By Greg O’Brien
TORONTO – With all pro and amateur sports currently shelved due to the Covid-19 crisis, TSN and Sportsnet programmers have been pulling out all the stops to try and keep fans happy.
They have scrambled and continue to work hard to fill hundreds of hours of airtime with older, or “classic” games, recorded best-of or blooper shows, previously unaired programming like strongman competitions, esports, some experiments in new programming and talk shows and other regular programming now done at hosts homes (Ed note: We enjoyed the 1980 NHL All-Star game – Wayne Gretzky’s first and Gordie Howe’s last – on Sportsnet on the weekend), but there’s no denying the harsh numbers: Viewership of the brands’ channels is down more than 75%.
Cartt.ca has learned some TV carriers have asked TSN owner Bell Media and Sportsnet owner Rogers Sports and Media about seeing decreases in the wholesale fees paid to those channels which can no longer air the expensive live content for which customers subscribe.
“We’re getting requests for rebates or discounts from customers who want to remove those channels,” while there are no live sports, said Cable Cable CEO Mike Fiorini in an interview. “We’re waiting to hear what Rogers and Bell have to say.”
What it seems to boil down to is the sports channels themselves are waiting to hear from the NHL, NBA and Major League Baseball primarily – as well as others – about whether or not seasons will be pared down or cancelled altogether, before the possibility of any rebate discussions will be addressed.
“We continue to be in regular contact with our partners at the leagues on their plans as they evolve,” said Sportsnet spokesperson Andrew Garas, who declined to address the requests from pay-TV companies. “In the absence of live sports, we are delivering a wide range of content to entertain Canadians during this challenging time across our channels giving viewers a look back at memorable moments in sports with classic NHL, MLB, and NBA games plus other fan-favourite sports events as well as adding unique content to our programming lineup weekly.”
Sportsnet’s replay of game seven of the 2019 NBA Eastern Conference semi-finals (Kawhi Leonard’s four-bounce buzzer-beater) pulled in more than 860,000 viewers.
A Bell Media spokesperson declined to comment on the matter.
Shaw Communications president Paul McAleese was asked by a financial analyst during its second quarter conference call on Thursday about this very issue. For Shaw, it’s not yet a problem.
“When we get formal notification the seasons are canceled, that may affect the economics and if that does, then we’ll look at how it might affect the customer.” – Paul McAleese, Shaw Communications
“With sports, it’s a very dynamic situation as you can imagine. The sports leagues… have not formally canceled their seasons. I know that all of them are looking at options on how they might be able to recover, particularly the ones that are heading toward the playoffs,” he said. “So, they’re all looking at options… but it does put the people who own those sports rights into a tricky position.
“We’ve been fortunate. We haven’t seen a great deal of customer inquiry around that, so it hasn’t been a pressure point for us. When we get formal notification the seasons are canceled, that may affect the economics and if that does, then we’ll look at how it might affect the customer. At this point it’s actually been fairly static. Customers aren’t asking, leagues are not canceling,” McAleese continued.
“I suspect all of that will change over the course of the next couple of weeks as we hear more about, specifically basketball and hockey, but there’ll be more to follow there. But right now, it’s actually been a fairly flat conversation and nothing really to report on that front.”
Pay-tv companies can act on their own though, whether customers complain or not. Eastlink, for example, is giving customers a break on their Super Sports package, and it is the only company we know of who has taken that step. “While we can’t comment on affiliate negotiations,” said Eastlink’s Jill Laing, “I can confirm that we have credited commercial sports services dating back to March and we have also credited residential Super Sports pack customers and will continue to do so until sports content returns.”
All that said, while sports channels may well be overvalued, news viewership has shot way up, as we’ve reported. So perhaps there’s a tradeoff to be discussed…
Correction: An earlier version of this story reported Eastlink told us it is crediting all sports channel subscribers who ask. The company clarified this morning such credits are automatically being applied to commercial and residential customers who subscribe to the Super Sports Pack.
