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by HTTN’s Hamilton based writer - James Scarfone

Dear Rogers Communications:

You should know that the launching of Sportsnet One has been one of your worst business decisions to date.

Two weeks ago, you introduced your new sports channel amidst Canada’s already saturated TV sports market. From a male standpoint, it’s always a good thing to have more sports, of course.

Still, when we heard you were launching a new channel, we thought it was kind of silly. With TSN, TSN2, The Score, Sportsnet, The Golf Channel, pay-per-view NHL and a host of international broadcasters we can get online or via satellite, there are plenty of opportunities to watch sports on TV. Did you feel the need to squeeze some more poker into your already steady line-up of sports-radio-on-television and fishing?

Actually, a good chunk of us appreciated your thoughtfulness at perhaps sliding a darts or billiards game over to the new channel to maintain prime sporting action on the regular channel.

But that was our thinking, not yours. Your idea was to create a new, highly desirable sports channel that Canadian sports fans would die for, in order to put pressure on your rivals in the cable business.

And you went straight for the jugular, putting Blue Jays games, Premiership games and soon, NHL games on Sportsnet One. But apparently you failed to realize that by placing Jays games on the new network and letting Canadians discover that this channel was only available to Rogers subscribers, it was a slap to the face to all sports fans.

Cable subscribers in Canada have no choice but to subscribe to the company that owns their particular region. In Hamilton, for example, that means you have Cogeco in one part of the city, Shaw in another part and a couple smaller cable companies in other parts of the city of over half a million people. Rogers is not an option: it’s nowhere to be found.

Therefore, Hamiltonians cannot watch anything on Sportsnet One. Same thing out west. Shaw rules the day in western Canada along with Telus. Can’t get Rogers. Millions of cable subscribers (and hundreds of thousands of Jays fans) are blacked out of Sportsnet One’s programming.

You may have noticed that the SkyDome (we still call it that, just to spite you) had only 10,000 fans show up to Jays games in the early part of 2010. But when the team started playing better, the stadium began filling up. Toronto had the league’s home run leader and a solid pitching staff, and the fans were finally coming back.

Just another packed house at the SkyDome. (Don’t know why those 300 idiots aren’t wearing the same shade of blue as everyone else)

The Jays were receiving accolades around town. People wanted to go back to the Dome and start watching again on TV. Attendance and ratings went up.

Then you went and did this.

Newsflash Rogers: you own the very team you’ve made disappear on television! Most clubs would cultivate that newfound fanbase into everyday fans. Instead, you’ve squashed those fans like bugs. We’ve seen more Red Sox and Yankees games this week than our beloved Jays.

You need to realize that there aren’t many casual Jays fans in the UFC/NFL/NHL generation. The male 18-34 group doesn’t have as much time for baseball and you appear to have no intention in reversing that trend with your latest move.

We all remember what happened last year when many Toronto Raptors games were broadcast on the new TSN2. Rogers was the only provider that refused to place the new channel into their lineup, leaving many of your subscribers irate. In the end, though, you caved to the pressure.

Payback time: new channel, all yours. This time, the shoe would be on the other foot, and Canada would hate their non-Rogers service providers for not quickly adopting Sportsnet One.

It didn’t work. You are still the bad guys.

We haven’t forgotten that at the beginning of the season, we were promised every Jays game would be on Sportsnet. Every game. You failed to inform us a secret hidden channel, inaccessible to millions, would be broadcasting those games at the height of the season and in the middle of a playoff race.

So, Rogers, why is all this necessary? Why do you need to punish hard-working Canadians who just want to watch the Blue Jays, Man U, or eventually the Canucks, Flames, Oilers and Sens when the NHL starts in six weeks?

It all comes down to sports becoming a hot business property for cable companies. But Rogers, this was a bad move.

We urge you to reconsider placing important Jays games and Premiership matches on your new channel and put them back on the regular Sportsnet channel. Broaden your Jays fanbase by showcasing your product. It’s the only way you’ll get fans in the ballpark again, and it’s the only way we’ll start respecting you as a sports media baron.

Sincerely,


Canada’s Sports Fans

-to see James Scarfone’s previous post on the mess in Hamilton click here
-to see James Scarfone’s previous post on the August Blue Jays click here
-to see James Scarfone’s previous post, on the rise of Hamilton click here
-follow James Scarfone on twitter: @jamesscarfone