Canadian Nets Look To Acquire New Sports Programming Licenses
After the Canadian Radio-television & Telecommunications Commission "relaxed its rules on sports channels last year some predicted a flood of new entries into the sports broadcasting game," and now "potential new players are starting to move faster," according to Chris Zelkovich of the TORONTO STAR. The CBC earlier this month "applied for a new licence for its SportsPlus channel," while Rogers Sportsnet is "looking for a new licence, basically to change from one regional network to four national ones." Rogers Sportsnet Thursday also launched Big Ten Network in areas of Ontario and New Brunswick. Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment is "drawing up plans for a general sports channel," though they have not disclosed possible content. While TSN said that it "isn't thinking about a TSN3 yet, that's almost surely going to happen in the next few years." CBC Sports' Scott Moore: "There could be as many as 20 applications. How many actually get on the air is another matter." If the CBC gets a license, and with the "relaxation in rules that's almost a slam-dunk, it will be able to mix in a lot more pro sports than the channel had originally planned to show." TSN President Phil King said that he "expects a few more players but doesn't anticipate a flood of new channels." King: "There's not enough product to support a lot of new channels. Almost everything of value is already on the air." Zelkovich notes the Canadian Olympic Committee's (COC) plans for an Olympic channel "appear to be slumbering at this point" (TORONTO STAR, 10/23).
|
