Rogers TV deal, will it shred hockey from Canada's fabric?

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Brew666
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Rogers TV deal, will it shred hockey from Canada's fabric? 

Post#1 » by Brew666 » Thu Oct 9, 2014 4:48 pm

Just wanted to pose this question and see what people think. I had no idea what forum would be best to put this in [OT Canada, NHL general forum] and may have put it in a black hole but I guess I'll see.

With Rogers now owning national rights to the NHL for the next 12 years, do you think there will be any affect with Canada's love for hockey? With the dominance of the sport within Canada?

Whether you love hockey or not, it has become a source of national pride for Canada. Internationally, it was a sport we dominated and in the NHL, last I checked around 50% of the players are Canadian. Personally I don't like the idea of tying sport with nationalism [if you don't like hockey, it doesn't make you less Canadian and as a sports fan I would love for a larger variety of content on the sports channels] but for many people it's a past time and a lot of people have some sort of relationship with it.

I think one of the main reasons why hockey has become synonymous with Canada is because of the CBC. It never mattered where you were in Canada [to a degree], you were able to get the CBC with a pair of bunny ears. Tune in Saturday night and catch a game or two. Growing up, this is what my family did. Every Saturday the game was on and we sat around the tv soaking it all in.

Jordan Tootoo is from Churchill, MB. Pronger and a ton of other players from Thunder Bay, Carey Price from northern B.C. etc. Are people from the northern regions going to have access to the game? Even living in southern Ontario I've experienced a lack of access to cable/satellite depending where you live. For example, where I currently live you can only get Bell satellite, Rogers is not available nor is Bell fibe [slower internet access].

If Rogers decides to only have Hockey Night in Canada broadcasting on Sportsnet, will there be any affect on the popularity of the sport? I don't doubt that it's going to be a money maker but will it still be as important to Canadians as it has been? Or with Rogers focused on hockey in all their media forms and increased advertising of the sport improve it's popularity? Does the popularity of the sport in the states have any affect how we view it?

Hockey in Canada is already declining due to a number of factors including a changing demographic and the cost to participate in it now. Will only making it available to middle and upper class exponentially affect the decline [i.e. people who can afford cable/satellite/internet]?

The deal with CBC is four years and after that who knows what will happen. Who even knows what will happen to the CBC between then and now. I have no idea what other programming they have that would generate any money and maybe they move to web only content or something along those lines.

In my opinion, accessibility to hockey no matter where you are or who are is a massive factor to the popularity of the sport in the country and why it is so closely tied to national pride. If hockey becomes exclusive based on location and/or financial capability, are those ties going to be broken?
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Re: Rogers TV deal, will it shred hockey from Canada's fabri 

Post#2 » by Nolan » Sun Oct 12, 2014 3:31 pm

This deals a good thing for hockey in Canada as far as i'm concerned. It's going to be a bit of change but it's a change for the better, Sportsnet's modernizing the coverage and finally bringing hockey coverage into the 21st century.
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Re: Rogers TV deal, will it shred hockey from Canada's fabri 

Post#3 » by Brew666 » Thu Oct 16, 2014 3:10 pm

I think you're right, it's only going to help the game's popularity. After watching Sportsnet's new coverage over the last week, I"m happy with it. I was worried that it was going to be over the top and focus too much on entertainment/the drama versus the game itself but nothing to suggest that.

With Bell out of the picture for hockey and baseball now, I hope they use their resources on basketball, soccer and football. No need for two networks to focus on hockey and leave the other sports out of the limelight.

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