Future viewer habits to determine length of CBC hockey partnership: Rogers

Technological developments that impact the way consumers watch broadcast content will help determine whether CBC/Radio-Canada will continue to air NHL hockey games five years from now, said Scott Moore, president of broadcasting at Rogers Communications Inc.’s media subsidiary. In a pair of press releases Tuesday, Rogers said it reached a $5.2-billion deal to acquire the exclusive Canadian broadcast and multi-platform rights to national NHL content for the next 12 years. It also reached separate deals to sub-licence some of that content to CBC, for four years, and Quebecor Media Inc. subsidiary TVA Group Inc. In an interview Wednesday, Moore, who took part in the negotiations for those deals, said CBC’s four-year deal is just the starting point of the two broadcasters’ new partnership and that there’s no reason the deal can’t be extended—so long as CBC remains one of Canada’s most-watched media outlets. “In the current broadcast environment, CBC has the largest reach of any television network in Canada,” said Moore, a former executive director of CBC Sports. “The only reason why it’s four years is that we have no idea if that television environment is going to be the same in two years, much less 12.” CBC’s Saturday night Hockey Night in Canada program has been an important source of revenues for the Crown corporation in recent years, as consumers’ increasing use of personal video recorders (PVRs) and other video-on-demand technologies have piqued advertisers’ interest around live sports events, which many consumers prefer to watch as they happen. Under its deal with Rogers, the public broadcaster will continue to air NHL hockey games as part of its Hockey Night in Canada show on Saturday nights through to the 2017-2018 season. Rogers-owned stations such as its Citytv network and its Sportsnet specialty channels will also air NHL games at the same time under the Hockey Night in Canada banner, and Rogers will make games and other content available on its websites, mobile applications and over other digital platforms, the company said. Moore said Wednesday that consumers’ increasing use of online video services and other digital content applications could change the way hockey fans watch the sport over the next four years, which could lessen CBC’s reach as well as Rogers’ appetite for partnering with the Crown corporation. It’s also possible, he said, consumers will continue to prefer to watch live events like NHL hockey on CBC’s national network, which offers free over-the-air services and is included in every basic television package across the country. “After four years, we may decide that, if the environment is relatively stable and the partnership works great, that we may renew it for another four or another eight,” Moore said of Rogers’ deal with CBC. “But if the consumers are watching or fans are watching hockey on apps, if they’re watching on Google 3D glasses, we need to be able to go where the consumer is.” Moore said Rogers will attempt to use its exclusive rights to national NHL content on digital platforms in a way that encourages consumers to remain within the paid-television system, while also boosting its wireless and broadcast distribution businesses. He said he could foresee Rogers offering its TV subscribers an early-morning package of NHL highlights from the night before, among other things, though he noted that CRTC rules prevent vertically integrated broadcasters, like Rogers, from offering its subscribers exclusive access to television content on other platforms. “There are CRTC rules around exclusive content, so we are going to live within the context of those CRTC rules and regulations,” Moore said. Jeffrey Orridge, CBC’s executive director of sports properties, said in an interview Wednesday that CBC would be interested in extending its deal with Rogers beyond the initial four-year term. “There’s always an opportunity, and I think as it comes closer to the expiration of this initial term, we’ll sit down and evaluate how we want to move forward,” he said. “The bottom line is it’s got to work for both of us. So whatever deal is struck after the next four years, it’s got to be fiscally responsible. It’s got to be prudent from a business standpoint for both parties.” Hubert Lacroix, CBC’s president and CEO, said at a press conference Tuesday that the Crown corporation, which has broadcast Hockey Night in Canada since 1952, was no longer “in a position to spend taxpayers’ money” in the “high stakes” game of hockey broadcast rights. Under its deal with Rogers, CBC will not be paying any sub-licensing fees to carry its Saturday night NHL games over the next four years, he added, while Rogers will receive all of the advertising revenues from those broadcasts. Orridge said Wednesday that the deal benefits CBC by allowing the public broadcaster to promote its other programming during its NHL broadcasts, such as through banner ads that run on the bottom of the TV screen, or through brief promotional spots read by Hockey Night in Canada’s on-air employees. He said Rogers will cover CBC’s cost to produce its hockey broadcasts and is also expected to contract CBC’s services and personnel to produce NHL hockey games on Rogers’ own broadcast stations. “As part of our agreement, Rogers can tap into the expertise, experience and capacity that CBC has, whether it be the talent or the studios that we have. And there will be a fee attached to that, a service fee,” he said. The revenues CBC will receive from Rogers, Orridge added, will depend on what types of services Rogers hires CBC to complete and how often, the details of which have not yet been worked out. “Now we’ve got to set about putting this thing together and figuring out who does what,” he said. Gord Hendren, president of Charlton Strategic Research, said in an interview that he thinks Rogers will extend its deal with CBC past the initial four-year term because CBC’s wide reach can help bring in higher ratings, and more ad revenues, than any of Rogers’ own stations. “It’s all about audience. If the CBC channel can generate bigger audiences because of its reach—and arguably it should be able to—then that deal probably will get extended,” he said. Hendren said there is concern in the broadcast industry that consumers will start watching sports on their mobile devices and other platforms more and more. He said those concerns were “very speculative.” “No one knows for sure. What we do know is that mobile is growing and they’re still trying to figure out how to monetize that,” he said. “I, for one, still think sports is best on the big screen.” —With reporting by Nicholas Kyonka at nkyonka@thewirereport.ca and editing by Derek Abma at dabma@thewirereport.ca

Future viewer habits to determine length of CBC hockey partnership: Rogers

Broadcast | November 27, 2013

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Future viewer habits to determine length of CBC hockey partnership: Rogers

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