Hello Out There, We And Only We Are On The Air

There's lots of talk in Canada's media about the new NHL rights deal, in which Rogers Sportsnet has bought the national rights to show NHL games in Canada for the next twelve years for a cost of over five billion dollars. Putting aside the worries about whether this is the end of Hockey Night In Canada, and whether Don Cherry still has a job, there's been a lot of doubt about how good it is that one company has a monopoly for the near future.

Some people are hoping that this represents a shift in the NHL's picture of itself: if the league is getting a big chunk of its revenue from Canada, might it be more open to having more Canadian teams? On the other hand, they may realize that they've got all the money out of Canada that they're going to get, so there's no point in expanding here.

But I'm hoping the deal will be good for Canada in a totally different way. I've found it quite surprising and a little alarming how our highly connected, multichannel world has somehow seen Canada become more hockey obsessed. You'd think that all the media outlets would cause us to diversify our I interests, not to mention constant immigration from non-hockey-loving countries. But the media seems to be our enablers is this addiction. It's part of a widespread phenomena in broadcasting, in which adding channels somehow homogenizes the content. In the U.S. it causes countless reality shows, and in Canada it causes a focus on hockey. I hope some young Marshall McLuhan out there is working on the problem.

But now that TSN is largely shut out of hockey, they have little choice but to push the Canadian sports culture in a different direction. Yes, in response to the Sportsnet announcement, they pointed to their raft of hockey analysts as prof of their commitment to the game. But it seems hard to believe that they'll continue to put money into That's Hockey After Midnight or NHL Trade Deadline Three-Month Countdown if it's just going to get viewers excited about a sport on another network. TSN made big media properties out of the CFL and curling, so they do have some experience building up popular interest in sports pushed to the periphery.  And now they have the advantage they can easily outbid Sportsnet and its maxed-out budget for any other rights they want. So, Raptors, lacrosse, MLS, get ready for your closeup.