OT: Rogers Snaking Around

[Scott Hall]

So the criminals at Rogers have supposedly cut off Leafs TV from all Rogers TV packages including VIP members
and are now offering it separately as a stand alone channel which if you want is $5 a month.

Looks like they must be losing a ton of money on their new NHL TV deal to have to resort to screwing over their
own customers and hoping they will foot some of the bill for their own incompetence.

I'm not sure what the chances are of them resigning David Price is and adding more money to payroll but a
slimy move like this doesn't seem to bode well. I'd love to know what the Leafs TV subscriptions are gonna be
after this and how much money they make from a move like this.

[hyper316]

I think this is such bad business practice, do you have a link to confirm?

I dont watch hockey, but if it was NBATV Canada (post-game interviews, game in 30, open gym, etc.), I would be calling in to complain for sure.

[UN-Owen]

People still pay for TV?

[duppyy]

Now they have an excuse for cheaping out on the jays.

[Indiana Jones]

if you think it's bad now, just wait. There's an avalanche of cable cutters coming, and it isn't going to be pretty for Rogers. I have no idea how they're going to cope with the losses, but I wouldn't be counting on their sports teams running wild with payroll while their cash cow assets start rotting from within.

Sure, in the end it will probably hurt our sports teams, but I support anything that tears apart these ridiculous, greedy, and monopolistic corporations.

[ldnk]

LeafsTV has no value at this point. They don't really show minor league games, they don't have any NHL games anymore and the production quality is essentially that of a local cable channel.

[Xaos]

Wasn't LeafsTV offered as a standalone before?

[Duffman100]

They paid too much for NHL. Everyone at CBC said so at the time...

[EastBayBoy]

Rogers messed up spending a ton of money to buy the right to air NHL games, personally I think they bid soo much just to keep it away from TSN( which only airs local games now). The aspect Rogers under estimated is how much consumers would watch games. They over saturated their channels with all hockey all the time. Yes, Canadians love hockey but at 10pm on a weekday which person is going to sit down and watch a west coast game on a consistent basis having to wake up for work the next morning.

[Santoki]

Rogers messed up spending a ton of money to buy the right to air NHL games, personally I think they bid soo much just to keep it away from TSN( which only airs local games now). The aspect Rogers under estimated is how much consumers would watch games. They over saturated their channels with all hockey all the time. Yes, Canadians love hockey but at 10pm on a weekday which person is going to sit down and watch a west coast game on a consistent basis having to wake up for work the next morning.

West coast games are for the west coast audiences I would assume. Not sure how many people outside local markets watch other western teams.

[Raps in 4]

if you think it's bad now, just wait. There's an avalanche of cable cutters coming, and it isn't going to be pretty for Rogers. I have no idea how they're going to cope with the losses, but I wouldn't be counting on their sports teams running wild with payroll while their cash cow assets start rotting from within.

Sure, in the end it will probably hurt our sports teams, but I support anything that tears apart these ridiculous, greedy, and monopolistic corporations.

The CRTC will just outright ban Netflix like they did Amazon Prime and Hulu (The Canadian version of Netflix is already so watered down it might as well be banned). They'll also probably force all ISPs to have 60 GB bandwidth caps again to prevent rampant illegal streaming. You underestimate the power Rogers has in this country. We'll be told that ISIS has taken over the media and that the CRTC is protecting us. Everyone will eat the story up and go back to having sex with their Rogers DVRs.

[Indiana Jones]

if you think it's bad now, just wait. There's an avalanche of cable cutters coming, and it isn't going to be pretty for Rogers. I have no idea how they're going to cope with the losses, but I wouldn't be counting on their sports teams running wild with payroll while their cash cow assets start rotting from within.

Sure, in the end it will probably hurt our sports teams, but I support anything that tears apart these ridiculous, greedy, and monopolistic corporations.

The CRTC will just outright ban Netflix like they did Amazon Prime and Hulu (The Canadian version of Netflix is already so watered down it might as well be banned). They'll also probably force all ISPs to have 60 GB bandwidth caps again to prevent rampant illegal streaming. You underestimate the power Rogers has in this country.

Kodak used to be one of the most powerful companies in the world. Don't see too many people taking pictures with film any more.

Rogers' time is coming.

[Raps in 4]

if you think it's bad now, just wait. There's an avalanche of cable cutters coming, and it isn't going to be pretty for Rogers. I have no idea how they're going to cope with the losses, but I wouldn't be counting on their sports teams running wild with payroll while their cash cow assets start rotting from within.

Sure, in the end it will probably hurt our sports teams, but I support anything that tears apart these ridiculous, greedy, and monopolistic corporations.

The CRTC will just outright ban Netflix like they did Amazon Prime and Hulu (The Canadian version of Netflix is already so watered down it might as well be banned). They'll also probably force all ISPs to have 60 GB bandwidth caps again to prevent rampant illegal streaming. You underestimate the power Rogers has in this country.

Kodak used to be one of the most powerful companies in the world. Don't see too many people taking pictures with film any more.

Rogers' time is coming.

Kodak operated in a free market.

