TSN vows to fight back after losing NHL deal to Rogers

With the highly valued NHL national package no longer in its cupboard, and no hope of getting it back for at least 12 years, a bloodied but unbowed TSN is vowing to do everything it can to restock its shelves and remain on top of the Canadian cable TV business.

That means making serious bids for every other sports property that's up for grabs to combat Rogers Communications, which turned the Canadian sports world upside down lasts fall by grabbing the entire NHL package for the next 12 years.

``I can assure you TSN will be aggressive and will be at the table for literally everything else that's available," says Phil King, who oversees Bell Media sports properties as president of CTV programming and sports.

King wouldn't elaborate on what properties might be involved, but those up for grabs in the next year include everything from Ottawa Senators regional rights to UFC to European soccer. Those Senators regional rights could involve as many as 60 games a year, sources say.

Following the industry trend, the deals would likely be in the range of 10 years.

King wouldn't comment, but the possibility exists that TSN may end up with national NHL games if Rogers can't find a home for all the games it's paid for. It would have to pay Rogers for those games and TSN would likely get only all-American match-ups, though.

In an exclusive interview with Yahoo! Sports Canada, King conceded that losing the NHL was a major blow and that by cornering the NHL market Rogers put itself in a great position to end TSN's decades-long reign as Canada's most-watched specialty channel. But he said that dropping to second place, a move that could negatively affect TSN's ad rates, isn't a foregone conclusion.

``There are a lot of rights deals out there and until those are finalized in the next 12 months or so it's hard to say what will happen," he said. A lot also depends on the success of the Rogers NHL deal and how many games involving Canadian teams eventually wind up on Sportsnet, he said. ``There are still a lot of variables in sports that you can't predict."

Despite the drawing power of the NHL in Canada, King says it won't be easy for Sportsnet to overtake TSN in the ratings. The numbers seem to back him up. TSN's average audience is about 40 per cent higher than Sportsnet's today. The NHL accounts for about 20 per cent of TSN's audience -- so hockey alone won't close that gap.

TSN showed that it was going to be aggressive not long after the ink dried on Rogers' $5.2 billion deal with the NHL. First, it expanded its agreements with ESPN and cemented a new deal with the NFL that included games currently airing on Rogers. It also locked up all of its hockey talent, partly to keep people like James Duthie, Bob McKenzie and Chris Cuthbert out of Rogers' hands and partly to stake out its turf in the hockey wars.

``We're not out of the hockey business," King says, noting that TSN still has Winnipeg Jets and Montreal Canadiens regional games and will actually increase its share of Toronto Maple Leafs games in Ontario. Thanks to Bell's part-ownership of MLSE, TSN will see its Leafs content rise from 17 games this season to 26 next year. ``If you're a Leafs fan in Ontario, you're going to be watching TSN more than ever," he said.

As for TSN's ability to remain a go-to channel for hockey news and commentary with substantial NHL national content, King points to the example of U.S. partner ESPN.

``ESPN has only 16 NFL games," he said, ``but they are far and away the most dominant source of NFL news. There's no reason we can't do the same thing and we're going to.

``If people want NHL news, we want them to turn to us."

While King concedes that TSN would have preferred to keep its national NHL package, he says the channel is much better prepared to weather this storm than it was when Sportsnet did the same thing 15 years ago.

``Back then, we didn't have the Grey Cup, CFL playoffs, the Brier final, NBA final, U.S. Open finals, Wimbledon," he said. ``We're not where we were then."

But back then, Sportsnet's NHL deal ran for only four years -- not 12.

Over the next few years, viewers will see a different TSN. King says there will be more emphasis on soccer, partly because the channel has World Cup rights after this year and partly because he sees soccer as one of the great growth sports in the world. There will also be even more games from the world junior hockey championship and there could be more NBA games, especially if Rogers has to give up some Raptors content to make room for NHL and the Blue Jays.

But none of those properties has the drawing power of the NHL, though it appears TSN's seat at the top of the Canadian cable business is assured for at least four more years. That's how long CBC has contracted with Rogers to continue airing Hockey Night In Canada, which still draws the biggest weekly audiences in the country.

Sportsnet will likely see only a marginal bump in ratings as long as the big games (Leafs and Canucks) are on CBC. But if the day comes that increased subscriber fees -- and you're living in a dream world if you don't believe that's coming -- overtake the ad revenue that CBC can generate and HNIC moves to Sportsnet, TSN's reign could be over.

Still, that may be a few years away. The drawing power of conventional TV channels like CBC is still a factor -- an early Saturday night Leafs game still produces almost double what TSN can get for a midweek Leafs game. An even bigger factor is that under CRTC rules only conventional networks can sell regional ads, meaning a CBC game will still produce more ad revenue than a Sportsnet game.

Regardless, it's going to be an interesting battle as Bell and Rogers square off for sports supremacy over the next few years.