Global sports channel approved, despite protest from Bell, Rogers

The CRTC has added One World Sports to its list of non-Canadian channels authorized for distribution, despite arguments from Rogers Communications Inc. and BCE Inc. that it would compete with their specialty sports services. The United States-based channel broadcasts live programming consisting “almost entirely of global sporting events,” the commission said in a decision Wednesday. Rogers had argued that both One World Sports and its Sportsnet World broadcast soccer matches from the European soccer leagues Barclays Premier League and the Bundesliga, and that One World “provides a magazine-style soccer program called Football Review that is similar to numerous soccer-focused, magazine-style programs aired on Sportsnet World,” the decision said. The CRTC determined that while there is some overlap of soccer programming between the two channels, One World doesn’t have the rights to live broadcasts or first replays. “Sports programming significantly loses its value to viewers after the initial live broadcast, let alone the third broadcast, which is the broadcast window for which ONE World Sports buys the rights,” the commission noted, concluding that as a result, it’s unlikely that Sportsnet World would “lose a significant number of soccer viewers for this programming.” Bell stated that its The Sports Network (TSN) “has in recent years lost programming rights due to multi-territory deals signed by competitors similar to ONE World Sports without being given an opportunity to submit a bid for them.” The company said it was “concerned that allowing a service such as ONE World Sports, which operates on a multi-territory basis, into the Canadian marketplace would result in Canadian sports programming services being more frequently denied the possibility of acquiring rights to valuable international sports programming, since there is nothing preventing them from acquiring the digital rights for Canada.” The CRTC responded that Bell’s concerns are unfounded, and that “there is no evidence that Canadian sports-based channels are currently having difficulty acquiring programming for their channels.”

Global sports channel approved, despite protest from Bell, Rogers

Brief | July 13, 2016

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Global sports channel approved, despite protest from Bell, Rogers

Brief | July 13, 2016

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