OneSoccer

[Ozzie_the_parrot]

7 hours ago, red card said:

...The fundamental problem in their eyes is that top American content that they used to simuclast on tv can only be seen on streaming platforms...

...and if that means they no longer have a monopoly on the wider sports entertainment market through cable to push hockey and the CFL relentlessly as the be all and end all at the expense of soccer this is a problem because? CanPL got into streaming a little too ahead of the curve and made a mistake by trying to do something revolving around viewer subscription on its own rather than by being a smaller part of something larger but there's no question which way the wind is blowing on this.

[nfitz]

I just noticed that One Soccer is carrying the Gold Cup preliminaries, starting tomorrow. Though only the first match seems to be on the main channel (as there's a CPL game later on).

[SpursFlu]

Maybe the problem was that the major networks found themselves out of touch with the average person and found themselves no longer giving people what they're interested in and found themselves trying to convince people what to be interested in

[nfitz]

I wish OneSoccer would get a bit more professional about the Canada coverage.

 

 

Edited June 15, 2023 by nfitz

[Soccerpro2]

20 hours ago, nfitz said:

I wish OneSoccer would get a bit more professional about the Canada coverage.

 

 

You dont like Gareth Wheeler yelling all the time about how Canada are awesome? pfftttttt

[Kent]

What I do like is that we have pre and post games. I think we take them for granted now. It used to be that for a 7:00 kick off the coverage would start at 7:00 and end at 9:00. Well, it might start later than 7:00 if a more important sport went a bit long.

[Aird25]

We have so much more canada soccer coverage now than I can ever remember

[Watchmen]

One Soccer giving a game away for free today on YouTube.  Currently on CBC - World Athletics - Wanda Diamond League.  I'm sure the free preview was more of a last minute decision, but some sort of "summer schedule" on CBC continues to be something they should be looking at.

[Cheeta]

That's where I was watching.  1,200 viewers or so.  Happened on it by accident. 

Fun match.  Bit of everything. 

[narduch]

1 hour ago, Watchmen said:

One Soccer giving a game away for free today on YouTube.  Currently on CBC - World Athletics - Wanda Diamond League.  I'm sure the free preview was more of a last minute decision, but some sort of "summer schedule" on CBC continues to be something they should be looking at.

I wrote this in the CANMNT forum but I am speculating that One Soccer is happy with their subscription levels and their Fubo deal and isn't interested in panning off their product anymore 

[nfitz]

On 6/16/2023 at 3:50 PM, Soccerpro2 said:

You dont like Gareth Wheeler yelling all the time about how Canada are awesome? pfftttttt

I don't like that OneSoccer kept Gareth in Toronto, calling the game while he was watching it on TV.

Countries with poor teams had commentators in Las Vegas.

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, narduch said:

I wrote this in the CANMNT forum but I am speculating that One Soccer is happy with their subscription levels and their Fubo deal and isn't interested in panning off their product anymore 

I'm not sure I'd agree, but I also don't think they'll do anything until the Bell/Rogers situation is resolved.

[CDNFootballer]

2 hours ago, Watchmen said:

One Soccer giving a game away for free today on YouTube.  Currently on CBC - World Athletics - Wanda Diamond League.  I'm sure the free preview was more of a last minute decision, but some sort of "summer schedule" on CBC continues to be something they should be looking at.

It was good to have games on CBC in the past for the league's visibility, but it has to make business sense as well for Mediapro. Maybe our state broadcaster isn't interested in the same terms they had previously.

[Watchmen]

36 minutes ago, CDNFootballer said:

It was good to have games on CBC in the past for the league's visibility, but it has to make business sense as well for Mediapro. Maybe our state broadcaster isn't interested in the same terms they had previously.

Maybe, but they have to air something.  I read Hockey Fight in Canada: The Big Media Faceoff Over the NHL a number of years ago, and it details how the CBC lost (and then reacquired) hockey on Saturday night.  And a key part of how Rogers negotiated to get CBC to buy back the Saturday night games was that they had to air something.  They bought the rights back from Rogers because it actually made more financial sense for them to do so, rather than either buying other content or producing their own.  And I think about that with the CPL - are they airing anything during a Saturday day that gets the ratings the CPL got (roughly 35-50k for the Island games), and if so is it cheaper than then cost to buy the CPL games?

