Rogers asks CRTC to keep The Score a must offer channel, with lighter licence conditions

Growth in sports news websites has changed the competitive environment for the sports specialty channel genre and created a need for more relaxed regulations on The Score’s licence conditions, Rogers Communications Inc. said in a CRTC application to acquire the sports news specialty channel. While the company has asked the CRTC for lighter licence conditions, it is also asking the commission to maintain the channel’s “must offer” designation, setting it apart from deregulated, mainstream sports channels like TSN. In the Oct. 17 application released by the CRTC Wednesday, Rogers asked the commission to issue a new, seven-year licence for The Score if its $167-million acquisition of the station from Score Media Inc. is allowed to go through, and recommended “minor amendments” to its licence conditions. Rogers asked the commission to allow The Score to increase the amount of documentary and “analysis and interpretation” programming the channel can air each week, and to lower the requirement that the channel break from live sports events to offer highlights every 15 minutes. “ is prepared to break into live sports every fifteen minutes as the nature of the game being played permits,” the company wrote. “However the mandatory fifteen-minute break can be very disruptive during certain live sporting events.” Rogers pointed to live soccer broadcasts as an example of when the requirement to break for live headlines every 15 minutes may not make sense. It said the nature of the sport—which is played in two, 45-minute halves without in-game breaks—makes the requirement for the breaks “very disruptive” and said it could cause viewers to miss “key moments in the game.” Rogers said in such cases it should break for news highlights once per hour. The company said its request to increase The Score’s weekly requirements for analysis and documentary programming from 10 per cent of the broadcast schedule to 15 per cent would allow the company to offer more analysis of amateur and “underrepresented” sports. “Rogers believes that The Score offers Canadian consumers an important niche service. It is the only national headline news sports service that is accessible to Canadians on the linear platform,” the company said. “In recent years though, The Score has found itself competing for viewers with online services offered by TSN and CBC Sports and ESPN that provide Canadians with constantly updated sports information, highlights and short video clips,” it said. Live sports rights have become more important to broadcasters and advertisers as other programs are increasingly viewed on-demand. According to CRTC data released in May, TSN was Canada’s most profitable specialty service during the 2011 broadcast year with $58.3 million in pre-tax profits. The Rogers-owned Sportsnet channel reported $31.3 million in pre-tax profits. The Score reported $7.5 million in pre-tax profits in 2011, up from $5.5 million a year earlier, and saw its subscriber base shrink slightly from 6.79 million to 6.64 million during the year. Unlike mainstream sports Category C channels, such as TSN and Sportsnet, The Score is licensed as a must offer, Category A channel, which means it receives higher viewership and subscription numbers with more stringent controls on the amount and type of events it can air. Rogers also owns Sportsnet World, a standard Category B specialty channel that airs content related to popular international sports, such as cricket, soccer, and rugby. In a Nov. 14 letter that responded to CRTC questions about the intended acquisition, Rogers said it would be inappropriate to reclassify The Score as a Category C, “mainstream sports service.” The company said it has not asked the commission to amend The Score’s licence condition that 85 per cent of its programming be devoted to sports programming other than live or full-length sports events. Category C channels “have no limits on the amount of live sports, analysis and documentaries they broadcast,” Rogers said. In that letter, Rogers said it asked the commission to allow The Score to air more analysis and documentary programming to ensure the channel “remains relevant to viewers in an environment where sports-related news is easily accessible on multiple platforms.” It added that the “level of competition that The Score faces today from non-traditional platforms is something that was not experienced or foreseen in 2004 when its licence was renewed.” Rogers would proceed with its acquisition of the Score if the commission denied its licensing requests, the company said. As part of the acquisition, Rogers said it would spend $17.1 million a year over five years on benefits to support the Canadian broadcasting system. It said $2 million annually would be put towards hosting a Sportsnet Winter Games competition; $920,000 towards the development and independent production of amateur sports programs; and $500,000 towards scholarships for post-secondary students interested in multimedia sports production. In a notice of consultation posted on the commission’s website Wednesday, the CRTC said it would accept comments on the proposed acquisition until Feb. 20. —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca.

Rogers asks CRTC to keep The Score a must offer channel, with lighter licence conditions

News | 01/16/2013 9:17 pm EST

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