TORONTO – Toronto Blue Jays owner Rogers Communications is sponsoring an application by the MLB Network that could make the baseball network available for distribution in Canada.
The U.S. cable channel has officially applied to be added to the list of list of non-Canadian programming services authorized for distribution in Canada on a digital basis. Dedicated solely to coverage of major league baseball, MLB Network says that it covers all 30 MLB clubs through its original sports news, talk and analysis programming, and the live broadcast of up to 150 regular season and spring training games.
In its application, the channel maintains that it will not compete directly with Canadian sports services like TSN and Rogers Sportsnet due to its single sport, niche appeal which it compared to the NFL Network, the Golf Channel, and Speed, all of which are already available in Canada.
“To the small extent that there is program overlap in that MLB Network will also provide some live games, it is MLB International’s submission that MLB Network will complement and supplement existing baseball coverage and grow interest in the sport of baseball in Canada”, reads the application. “Indeed, the very fact that Rogers has agreed to sponsor MLB Network evidences that it does not perceive MLB Network as a competitor to its specialty service. In fact, it is seen as supportive of the Major League Baseball programming currently distributed by Canadian programming services.”
But the application could face an objection from rival (and sometimes sports partner) Bell Canada.
As Cartt.ca reported, Bell Media president Kevin Crull told delegates at the Canadian Telecom Summit earlier this month that the CRTC should not authorize any more American cable channels for carriage in Canada.
“I don’t think we should allow any more U.S. specialty channels to come into the country”, he said during his luncheon keynote two weeks ago. “They don’t contribute to the system… they come into our country, they can change their genres and compete with us in ways where I couldn’t launch a channel in the genre they’re allowed to change to.”
For its part, MLB Network said that its contribution to the Canadian broadcast system will be to add to “the diversity of HD programming choices” and to “support the live game broadcasters on other Canadian channels” through updates, statistics and graphical data of games in progress.
Could make for an interesting debate if Bell decides to follow through on Crull's call at CTS. Comments on the application are due July 13.
– Lesley Hunter
