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OneSoccer alleges Rogers acting anti-competitively by refusing to carry the streaming service on cable
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It's ridiculous that cable companies are also allowed to own the majority of the TV channels they distribute and have the ability to shut out similar channels. It's the definition of anti-trust. At one time Rogers put TSN on a more expensive tier than Sportsnet. I don't know if that's still the case, but I'm happy to have Cogeco instead of Rogers or Bell.
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Blame the CRTC. Like store owners who start charging $10 for a bottle of water during a summer blackout, gougers will be gougers until someone in authority forces them to stop it. The Commission has been mostly AWOL on this issue for a very long time.
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Interesting from the article that Sportsnet brings in over $825 million in revenue every year and TSN over $575 million. Wonder what their profit margins are? Both networks seem to have money to throw around.
OneSoccer is doing this the right way, forcing Sportsnet to justify why their service isn't being carried. Also gives them more clout with their negotiations with Bell. This G&M article should help OneSoccer case quite a bit. I am sure the CRTC would prefer the two parties work something out rather than getting involved. Soccer is popular and we see more and more coverage on TV all the time. Rogers doesn't need anymore poor press right now.
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Rogers has revealed its strategy for fighting this complaint, insisting Sportsnet does not show enough soccer for it to be considered an anti-competitive move to not carry OneSoccer.
“A niche, single-sport discretionary service, like OneSoccer, is simply not competing in the same market and for the same audiences as mainstream multisport services, like Sportsnet and Sportsnet One, that devote an extremely small amount of their schedules to soccer,” Rogers argued in a letter filed with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission last month."