Game Centre Live package, as they've got a deal with RDS also. So yay for that. LOL

[Captain Habtastic]

I'd argue this new "deal" doesn't really benefit the die hard habs fans out there, it's great for a casual fan who is going to be able to watch 40 games in english. But I'm in a situation where I was able to watch all 82 regular season games, along with preseason games, antichambre, 24 CH and Canadiens Express for $1.99 a month, to having to shell out $60 a year for this Centre ice/game center pack, along with all the sportsnets, TVA and city channels to complete the rest of the schedule. It just seems absurd that in 2014 you have to go through that much trouble to watch your team play all 82 games, than again I don't know or understand the inner workings of these kind of things.

[MatsSundin13Rocks]

All I know or care about is that 40 Leafs games will air nationally on the Rogers collection of channels. That means I get to see almost 50% live on national TV in Vancouver. I'm fine with that since it includes most of the big games. I can stream any of the other games I might want to watch online.