Rabinovitch places Radio-Canada’s loss of Habs games on shoulders of rights holders

A Parliamentary committee pondered out loud this week whether it should get involved in a programming agreement that excludes coverage of the Montreal Canadiens hockey team on Radio-Canada on Saturday nights. Robert Rabinovitch, president and CEO of the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., told members of the Standing Joint Committee on Official Languages that he had not approached government when the CBC learned that it would not be getting the games because it operates at arm’s length. "We are a public broadcaster that’s separate from the government. We must be at arm’s length and decide ourselves what goes on the air. Therefore, we can’t ask the government (for help)," he said. Asked if the government had a role to play, Rabinovitch responded that was more a question for the National Hockey League (NHL) and the Canadiens. Canadian Heritage minister Sheila Copps and many committee members are angry that the games will come off the public broadcaster’s conventional French-language network and move to the CTV-owned specialty sports channel, Réseau des sports (RDS) next season. RDS only reaches about 75 per cent of households in Quebec while the CBC has close to 100 per cent penetration. Francophones outside Quebec also will be less well served as the CBC aired the games live nationally on its French network. One committee member suggested declaring hockey, rather than lacrosse, Canada’s national sport to stress the importance of having the games broadcast on free over-the-air television. There were also suggestions that regulations could be enacted to ensure that hockey remains on a conventional network. For example, the British government put all 64 of England’s World Cup 2002 soccer matches on a list requiring that they be seen by 95 per cent of the population. That restricted now-defunct KirchMedia to negotiating with two networks in the country, BBC and ITV. While Copps is expected to put pressure on CBC executives, members of the committee seemed to buy Rabinovitch’s argument that the public broadcaster is constrained by the rights holders. He noted that the government should be talking to the NHL, the Canadiens, and RDS. Joint committee chair Mauril Bélanger told CCR that the committee was considering asking the league and Canadiens representatives to appear before it. "It’s certainly a possibility. But it is not only my decision, and I’ll be discussing this with the committee," he said. CBC executives said they had a handshake agreement with the NHL and believed they would be carrying the games up until May 16. On that day, they received a call from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman, informing them that 124 Habs games were being sold as a package. The verbal agreement that the CBC had involved picking up 25 Saturday night games, the NHL All-Star game, and Canadiens playoff games. The CBC had agreed to pay $2 million more than the current agreement for the Saturday night games, according to Rabinovitch. RDS ended up inking a five-year deal beginning next year for an undisclosed amount for all the Habs games. That’s an allegation denied by William L. Daly, executive VP and chief legal officer for the NHL, when he appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage on June 6. Although appearing before the committee with regard to Bill C-48 (see story in this issue), the Canadiens question came up. He said the NHL was "committed to" over-the-air broadcasting but that the Habs were "challenged to remain viable", and that Radio-Canada wasn’t prepared to pay what it had historically paid for the rights. "It was important to the Habs that they at least stay even on broadcasting revenues," he said. The CBC loses money on French-language broadcasts of Hockey Night in Canada (or La Soirée du hockey), its Saturday night hockey show, but turns a profit on English-language broadcasts. But Rabinovitch told the committee that money was not the key issue. "(If we took the all-inclusive package) then hockey would have dominated our schedule, and we would be broadcasting two or three games a week. We can’t become a hockey network. We have to remember our mandate," he told the committee. Rabinovitch noted that there was a possibility of working out an agreement with RDS but he said the offer currently on the table is a no-go. "RDS is willing to sell us games, but they want to do it under their banner and with their commentators and with their ads," he noted. He disagrees with that approach, noting that Radio-Canada cannot "become an assembly line of products from the private networks." Michèle Fortin, executive VP of French Television, said the CBC has worked cooperatively on the English side with RDS’ sister company TSN on both hockey and the Olympics. But she pointed out that it was not the job of the CBC to line the pockets of Colorado businessman George Gillett, the owner of the Canadiens. "I’m sorry if Mr. Gillett needs extra money. We are as angry as you are (about losing the rights)." Rabinovitch also attributed the loss of the games to U.S. ownership of the Canadiens, and a foreign interest’s focus on profits rather than the hold hockey has on the Canadian psyche. "We may eventually see one more Canadian team leave the country," he said.

Rabinovitch places Radio-Canada’s loss of Habs games on shoulders of rights holders

News | 06/07/2002 4:00 am EDT

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