The NHL and Rogers Communications have agreed to a 12-year deal giving Rogers the Canadian rights to the NHL. As an American (actually Cascadian) hockey fan, this is horrible news.
For now, Hockey Night in Canada will still be shown on CBC. It also sounds like some playoff games will be available. The problem is we can only be sure that we have 4 more years of Canadian coverage hitting our market.
This is why I’m concerned. There is no tolerable hockey coverage in the United States. When Comcast took over American NHL rights, they gave us a product worse than Fox. They only show a handful of teams. Just about everything is misrepresented in an attempt to get the fans behind the teams that help their bottom line. Very little information of any sorts is provided on any of the other teams, and what does come out is portrayed in a heavily biased manner. It might work with the Northeast since that’s the market they love, but I’m not part of that market. As with all hockey fans in the western half of the country, Comcast hates me.
I am glad that some of us in the states can actually watch hockey on CBC. If Rogers ceases to work with CBC, we will no longer have that coverage. This would leave us with only the horrendous coverage provided by Comcast (which includes NBC). I don’t think that I could support the NHL if that’s all that I can get. If I lose the ability to watch Canadian coverage, I don’t see how I will be able to continue following the sport. I have been a loyal fan for years, but this deal has the potential to completely end my support for the game.
No comments:
Post a Comment