CREDIT: CBC

Canadian media giant Rogers Communications made a deal just before the holidays that will drastically affect the future of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The highlight of the week for many Canadian hockey fans has been watching the Toronto Maple Leafs hit the ice on CBC every Saturday night. Throw in the colourful Don Cherry and his handler Ron MacLean and it made for entertaining programming — programming that brought in somewhere in the neighbourhood of $220 million annually. All of that is coming to an end, though, in light of the 12-year, $5.2 billion deal that saw Rogers purchase the Canadian broadcasting rights to all NHL games.

The CBC will continue broadcasting games for the next four years; they just won't get any of the advertising revenue or have any say in the production of the broadcast. As for Don Cherry? Your guess is as good as his. The 30-year veteran of Hockey Night in Canada told reporters, “I have no idea what's going on. I haven't talked to CBC, I didn't see the press conference, I was en route somewhere. So I'm asking you guys — do I have a job?”Whether a deliberate stab or just business, Rogers is pushing the CBC into an uncomfortable position. Losing hockey revenue will mean less money to fund programming. Unless they can do more with less, which the CBC is not renowned for, programming will suffer and lead to fewer advertisers.

The deal highlights one of the major shortfalls of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation — one that's also responsible for its existence: it's paid for by the government. Rogers could convince their board of directors that a one-time cost of $5.2 billion for the NHL broadcast rights was a good business decision. The CBC was unable to match the bid simply because of their structure. Government departments have much less budget flexibility and can't afford to take the risks that a media conglomerate can.

Since the government's budget is comprised of the money it makes from taxes, the reality is that you pay for the CBC. The logical argument as a shareholder of the CBC (meaning every Canadian taxpayer) is, “Why should we be paying our own money to televise something that Rogers is eager to provide on its own dime?”

The president of CBC Television, Hubert Lacroix, told employees that “this deal will result in job losses [but] the staffing impact would have been much greater had we lost hockey entirely, as CBC is still producing hockey.” Either Lacroix is a spin master or the internal memo went through the HR department before being sent out. His assertion that being able to advertise during the segment for the next four years is some kind of silver lining is laughable. The lack of hit shows on the CBC, or any Canadian channel, is lamented in a CBC special report titled, “Why are Canadian shows missing from TV's new golden age?” It seems unlikely that the CBC is going to start producing high quality original content any time soon, and without hockey advertising to supplement their budget, the CBC's days could be numbered.
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