TSN expands its channel offerings in Canada, how does it affect Winnipeg and TSNJets?
Yesterday word came out that TSN will expand it's coverage to 5 national channels for the sports consuming Canadian public. TSN, who is in a dogfight with Rogers Media Sportsnet division, has launched an all out counterstrike to losing it's rights to all but a few regional NHL broadcasts. TSNJets is one of those regional channels and properties which the parent company wants to hold onto and grow.
On the morning show, TSN1290 Winnipeg, the guys from the Big Show, Paul Edmonds, Matt Leibl, and Troy Westwood played a clip from TSN President Stewart Johnston about what a smaller market with TSN rights could look like. Johnston revealed something very interesting, at least to me. What he said was there was demand and interest from other parts of the country for Winnipeg content that was currently unaccessible. Really?
Before I explain my view, Johnston went on to explain that morning show and afternoon drive shows in local markets could serve as programming content in other regions at different times. His example was how the TSN and TSN2 networks already broadcast a national show that may not be applicable at the right time in other markets or... not content specific to that market.
So to fill the new channels with content, and remember content is king in all media, TSN wants to allow Winnipeggers in Vancouver to have a chance to catch up on Winnipeg sports news and events. I assume they choose TSN4 at 4 PM PST to tune into Hustler and Lawless.
Isn't this problem supposed to be solved by the internet? I have the TSN app on my phone and in theory I can listen to Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Ottawa, and Edmonton by using the application. If I want to catch up on the Habs stuff I can tune in via the app on my drive home. That's if the shows were archived and accessible via the app as they start an hour earlier than my drive time commute.
There's another problem too, if I listen to an hour of streamed radio every day would I blow my data plan apart? I've got a pretty robust plan but more often than I care to admit I get my warning text at 80% usage. How bad would it get if I were streaming radio and/or TV?
What I see happening is that TSN is still struggling to manage content delivery and instead of making the best online archive and content platform they are going back to tried and true time displaced TV content. Does that seem backwards to anyone else?
TSN is the most profitable specialty channel in all of Canada, and by quite a margin, so I would suspect they've put the necessary time and money into research of their customer base and it's demands. I'm no media tech expert but is more channels, and all related costs, a more cost efficient route to keep and grow viewership than the best online platform?
I'm curious about this last bit but it's not a deal breaker for me in who I choose to watch. I will always choose to watch the content I am interested in and I think that's what TSN is betting on with the channel increase from two to five. Chances are they know where the next wave of demographics in the 18-34 spread are looking and it's beyond the NHL and baseball by my estimation.
The thing that should concern Jets fans is that Johnston said "TSNJets will remain as is for a few more years," during the clip played this morning. What? He followed this up by saying the games might be better suited to be seen nationally on one of the new networks. This is interesting as the NHL has a very strict and regimented regional limit. Once TSNJets arrived all previously available Sportsnet West games of Calgary and Edmonton were gone in Manitoba. How can TSN take a regional broadcast that was paid for based on the size and demographics of the region to a bigger scale? Wouldn't TNSE want a bigger slice of that ad revenue if Jets fans in Vancouver can now watch games on TSN5 without having to pay for Centre Ice or NHL Live?
How does the NHL allow that? I was never convinced the 10 year deal with TSN that was signed in the summer of 2011 was chiselled in stone. There must be provisions for certain market conditions and possible events and outcomes and today Johnston's clip on TSN1290 made it seem that something was going to change at some point with the Jets broadcasts.
Aside from 'who pays for these channels' and the ensuing griping we will have with our cable providers about additional fees, who is ready for that battle again, what other changes will come to regional markets? Aside from seeing the pretty faces of people usually kept hidden from view in a radio studio there are bound to be other changes and incentives for viewers/listeners. Who pays for that?
As for hockey it still seems strange to me that Johnston or TSN media didn't mention the Jets in the news piece on their own
website. The NHL wasn't even in the top three points about the channel expansion but when they did mention it there was not a word about TSNJets and that seems odd.
- NHL hockey – including 26 Toronto Maple Leafs games, 52 Ottawa Senators games, as well as pre-season games (available on a regional basis), plus local hockey programming generated by production expansion at TSN Radio stations in Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Winnipeg and Edmonton
Perhaps it will just be TSNBombers but too bad it didn't start a year earlier when all the follies happened.
Winnipeg Jets Blogger •Winnipeg Jets Writer • 
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