Rant on Sportsnet & Regional Restrictions

[RGM81]

This is nothing groundbreaking what I'm saying here, but I am beyond tired of Sportsnet. I cannot wait for the broadcast rights deal in Canada to be up, and when it is I hope that the NHL joins the 21st century and gets away from this regional restrictions nonsense. It is 2023 and I cannot legally watch 82 Montreal Canadiens games on TV (not that I let the italicized bit stop me). The way things are divided between Sportsnet (Canucks, Oilers, Flames, Leafs) and TSN (Habs, Jets, and Senators) is frustrating for everyone, and it's just so archaic.

But last night was an L for the ages. Chicago vs Edmonton. First time it's Bedard vs McDavid on the ice. Such a big game that the NHL even emailed fans on its mailing list about the game. 6pm PDT rolls around and across my six Sportsnet channels what do we see? Canucks game on Pacific, Blackout, and 4 channels showing the Flames/Golden Knights game. Guess what was on the Blackout channel? That's right. Unless you were in Alberta, you didn't get to see the game last night on broadcast TV.

Bedard scores a beautiful goal four minutes in, the Oilers then score four unanswered to win their 8th straight. By all accounts, it was a really good game....that almost nobody in Canada got to watch.

I can't fathom how they think this is good for the game. Whatever it is they're calling NHL Centre Ice / Sportsnet Premium Plus crackers, or whatever....is still horrible too.

What about our American friends? Did you have access to the game on ESPN yesterday? Do they have similar levels of blackouts down there?

Like I said, I can't wait for Sportsnet to hopefully lose the rights back to TSN. People may joke about "Toronto Sports Network" but it's not like Sportsnet hasn't been homeriffic themselves. The TSN broadcasts are so superior, better analysts, better panels, better announcers, better presentation.

Rant over.

[zunato]

I live in the Chicago area and I watch most of the games on NBC Sports Chicago. They also show some of the games on TNT and ESPN (+). You have to have the ESPN + package on Hulu to watch the games, which I do. I have never had a blackout situation with those channels. I do see lots of complaining on some of the Hawks boards about how people won't pay for ESPN. and not being able to watch the games.

[cjb]

In my area, if you own a Digital TV box that sill gets Standard Definition Channels, you can watch some sportsnet blacked out programming. But only in standard definition.

Regional blackout have been occurring for a while, and TSN getting the rights probably won't change anything.

I'm pretty sure you have access to Hab games on Saturday night. Hey look, there's a habs on on right now for free on sportsnet!

I agree with out on the flames/vegas thing. It makes no sense to make that game your unblackout game and the Hawk/Oiler game to be the blackout one.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think TSN has ever had national rights since they went to a 5 channel format. Not sure how they would do it differently.

[RGM81]

In my area, if you own a Digital TV box that sill gets Standard Definition Channels, you can watch some sportsnet blacked out programming. But only in standard definition.

Regional blackout have been occurring for a while, and TSN getting the rights probably won't change anything.

I'm pretty sure you have access to Hab games on Saturday night. Hey look, there's a habs on on right now for free on sportsnet!

I agree with out on the flames/vegas thing. It makes no sense to make that game your unblackout game and the Hawk/Oiler game to be the blackout one.

Correct me if i'm wrong, but I don't think TSN has ever had national rights since they went to a 5 channel format. Not sure how they would do it differently.

Oh yes, I get Saturdays and the very occasional weekday game on a Monday/Wednesday. But the great majority of the 82 games (i.e. Tuesdays/Thursdays), I have...alternative means, which usually means 25-30 seconds behind real time, glitches, etc.

You're correct - since both Sportsnet & TSN adopted regional feeds, that's been part & parcel of Sportsnet's exclusive national broadcast rights and TSN's regional broadcast rights. It's a dumb system. It used to be back in the day, I could pay something like $60 for a special Habs package that showed you all the games in French. It was the RDS feeds, which are top-notch. At some point, the NHL pulled the plug on that because apparently they hate taking my and other Habs fans' money.

They should make it as simple as possible for fans. If you want access to all the hockey, make a package for that. If you want to get just your favourite team, make a package for that. A lot of people would drop decent money if they could get all 82 games, their "home" feed, in HD to watch on their TV, their computer, their phone, whatever.

But they gotta get through this current 12-year Sportsnet deal first before they can implement any 21st century changes.

[moose7766]

Sportsnet IS terrible. But really, it's the NHL here, the ultimate garage league. No way that TV contract should have gone to anybody BUT TSN, who are the leaders in that (they essentially made the World Junior tourney what it is). But, they gave it to Rogers.

