I was in complete shock yesterday when I heard the news of the NHL's exclusive deal with Rogers Communications for the rights to all NHL games, on all media platforms and languages across Canada for the next 12 years. Having worked for Molstar in Toronto on Maple Leafs broadcasts and on the TSN.ca web team for a few years, my mind turned immediately to the many people I know who work in the television broadcast and internet communications of NHL hockey. This deal means many of them will lose their jobs.
Hockey is Canada's national sport. From a media perspective, hockey is the life blood of Canada's sports broadcasters like TSN, RDS, Sportsnet and CBC. Because this deal will gut and then kill off Hockey Night in Canada after four years--a Canadian institution--and because it may put TSN and RDS out of business altogether, this exclusive deal amounts to a monopoly of the broadcast of Canada's most beloved activity at the professional level. It will, as all monopolies do, translate into an increase in the cost to consumers to watch NHL hockey games.
We don't allow monopolies in any industry because competition is good for consumers. Why then should the broadcast rights to the most widely watched activity in Canada become subject to a monopoly? How does this benefit Canadians?
While Rogers will argue all games will be accessible across multiple platforms, Ie. if you can't get the game on TV, you can watch it online. Many people do not and will not consume hockey online. Especially those without a lot of money or without high speed internet access. Kids from underprivileged families, many of whom can't afford to play organized hockey anymore, will not be able to afford to watch the games now either. Even people like me who are media tech savvy or who are baby boomers, will not consume hockey games online because its not our tradition to do so.
Our tradition is to watch NHL hockey on Saturday night, with our families or at a pub or bar with our friends, as we have done for decades. Not on Friday night or Sunday afternoon. Who cares about national coverage of NHL games on Sunday? In our home, we watch football, the Good Wife and Homeland on Sunday, not hockey.
Because it is a monopoly of broadcasting rights, I believe this deal represents a grave threat to Canadians, hockey in Canada, our national traditions as they pertain to hockey, and the many Canadians to whom hockey plays an important part in their lives and holds a special place in their hearts. The very people who have funded the NHL from its inception.
James O'Grady
Nepean Minor Hockey Association alumni
Ottawa Senators Season Ticket Holder
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