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TSN Profits For FY '15 Only Down Slightly For First Year Without NHL Coverage

The first fiscal year for Bell Media and TSN without the NHL's national broadcasts "was still a success," according to David Shoalts of the GLOBE & MAIL. TSN made a pretax profit of almost $100M (all figures C) in FY '15, down just 3.4% from $103.5M the previous year. This includes results from the '14-15 NHL season, the first under Rogers' 12-year, $5.2B national broadcast contract with the league. Rogers Media's profits "were also healthy in that first season." The networks "operating under the Sportsnet umbrella -- Sportsnet, Sportsnet One and Sportsnet 360" -- earned a pretax profit of $84.8M. That represents a jump of 20.3% from '14, when the CRTC reported Sportsnet made $70.4M. While TSN's '15 profit was "down slightly, it was hardly the calamity some predicted when it lost its share of national NHL rights." The CRTC has "different reporting categories than some of the broadcasters do for their own financial reports." For example, a company may have a "separate license with the CRTC for a certain broadcast property, which means those numbers are reported separately from the network." Broadcasters can also "spread the costs of things such as NHL rights around to various divisions within their companies." TSN President Stewart Johnston said that the reason TSN's profit "stayed healthy in its post-NHL era was a two-pronged approach adopted after the NHL broadcast contract was lost to Rogers." TSN went from two separate channels to five, and it decided to become known as the "network of champions by concentrating on its properties like the Super Bowl, The Masters, the World Cup and the world junior hockey championship" (GLOBE & MAIL, 7/12).

FLYING HIGH: The Blue Jays' first 82 games of the '16 season set a record for Sportsnet as the most-watched first half in network history, delivering an average audience of 825,000 viewers. This marks an increase of 51% from the average audience at the same time last year (545,000). Thirty Blue Jays broadcasts this season have surpassed the 1 million viewer mark, compared to two at the same time last year. The Blue Jays' three-game sweep of the Royals from July 4-6 -- a rematch of last year's ALCS -- delivered the highest-rated series so far this season, attracting an average audience of 1.29 million (Sportsnet).

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