It's not like they havent done this in the past. Anyone remember when they picked Verseus for U.S. coverage, rather than someone like ESPN. They ALWAYS pick the money. I remember being at a conference in SF back around 2012-13, Bruins playing TB in the playoffs, and not one place in that city even had that game on. Trust me, I called around and gave up. If ISIS had a TV network, the NHL would consider them as a sponsor, if the dollars were right.

This is nothing groundbreaking what I'm saying here, but I am beyond tired of Sportsnet. I cannot wait for the broadcast rights deal in Canada to be up, and when it is I hope that the NHL joins the 21st century and gets away from this regional restrictions nonsense. It is 2023 and I cannot legally watch 82 Montreal Canadiens games on TV (not that I let the italicized bit stop me). The way things are divided between Sportsnet (Canucks, Oilers, Flames, Leafs) and TSN (Habs, Jets, and Senators) is frustrating for everyone, and it's just so archaic.

But last night was an L for the ages. Chicago vs Edmonton. First time it's Bedard vs McDavid on the ice. Such a big game that the NHL even emailed fans on its mailing list about the game. 6pm PDT rolls around and across my six Sportsnet channels what do we see? Canucks game on Pacific, Blackout, and 4 channels showing the Flames/Golden Knights game. Guess what was on the Blackout channel? That's right. Unless you were in Alberta, you didn't get to see the game last night on broadcast TV.

Bedard scores a beautiful goal four minutes in, the Oilers then score four unanswered to win their 8th straight. By all accounts, it was a really good game....that almost nobody in Canada got to watch.

I can't fathom how they think this is good for the game. Whatever it is they're calling NHL Centre Ice / Sportsnet Premium Plus crackers, or whatever....is still horrible too.

What about our American friends? Did you have access to the game on ESPN yesterday? Do they have similar levels of blackouts down there?

Like I said, I can't wait for Sportsnet to hopefully lose the rights back to TSN. People may joke about "Toronto Sports Network" but it's not like Sportsnet hasn't been homeriffic themselves. The TSN broadcasts are so superior, better analysts, better panels, better announcers, better presentation.

Rant over.

[cjb]

When RDS was on free preview in previous years I could always watch games for Free

[RGM81]

When RDS was on free preview in previous years I could always watch games for Free

Yeah those were good times - do the cable companies even do that sort of thing anymore? Free preview for 14 days promos?

[cjb]

Yep. Usually it's the crappy channels

[mikecole141]

TL,DR: NHL controls regional blackouts and regional markets not Sportsnet, even if Bell gets national rights the next time around blackouts won't change, NHL makes too much money on the out of market national digital/streaming packages.

This is nothing groundbreaking what I'm saying here, but I am beyond tired of Sportsnet. I cannot wait for the broadcast rights deal in Canada to be up, and when it is I hope that the NHL joins the 21st century and gets away from this regional restrictions nonsense. It is 2023 and I cannot legally watch 82 Montreal Canadiens games on TV (not that I let the italicized bit stop me). The way things are divided between Sportsnet (Canucks, Oilers, Flames, Leafs) and TSN (Habs, Jets, and Senators) is frustrating for everyone, and it's just so archaic.

But last night was an L for the ages. Chicago vs Edmonton. First time it's Bedard vs McDavid on the ice. Such a big game that the NHL even emailed fans on its mailing list about the game. 6pm PDT rolls around and across my six Sportsnet channels what do we see? Canucks game on Pacific, Blackout, and 4 channels showing the Flames/Golden Knights game. Guess what was on the Blackout channel? That's right. Unless you were in Alberta, you didn't get to see the game last night on broadcast TV.

Bedard scores a beautiful goal four minutes in, the Oilers then score four unanswered to win their 8th straight. By all accounts, it was a really good game....that almost nobody in Canada got to watch.

I can't fathom how they think this is good for the game. Whatever it is they're calling NHL Centre Ice / Sportsnet Premium Plus crackers, or whatever....is still horrible too.

What about our American friends? Did you have access to the game on ESPN yesterday? Do they have similar levels of blackouts down there?

Like I said, I can't wait for Sportsnet to hopefully lose the rights back to TSN. People may joke about "Toronto Sports Network" but it's not like Sportsnet hasn't been homeriffic themselves. The TSN broadcasts are so superior, better analysts, better panels, better announcers, better presentation.

Rant over.

