CBC: The Devil You Know
 

"Two well-placed sources say Bell Globemedia, which owns CTV and TSN as well as The Globe and Mail and part of the Toronto Maple Leafs, is likely to proffer a bid that the CBC may find impossible to match -- $140-million a year for 10 years, for a total of $1.4-billion. That would be for everything: Canadian English-language broadcast rights, cable rights, French-language rights and ownership of Internet streaming." William Houston, Globe and Mail Aug. 11, 2006

Bell Globemedia = TSN = Maple Leafs. That explains the "Toronto" in TSN. Don't expect many english Saturday night broadcasts of Les Canadiens unless they are playing the Leafs, if this deal goes through. :banghead:

Memo to Gillett: buy the rights to HNIC.

So we won't see any difference with CBC then.

Doesn't CTV provide regional coverage? I would think that they'd offer a better chance than the CBC (certainly additional cable TV options) for Habs fans outside of Quebec to see the Canadiens, likewise the other Canadian franchises.

Nothing to see here!

:dm:

So Bell Globemedia wants to buy the CBC? Doesn't the government own the CBC? Don't we pay the government for the CBC? Shouldn't we be seeing some $ from Bell Globmedia? :sarcasm:

Bell Globe Media also owns RDS... so technically I dont see anythong wrong there. Why would BGM not continue french broadcasts of Habs games when it owns RDS. Basically they're buying the english rights to the games, they already own the french rights.

This could be a good thing if Bell decides that they will use both the CTV network and TSN to show HNIC. That way, they can put the leaf game on CTV and the hab games on TSN and work the sens in too perhaps regionally. I'm only talking about the staurdays here.

No way CBC will match this kind of offer IMO. Their sports dept has been slowly evaporating to the increased competition and it was only a matter of time before they lost HNIC.

Sounds fine to me.

TSN hockey has been getting better and better, while CBC has been getting worse and worse.

Plus you know if the NHL jumps ship to TSN/CTV, Ron McLean, Don Cherry, etc won't be far behind. (see: Brian Williams & Olympics)

Man I just wish we were back in the days when you didnt need cable to watch a freakin' hockey game!

Those were the days.

ANd that woudl be different than CBC in what way??

*granted the new CBC schedule looks much better than last years*

Well, times change. Having cable should be like owning a phone nowadays. I'd buy cable just to watch the Habs!

It's definitely going to be weird if CTV/TSN gets hockey night in Canada. They should bring the cast from CBC over, because if they don't it wouldn't feel very good to have Pierre McGuire on as coach for Coach's Corner. :sarcasm:

All I want is Jim Hughson.

This guy rocks everytime I listen a Hockey game in english.

What's wrong with that? Forget about the Laffs, it's about Bell Globemedia. Already owners of RDS, like someone said. It'll be perfect. It would mean that the Habs would be on the main tv network d'un océan à l'autre again.

This would be a good move IMO... I don't get all the hating.

I agree it will be a good move for hockey fans in general (I grow/grew tired of CBC's staid product). Although I am not sure that CTV will regionalize a Saturday night game, so you can expect as much of a dose of the Leafs in english on that night as you saw this year (and was much maligned on this board).

There is no hating, it's all about the irony of the CBC being a public entity and critisized for being Toronto-centric while a Leaf-owned (partially) competitor is about to outbid CBC to broadcast all hockey games in Canada.

Of course, if they pay all of that money they are going to maximize their ratings.

That means no more games on Roger SportsNet, crap. They had the best regionnal coverage and we'll be stuck with 82 Leafs game on TSN, double crap...

It can't be any worse. It really can't. Does anyone think TSN/CTV would have dropped the ball on the Geoffrion situation the way CBC did? To me, that night was the absolute lowest that HNIC has ever sunk, and laid bare the Leafs-first rot that's seeped into every corner of the production.

So let HNIC die. It hasn't been worthy of the name for some time now anyway.

I don't even remember the last time CBC Montreal aired a Montreal game :shakehead

Exactly.

When Montréal starts being a good team again, they will become a big TV draw and CTV/TSN will be able to attract ratings of one million and more for their regular season games, let alone the playoffs. People should remember that as a corporate broadcaster, Bell Globemedia will be much more sensitive to market needs than a public broadcaster like CBC that just gets its annual billion dollar cheque from the government.

Hockey is a cash cow for TV networks in Canada. Expect to get all 82 games on RDS and many more on TSN and CTV.

Nationally? Hockey Day in Canada, so not too long ago. Short memory eh?

Wasn't TSN purchased by ESPN a while back?

I thought so too, cause their logo is now the same font, and of course the change from Sports Desk to Sports Center.