[red card]

10 minutes ago, Watchmen said:

Maybe, but they have to air something.  I read Hockey Fight in Canada: The Big Media Faceoff Over the NHL a number of years ago, and it details how the CBC lost (and then reacquired) hockey on Saturday night.  And a key part of how Rogers negotiated to get CBC to buy back the Saturday night games was that they had to air something.  They bought the rights back from Rogers because it actually made more financial sense for them to do so, rather than either buying other content or producing their own.  And I think about that with the CPL - are they airing anything during a Saturday day that gets the ratings the CPL got (roughly 35-50k for the Island games), and if so is it cheaper than then cost to buy the CPL games?

CBC didn't have the money for other content to replace HNIC but CBC didn't buy back HNIC rights from Rogers. They gave Rogers free air time and the ad revenue in exchange for CBC programming to be promoted during HNIC. Rogers did it to quell people complaining that they couldn't watch it for free. 

https://www.nhl.com/news/hockey-night-in-canada-to-continue-on-cbc/c-693278

CBC's sports focus is now Olympics related events. Rights are cheap to free as no one else bids for it in Canada. And it is self promotion for their Olympics coverage. In recent years, they have also put in goal of achieving gender parity in sports coverage. So, they're more apt to be interested in Project 8's league than CPL.

Audience levels for CBC's weekend afternoon sports tend to be 100k or less. At times, figure skating will get near 200k (main demo is seniors). Last year's Vanier Cup got 158k. 

Too many people think Canadian broadcast media is still flush with cash to buy whatever programming they want. CBC is underfunded. Their budget is the same dollar amount as it was 30 years ago. Or 1/3 less inflation-adjusted. Conservative party wants to defund CBC English tv. 

After Bell's layoffs this week, Bell execs said their radio division profits have dropped in half and their news division lost $40 million. Since 2015, Canadian broadcasters revenue dropped by $1.8B while streaming services revenue in Canada rose by $11.8B.

In Canada, the top 10 weekly tv programs would all be over 1 million till about 2015. Now, even though the population is up by 5 million, there is maybe one weekly top 10 program that gets over 1 miilion other than when there are NHL/NFL/CFL playoffs and Jays are in the race/playoffs.

 

 

[Watchmen]

1 hour ago, red card said:

CBC didn't have the money for other content to replace HNIC but CBC didn't buy back HNIC rights from Rogers. They gave Rogers free air time and the ad revenue in exchange for CBC programming to be promoted during HNIC. Rogers did it to quell people complaining that they couldn't watch it for free.

They also gave Rogers a number of floors in the CBC offices rent-free. The book makes it clear Rogers asked for a lot and got all of it, though this was in part because CBC had no idea how to negotiate. And people were still going to be getting it for free, as it was going to City TV.

1 hour ago, red card said:

CBC's sports focus is now Olympics related events. Rights are cheap to free as no one else bids for it in Canada. And it is self promotion for their Olympics coverage. In recent years, they have also put in goal of achieving gender parity in sports coverage. So, they're more apt to be interested in Project 8's league than CPL.

Audience levels for CBC's weekend afternoon sports tend to be 100k or less. At times, figure skating will get near 200k (main demo is seniors). Last year's Vanier Cup got 158k. 

Oh, the CPL definitely can't compete with figure skating.  But yeah, you'd be competing with the cheap rights of the Olympic sports. I have no idea what kind of viewership that gets.

[nfitz]

19 hours ago, CDNFootballer said:

Maybe our state broadcaster isn't interested in the same terms they had previously.

I'm guessing terms weren't offered so as not to devalue OneSoccer subscriptions. It's also disappeared from the local  independent station in Hamilton that carried games.

[red card]

2 hours ago, nfitz said:

I'm guessing terms weren't offered so as not to devalue OneSoccer subscriptions. It's also disappeared from the local  independent station in Hamilton that carried games.

I haven't seen it elsewhere but CityNews Mike Leach says that is the case - Mediapro not interested in licensing anymore (at least Canada matches).

By the way, Americans can Blame Canada for tonight's match being only on P+ in English in the US. CBS SN could have shown it but are showing Argos-Ti-Cats instead.

Edited June 18, 2023 by red card

[Stoppage Time]

Anybody having sign in problems today?

[Cheeta]

Required viewing.  Monday's One Soccer Today  "Nation's League Final Review".

Outstanding analysis.  Dare you to disagree with anything put forward by the trio of Wheeler, Wilson and Platt.

Unparalleled intelligence analysis of Canadian football.  Not dumbing it down.  Think they understand their audience.

[BearcatSA]

1 hour ago, Cheeta said:

Dare you to disagree with anything put forward by the trio of Wheeler, Wilson and Platt.