Nobody hates regional blackouts more than me, and the NHL does so much wrong when it comes to presenting the game in Canada because they think no matter what they do we the fans will consume it all anyways. The NHL controls the blackouts, not Sportsnet, and the NHL and Oilers had very strong reasons for wanting that Oilers v. Hawks game to be regional. The NHL is making a lot of money of the digital/streaming packages, even now with it being administered through Sportsnet Now & Rogers' Super Sports PAK, instead of NHL Live & Center Ice. All of that money goes to the League and is then filtered down to the teams. The Oilers on the other hand get the regional money for that game's TV rights directly from Sportsnet and doesn't go into the overall NHL Pool of TV rights, it is no different for the Jets, Habs, Ottawa along with the Oilers doing so many afternoon weekend games as well, they fall outside of the guaranteed national rights package and allow those teams to keep TV money directly.

As for how the NHL can think this is good for the game in Canada, they are making too much money off the streaming to care, Sportsnet is running the package now too, so production in Canada for the streaming is all on Rogers with almost no overhead for the League, and even if the national rights change possession for the next deal, the regional rights and blackouts are not going to change.

But once again that is not on Sportsnet, it is all on the NHL.

Oh yes, I get Saturdays and the very occasional weekday game on a Monday/Wednesday. But the great majority of the 82 games (i.e. Tuesdays/Thursdays), I have...alternative means, which usually means 25-30 seconds behind real time, glitches, etc.

You're correct - since both Sportsnet & TSN adopted regional feeds, that's been part & parcel of Sportsnet's exclusive national broadcast rights and TSN's regional broadcast rights. It's a dumb system. It used to be back in the day, I could pay something like $60 for a special Habs package that showed you all the games in French. It was the RDS feeds, which are top-notch. At some point, the NHL pulled the plug on that because apparently they hate taking my and other Habs fans' money.

They should make it as simple as possible for fans. If you want access to all the hockey, make a package for that. If you want to get just your favourite team, make a package for that. A lot of people would drop decent money if they could get all 82 games, their "home" feed, in HD to watch on their TV, their computer, their phone, whatever.

But they gotta get through this current 12-year Sportsnet deal first before they can implement any 21st century changes.

I don't know what your access to RDS was before the Rogers deal, if you were paying extra or if it was just part of your cable package, but the French package for RDS Habs games, as well as French Ottawa broadcasts, plus the TVA National broadcasts came only because the NHL never enforced the regional blackouts on RDS when they were the National rights holder, but RDS' previous national package never actually gave them right to broadcast those regional games nationally and they were two separate packages. Rogers is paying $440 Million a year for those exclusive national rights (that TVA pays them for exclusive French rights). I still don't know why they capitulated to allow the cutout package, as the french feeds are available as part of the main package. How many people cut their full NHL Live package for the French cutout and was that the main reason the NHL went back to only having one option?

I 100% agree that the NHL should have individual packages per team for streaming/TV, but if I am the NHL why offer it if I already have people paying for the NHL National package, the new pickups from customers who refuse to pay for the full package is not going to make up for the customers who would quit the main packages to go with one regional team package.

If blackouts were really about protecting regional markets and not about getting people onto NHL pay TV options, when a team is running unopposed during a broadcast then they shouldn't be blacked out. There have been multiple nights when one of the Canadian teams has been playing on a regional feed either with no other games on Canadian TV or at a different time and are still blacked out, and that is because the NHL wants you to buy the pay package, and enough people are paying for out of market games the NHL has no reason to look at expanding TV rights.

All of that said, it is going to be no different if Bell gets the national rights the next time around, the NHL is going to want to continue the digital/streaming as it is, they will just move the streaming from Rogers to Bell and you'll have to pay $35 for TSN+ instead of $35 for Sportsnet Now.

I think we are probably going to see a package similar to the current US rights, similar to ESPN/TNT TV broadcasts and streaming split between both of their respective packages, we are going to see a split between Rogers/TSN. The NHL will get more money that way, broadcasters will get more TV National games, Bell and Rogers and the Canadian teams will be able to continue their lucrative regional rights, and TSN and Sportsnet will continue to have streaming content. The NHL will not care that you'll have to pay for each service, there are people who are already doing that now.

I think the more egregious screwup was/is the NHL dropping the ball on event broadcasting, Frozen Frenzy was a cool concept that were regional games only in Canada (except for one), and the NHL Global series was Nationally broadcast in the US on NHL Network and once again only one game was a national broadcast in Canada and that was a last minute exception.

[subban7677]

I'll say this much...before Rogers took over I got one game a week in English, the rest on RDS. It's not a big deal for me, I speak French and like the RDS broadcast, but my kids don't speak it. Getting all 82 now in English is great. Other than that, SN has been pretty awful.