Bragg urges CRTC to deny Rogers’ ‘must offer’ request for The Score

Canada's broadcast regulator should remove The Score’s “must offer” licence designation given that the channel has benefitted from wide distribution for more than a decade, Bragg Communications Inc. said in a regulatory filing. “When one considers that The Score has been around for well over a decade, it is distributed by most and has withstood the test of time, it is an appropriate opportunity to consider why it would still need such Category A status,” Eastlink said in an intervention filed with the CRTC on Feb. 20. The commission is holding a consultation on Rogers Communications Inc.'s $167 million deal to purchase Score Media Inc., gaining control of The Score specialty channel and related television assets. In its regulatory application to acquire the channel, released by the commission in January, Rogers asked for lighter licence conditions and to maintain The Score’s “must offer” designation as a Category A service. The licence designation means broadcast distributors must offer the channel to TV subscribers. Bragg, a cable company that operates primarily in Eastern Canada under the brand Eastlink, offers TV, Internet and phone services. As a result of CRTC decision 2008-100, most mainstream news and sports specialty channels were deregulated effective Sept. 1, 2011, under a new “Category C” label. That means channels like TSN, Sportsnet, CBC News Network and CTV News Channel do not receive regulatory protections and must be carried on commercial terms between broadcasters and broadcast distributors. The Score remains licensed as a must offer, Category A channel, meaning that it receives higher viewership and subscription numbers and must abide by rules on the amounts and types of content it can air. Bragg said The Score was first licensed in 1996 as an analog service and has benefitted from mandatory carriage ever since. Since 1996, the channel has undergone “numerous changes,” Bragg said, noting that under its original licence, the channel was prohibited from airing live sports coverage. Licence changes in 2000 and again in 2011, Bragg said, permitted The Score to air 15 per cent live sports and cover a broader range of programming categories. The channel was required to break up live sports coverage every 15 minutes and provide sports updates. In its application to acquire the channel, Rogers requested extending that requirement for breaks to once per hour. “ is prepared to break into live sports every 15 minutes as the nature of the game being played permits,” the Rogers application said. “However the mandatory 15-minute break can be very disruptive during certain live sporting events.” Bragg said there is little reason to differentiate The Score from other Category C services and that The Score would face “minimal, if any, competitive risk.” Rogers said in its application that The Score is an important niche Canadian channel. It is the “the only national headline news sports service that is accessible to Canadians on the linear platform,” the company said. According to the most recent public data reported to the CRTC, The Score's pre-tax profits were $7.5 million in 2011, up from $5.5 million a year earlier. Its subscriber base shrank slightly during the 2011 broadcast year, from 6.79 million to 6.64 million. For 2011, Rogers' Sportsnet channel reported $31.3 million in pre-tax profits, down from $47.1 million in 2010. The channel’s subscriber base fell during the year from 9.13 million to 8.96 million. Pre-tax profits for TSN, owned by BCE Inc., were $58.3 million in 2011, up from $42.4 million the previous year. Its subscriber base at the end of the 2011 broadcast year totalled 9 million, down slightly from 9.18 million a year earlier. BCE division Bell Media said in an intervention that a condition of licence should be imposed on The Score to define what constitutes “live sports programming.” Bell said that to circumvent the conditions of licence limiting live sports coverage to 15 per cent, The Score has been airing sports events, such as the World Wrestling Entertainment’s Monday Night Raw, tape-delayed by 15 minutes. “While it airs live on the U.S. cable channel, USA Network at 8:00 p.m., The Score broadcasts a self-produced 15-minute countdown show at 8:00 p.m. and then begins to air Monday Night Raw,” Bell said. Bell said it also opposes Rogers' request for a seven-year licence term for the channel. It suggested a shortened term so that the channel is reviewed with Rogers' other broadcasting licences in a group review in 2014. Quebecor Media Inc. said in an intervention that it supports Rogers’ acquisition of the Score, which “will be beneficial for the entire Canadian broadcasting system and for all Canadian sports fans.” On Friday, Rogers said it launched re-designed Sportsnet Mobile apps, which would be available free for Apple Inc. devices. Rogers said the iOS app follows the launch of a BlackBerry 10 app and that they provide more sports statistics, customizable alerts, and up-to-date game scores. Rogers said it will launch Sportsnet apps for Android devices in the coming weeks. As part of the deal to purchase The Score, Rogers received “access to Score Media's digital technology to immediately enhance its mobile offerings,” the company said in a release last August. —With reporting by Danika Grenier at dgrenier@thewirereport.ca and editing by Simon Doyle at sdoyle@thewirereport.ca

Bragg urges CRTC to deny Rogers’ ‘must offer’ request for The Score

Broadcast | February 22, 2013

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