GATINEAU – The CRTC is allowing Raptors NBA TV to boost the amount of live basketball games it airs from a maximum of 5% of its broadcast schedule to 10%.
The commission today announced that it’s approved the channel’s request in part, since it had asked to be allowed to air up to 15% of its schedule with live games. The CRTC said 10% “reasonably addresses the needs of the licensee for greater flexibility” while meeting the needs of existing analog and digital Cat 1 and Cat 2 channels that were concerned about direct competition.
In its application, Raptors NBA TV claimed that live basketball programming represented, on average, approximately 2% of the programming offered by TSN and SportsNet, and was negligible on The Score, which primarily covers sports results and information. As for Cat 2s, there are no limits on live programming for GOLTV, covering mainly soccer, and Fox Sports World Canada, dedicated to cricket, rugby and soccer, Raptors NBA TV pointed out.
SportsNet and The Score intervened, saying allowing more live basketball on Raptors NBA TV would directly compete with them.
Given the abundance of unbroadcast basketball games—in the 2005-2006 NBA season, there were 1,280 games available, but only 480 aired in Canada—the CRTC felt that raising the percentage to 10 would not directly compete with analog sports broadcasters. Since Raptors NBA TV is a Cat 2, it can directly compete with other Cat 2s, such as GOLTV and Fox Sports World (and the unlaunched Stampede and ZTV, which can air up to 15% sports programming), but not with Cat 1s.
Raptors NBA TV says that while only 5% of its broadcast schedule in the 2004-2005 NBA season were live games, they represented 35% of its viewership in that period. Also, about one-third of letters it receives from viewers are asking for more live basketball.
“The Commission notes that there appears to be a great deal of basketball programming still available for broadcast and that the licensee has provided evidence of demand by its target audience for more live basketball programming,” the decision stated.
