GATINEAU – Don’t change regulations just to let the major sports broadcasters get out of scheduling problems they created themselves, Score Media told the CRTC this week.
Earlier this week during the group based licensing proceeding, Score executives said that Rogers Media’s and Bell Media’s requests for more schedule flexibility for the likes of OLN and ESPN Classic Canada must be denied.
The two big sports broadcasters said they need the freedom to add some of their sports TV overflow to OLN and ESPN Classic Canada if needed because despite their many channels – Sportsnet, Sportsnet One and the regional channels at Rogers; TSN and TSN2 at Bell – they often have trouble finding room in their schedules for all the sports properties they have purchased. Plus, accommodations need to be made on other channels because some games don’t adhere to their scheduled times (due to weather or overtimes).
According to The Score, that’s tough luck.
“Both of them have two full-fledged mainstream sports platforms on which to air their live sporting events and they can add as many more feeds as they want under their existing Category C licenses. Yet they now come to you with rain delays, overtime, and the ‘triple-booked’ scenario,” said Score CEO John Levy in his oral remarks.
“Frankly, we see the whole ‘rain delays and overtime’ story as a red herring. These situations are few and far between, and sports broadcasters have been dealing with them for decades,” said Levy. “Bell’s and Rogers’ real ask here is about triple-parking. It results from overbuying (and overpaying) for programming. Rather than discipline themselves, the applicants have asked you to provide even more programming flexibility to their groups, in order to help them out of self-inflicted scheduling difficulties.
“We see the solution somewhat differently. First, having now engaged each other in an expensive race to purchase live sports rights, these deep-pocketed conglomerates want you to amend conditions of licence for their group specialty services that would let them shift that valuable sports programming onto services with lighter regulatory obligations, and ease the programming logjam they elected to create. Sorting out programming conflicts is something programming departments, not the CRTC, are supposed to do. If the CRTC grants the desired relief, the lack of discipline will continue,” added Levy.
Besides, both Rogers and Bell, if they want, can re-sell certain properties to The Score to air – something they have done in the past, he told the Commission. And there’s always room on the web.
“The applicants… want you to approve these changes so that they can benefit from the lower (Canadian content) requirements of Outdoor Life Network, which brings only a 37% CPE to the group, or of ESPN Classic, which brings only a 10% CPE to the group. The Commission should not allow valuable programming that is triple parked on services with high Canadian programming obligations to count towards services with much lower obligations, especially when that programming is not compliant with the natures of service of those services,” added Levy.
“Of course, it would be simpler for them just not to outbid us on programming they don’t have room for in the first place. That way they would not have the problem they want you to solve. But that’s their business. The point is that, in every single one of these overbooking scenarios, there are many consumer friendly solutions that already exist.”
The hearing wraps up Thursday and Friday with final oral replies from the big broadcast groups.
– Staff