Buchanan was pretty disappointing vs Panama.  Some will cite his cross on Larin's but that owed more to a switching off of the Panama defending, which had him stifled.  I still would have started Laryea at that position but I would concede that a change needed to be made at the half.

I haven't finished listening to the whole thing yet but was there a mention of Osorio?  I felt he was a passenger behind the play out there.  Definitely looked like a guy who came in too short of starting minutes due to a longer term injury.

[Metro]

14 hours ago, Cheeta said:

Required viewing.  Monday's One Soccer Today  "Nation's League Final Review".

Outstanding analysis.  Dare you to disagree with anything put forward by the trio of Wheeler, Wilson and Platt.

Unparalleled intelligence analysis of Canadian football.  Not dumbing it down.  Think they understand their audience.

 

[red card]

On 6/14/2023 at 10:40 PM, red card said:

Bell/Rogers never financially backed Canada Soccer aside from Bell sponsorship in the run up to WWC 2015. Still, some hoped they would financially support leagues like CPL - maybe unaware Bell/Rogers have been cutting budgets and jobs in their media divisions for the past decade.

Today Bell announced another 1300 job cuts which includes 6% of Bell Media employees and is shutting down/selling 9 radio stations. This includes Edmonton's sports radio station and shows Leafs Lunch & Ottawa's In the Box. BNN, CP24, CTV, local tv and radio news will be consolidated as one.

Bell execs said it is due to the ongoing migration of advertising revenue to foreign digital platforms and a shift from cable, satellite and Fibre TV subscribers to digital streaming platforms. 

They said people are consuming media — news, entertainment, TV, radio — in different ways than they were 10, 5 or even 3 years ago. Streaming services are now the market leaders in Canada.

The fundamental problem in their eyes is that top American content that they used to simuclast on tv can only be seen on streaming platforms. Crticis say Bell/Rogers didn't invest enough to be viewed as a major news outlet and invest enough to generate a healthy domestic entertainment catalogue.

Bell will now only invest in key growth areas. The rest will see cost structures reduced to match the lower revenue potential.

https://www.thestar.com/sports/leafs/2023/06/14/leafs-lunch-on-tsn-1050-cancelled-as-part-of-latest-bell-media-cutbacks.html

On the same day Bell announced layoffs, they had filed with the CRTC to request elminate English language stations requirement of 14 hours/weeek of local programming, 6 hours/week of local news, local news spending to be 11% of gross revenues and cut Canadian programming to 20% of revenues (from 30%). Cuts were also requested for their French language stations.

They also requested to cut spending on Programs of National Interest (PNI) to 5% of revenues (from 7.5%). Bell along with Rogers also requested PNI categories to be expanded to include music programs, music videos, variety/game shows and reality TV (Rogers specifically asked for Canada Got Talent to be classified as a PNI).

But the news only came out today when the application was posted by the CRTC. It's more evidence not to expect TSN/SN be given the funds to pay for second/third tier properties such as the CPL and second tier Canada matches.

Bell cited local tv hasn't been profitable since 2012 with total losses of $584m. 94% of their stations didn't make money before interest/taxes pre-covid.

They're facing industry headwinds with online having 68% share of ad revenue. linear tv viewing hours have dropped by 17% since 2013 and 22% of adult English Canadians only watch online content. American programming that they used to get like the new Star Trek series and South Park are now being put only on Paramount+.

Overall linear tv Industry's revenues have dropped by 26% since 2012. And 70% of local tv stations were in the red pre-covid. All categories of English tv programming have been in the red since at least 2018 ex sports. But sports profits have dropped 81% from 2018. French language tv sports were in the red ex 2021.

https://www.cp24.com/entertainment-news/bell-asks-crtc-to-drop-local-news-requirements-after-mass-layoffs-1.6453539

 

Edited June 24, 2023 by red card

[red card]

Bundesliga is going to DAZN for the next 3 years. Bundesliga Chief Marketing Officer says Bundesliga is the fastest growing international league in Canada since 2020. Davies and being first league to come back during covid would have helped.

Doesn't leave much programming for SN World. Of top 5 leagues, maybe ligue 1 rights are the closest to being availble for bidding.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/manuelveth/2023/06/26/bundesliga-dazn-secures-rights-in-canada-until-the-end-of-202526-season/?sh=7f7716cb517b

 

Edited June 26, 2023 by red card

[rkomar]

I would think that Bundesliga was the fastest growing precisely because they were on SportsNet.  I predict that the next fastest growing league in Canada is whoever SportsNet replaces the Bundesliga with.