Rogers and Bell may have joined forces to buy the Leafs, but the fierce media battle between TSN and Sportsnet rages on.
Were the media executives at Rogers Communications and Bell Media so rattled by the implications of their sports media rivalry—as described in our cover story this week—that they felt obligated to team up and splash $1.3 billion on the purchase of MLSE from the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan?
Well, no, that would just be ridiculous. But the shocking news—suggesting that Rogers and Bell could be permanent partners in the running of Canada’s largest sports entity—that emerged late last night has come to fruition this morning, and the implications for the world of sports media in Canada will be huge.
First of all, this is no merger: The war between TSN and Sportsnet is far from over. They’ll have access to the same behind-the-scenes content with the Leafs, Raptors, Marlies and TFC but, at this morning’s press conference, Bell CEO George Cope was blunt in his assessment of the future: “From our perspective, it’s head-on competition as soon as we leave this room, as every other day, to get viewers watching one network over another.”
The sense is that both Bell and Rogers were terrified of letting the other guy nab the rights to MLSE. By going in on it together, they ensured that Bob McKenzie will still be battling Nick Kypreos for scoops on contracts, suspensions and brain-damage reports on star players. Sports coverage in Toronto remains very much in the realm of the oligarchy, as opposed to the monopoly. Which is good news…I guess.
For Toronto sports fans, the result will be an overwhelming sensory experience of sports and advertising content being gleefully shoved in our faces. Which is what we always wanted, right? As early as next season, fans can expect a deluge of mobile content being delivered to smartphones and tablets, with the ultimate goal being that, one day in the not-so-distant future, covertly watching the Leaf game on your iPhone while sitting through a boring dinner with your extended family will be a timeless Toronto tradition. It’s the dreams of our ancestors realized, and for that we should be thankful.
What does it mean for sports media in Canada? As for the question of whether or not the ownership of the teams by the networks who report on them will affect the networks’ journalistic integrity, the short answer is: Yes, it will—just not in any ways that will be blatantly obvious to the fans.
Neither TSN nor Sportsnet is in the business of harsh criticism towards any league or team—they’re more concerned with presenting games and breaking news. But just as Sportsnet has spent a decade presenting and promoting the fourth place Blue Jays without much on-air criticism with regards to the struggles of the team’s management, we can expect a similar level of Leafs and Raptors coddling in the future from both networks. Thankfully, readers can still depend on the Toronto Star (The Grid‘s parent company) to keep Brian Burke and co. honest. They can still turn to Ron MacLean to make Gary Bettman squirm on a yearly basis on Hockey Night In Canada. And we can hold out hope that iconoclastic hockey scribe Al Strachan comes out of retirement to deliver another update of his book Why The Leafs Suck, which presumedly will now deserve another few chapters of Rogers and Bell-themed real talk.
Unless the Leafs do the absolutely unthinkable and win the Stanley Cup, that is. Pundits are divided over whether or not the new owners will usher in a winning mentality to the long-troubled franchise: Some believe the telecom giants are no more interested in anything but the bottom line than the Teachers were. Others argue that TV networks have a vested interest in high-profile teams making lengthy playoff runs. My best guess is that they’re both right: Winning is preferred, of course, but we likely won’t see much change in MLSE’s corporate culture—it’s really hard to be a meddlesome Steinbrenner-esque owner in leagues with a strict salary cap.
For now, not much will change. The Leafs will still break our hearts, and TFC and the Raptors will still suck. The NHL’s cable deals are locked in, meaning Sportsnet will still be without playoff coverage, and CBC’s Hockey Night in Canada will still show the Leafs every Saturday night, and TSN will continue to over-explain the cap implications of multi-year contracts handed out by the Nashville Predators.
The going will really get tough in 2014, when the cable deals expire and the telecoms will try to leverage their untold billions in financing dollars and their preferred position as owners of the Leafs to wrestle the national TV deal out of the hands of the CBC. Which will, of course, kill Hockey Night in Canada and dramatically re-shape Canadian media as we know it.
Whether or not Ron MacLean will be hired by Bell Media and forced to change his trademark catchphrase by two letters (to “You’re watching Hockey Night in Canada on CTV.), we’ll have to wait and see. Here’s hoping that, by then, Don Cherry will have long since ventured out into a peaceful and laconic retirement.