Rogers has an oligopoly. They have their own people (like retired execs) on the CRTC board who pass favourable laws for them. Canada is at least 10 years behind the rest of the industrialized world (except for the US) when it comes to telecom laws and technologies because of this partnership. The CRTC will find a way to bail out their buddies as they've always done. The political infrastructure simply isn't in place to allow for change in the industry.

[EastBayBoy]

Rogers messed up spending a ton of money to buy the right to air NHL games, personally I think they bid soo much just to keep it away from TSN( which only airs local games now). The aspect Rogers under estimated is how much consumers would watch games. They over saturated their channels with all hockey all the time. Yes, Canadians love hockey but at 10pm on a weekday which person is going to sit down and watch a west coast game on a consistent basis having to wake up for work the next morning.

West coast games are for the west coast audiences I would assume. Not sure how many people outside local markets watch other western teams.

Rogers airs a number of west cost teams ( Anaheim and kings, just to name a few ) on Sportsnet one and Sportsnet 360 trying to target a wider audience as both channels are national broadcasts. The smaller western markets ( or western teams which aren't good) are aired on channels like Sportsnet pecific, which have blackouts as well.

I agree about your point about no knowing how many out of western markets viewers actually tune into west coast games, but by the looks of it, it seems like Rogers is trying to force feed it to out of market viewers. How successful that is, i'm not too sure since Roger execs complained about overall poor viewership for their first year of total airing rights.

[C Court]

They paid too much for NHL. Everyone at CBC said so at the time...

Yup. No wonder Keith Pelley jumped ship before a year. He was the architect of that disaster.

I'm actually surprised that the media didn't make a bigger deal of Pelley's resignation. I suppose with Pelley being the former boss/friend of many media types and with Rogers being their employer (for McCown and the Sportsnet crew) that they are not likely to criticize an awful deal unless they want to get fired.

[whysoserious]

if you think it's bad now, just wait. There's an avalanche of cable cutters coming, and it isn't going to be pretty for Rogers. I have no idea how they're going to cope with the losses, but I wouldn't be counting on their sports teams running wild with payroll while their cash cow assets start rotting from within.

Sure, in the end it will probably hurt our sports teams, but I support anything that tears apart these ridiculous, greedy, and monopolistic corporations.

The CRTC will just outright ban Netflix like they did Amazon Prime and Hulu (The Canadian version of Netflix is already so watered down it might as well be banned). They'll also probably force all ISPs to have 60 GB bandwidth caps again to prevent rampant illegal streaming. You underestimate the power Rogers has in this country. We'll be told that ISIS has taken over the media and that the CRTC is protecting us. Everyone will eat the story up and go back to having sex with their Rogers DVRs.

That simply is not going to happen. Netflix is here and has shown Canadians another option. That's why Rogers and Bell have introduced Shomi and Crave to compete. But they're late and overpaid. The move to streaming services is happening and if the CRTC were to step in, all they'll do is force more people getting VPN services and get their fix in other ways. They won't step in and limit data caps and if they tried, you'd see fire back at the government even more.

It's too far down the path, our system is not ideal and still favours the cable companies but there's no way we're going backwards at this point as you describe above. Even with the power Rogers and Bell have with former execs and future employees working at CRTC.

[Raptor_Guy]

They paid too much for NHL. Everyone at CBC said so at the time...

Yup. No wonder Keith Pelley jumped ship before a year. He was the architect of that disaster.

I'm actually surprised that the media didn't make a bigger deal of Pelley's resignation. I suppose with Pelley being the former boss/friend of many media types and with Rogers being their employer (for McCown and the Sportsnet crew) that they are not likely to criticize an awful deal unless they want to get fired.

I actually didn't know he resigned until right now. But ya I'm glad that NHL deal is blowing up in their faces, they were incredibly arrogant about it and shoved it down everyone's throats as if they were revolutionizing the way people watch sports.

[whysoserious]

I actually didn't know he resigned until right now. But ya I'm glad that NHL deal is blowing up in their faces, they were incredibly arrogant about it and shoved it down everyone's throats as if they were revolutionizing the way people watch sports.

If Rogers was smart, they'd shift to full on integration of Hockey and other sports they have in to Shomi and provide it reasonable cheap.

Fully archived and streamed games and content. Someone figure out live streaming of sports in HD without lag and ability to pause/rewind live TV without using up huge amounts of data will come out ahead.

[LittleOzzy]

I know they would never do it, but if Rogers was smart they would sell some games to TSN just to try and recoup some of their costs.

Spread the games out over two networks, and let TSN pay them for the privilege. Fake competition creates more interest, they already do the same with their cell offerings from Bell & Rogers.

[Raps in 4]

Someone figure out live streaming of sports in HD without lag and ability to pause/rewind live TV without using up huge amounts of data will come out ahead.

Most telecom providers around the world have done away with bandwidth caps so that they can provide HD streaming to customers. Rogers continues to self impose them not because bandwidth is an actual technical limitation in 2015 but because getting customers to pay extra for "unlimited" packages and extra bandwidth is part of their "business model" (their business model is a scam).