Next year, for the first time in decades, Canadians won’t be able to watch the NHL Stanley Cup final for free on television — unless a media lobby group gets its way.
Friends of Canadian Media is asking the federal government to enact legislation that would compel private media companies to license sports events of national importance to TV stations that will air them free of charge.
“We’re suggesting that the government ask a simple question: Are there certain moments that are so important to Canada’s cultural life that every Canadian should have affordable and broad access to them?” Raj Shoan, the group’s executive director, told As It Happens host Nil Kӧksal.
“Quite often, a shared national identity is tied to sporting events.”
CBC has reached out to the Department of Canadian Heritage for comment.
Shoan says the campaign is a direct response to news that NHL games are no longer airing on CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster.
CBC and Rogers Sportsnet, the national rights holder of Hockey Night in Canada, announced in July that they weren’t able to reach a new sublicensing deal that would have allowed CBC to air the program.
CBC recently announced it will bring back Hockey Night by airing eight Professional Women’s Hockey League games on Saturday nights starting in December. But as it stands, NHL games are only available on cable channels or streaming platforms Sportsnet+ and Amazon Prime.
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Shortly after the CBC-Rogers deal broke down, Sportsnet announced it’s raising the cost of its annual premium subscription by $20.
“When we looked at that in totality we thought, wow, that’s really problematic and worrisome because the end result of all of that is higher cost for Canadians and less universal access to a shared national experience that sports often provide,” Shoan said.
Friends of Canadian Media is asking supporters to contact their members of Parliament and ask them to support what’s known as “anti-siphoning legislation” in Canada.
Already in place in several European and Commonwealth countries, Shoan says anti-syphoning laws are designed to prevent private companies from “siphoning off the most valuable programming … and putting them up behind paywalls.”
In the U.K., for example, broadcasting regular Ofcom maintains a list of events of national importance that includes the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup and the Rugby World Cup, among others. Rights holders for those events are required to license them to free-to-air broadcasters at “fair and reasonable” prices.
Australia, Ireland and several European Union member states maintain similar lists.
“We’re not saying that Rogers doesn’t have the right to negotiate these deals. They absolutely do. But what we’re saying is, certain programming carries public value in addition to commercial value,” Shoan said.
“They can continue to sub-licence it out to whoever they want to under the auspices of this policy.”
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CBC reached out to Rogers Sportsnet to ask whether it would support anti-siphoning legislation or consider offering certain sports events for free.
“Sportsnet is focused on delivering more NHL content, including more national games with fewer blackouts, to more Canadians across multiple platforms and investing in bringing world-class hockey coverage to Canadian fans,” the company said in an emailed statement.
The NHL did not respond CBC’s request for comment before deadline, but spokesperson Jon Weinstein told the Globe and Mail it is “committed to more games in more places than ever before.”
Already, Canadians are feeling the impact of the NHL rights change on their wallets, reports CBC Edmonton, which spoke to Edmonton Oilers fans and the owners of businesses that air Oilers games.
“Now to get something, you’re going to have to give up something,” Moshe Lander, a sports economist at Concordia University in Montreal, said. “Up until this past year, if you wanted to watch, the only thing you really had to give up was your time. Now, it’s your time and your money.”
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While the Friends of Canadian Media campaign is focused on the Stanley Cup final, Shoan says Canada’s list could include other sporting events, too.
He wants the government to direct Canada’s broadcasting regulator, the CRTC, to explore what anti-siphoning legislation could look like in Canada, and consult with the public about what events should be included.
“Canadians have embraced streaming, and that’s not going to change. But for us, it’s really an issue of shared cultural experiences,” Shoan said. “We think there’s a public interest conversation that needs to be had.”
