Raptors On TV; Largest cable outlet currently has fewer games
Basketball fans subscribing to Canada's largest cable provider may be temporarily left with fewer Toronto Raptors games on the dial following a major push into hoops unveiled yesterday by CTVGlobemedia Inc.' s The Sports Network.
TSN is more than doubling its coverage of the Toronto Raptors this season to 48 games, although more than half of those are slated to air on its new offering, TSN2.
Rogers Cable, by far the biggest provider of television services in the Raptors' hometown, is the country's only major carrier yet to pick up the channel.
Phil King, the president of TSN, said yesterday the network is still working to secure a carriage agreement with Rogers.
"It's a priority. Rogers is the biggest, and a very important cable outlet," he said. "Our expectation is that the rest of the cable companies will pick [TSN2] up."
TSN2 has courted controversy since its launch this fall.
Rival cable sports channels say it violates the terms of its regulatory licence. They argue it amounts to a second feed of the original channel with lucrative professional sports added in prime time.
Several industry sources said yesterday that pressure from subscribers will likely result in Rogers picking up TSN2.
"[The Raptors games] are being used as an excuse to try and push another network onto distributors and onto the backs of consumers, who are going to have to pay for it," John Levy, president of Score Media Inc., said yesterday.
TSN maintains it is operating the second channel in accordance with its licence. The CRTC is currently examining the complaints from rivals.
Rogers spokeswoman Nancy Cottenden said yesterday that negotiations for carriage of TSN2 are ongoing. She declined to comment on why Rogers has so far decided not to carry the channel.
The 12 Raptors games that Rogers-owned Sportsnet broadcast last season make up part of the 25 new games to be aired on TSN2.
TSN2 is available in about 3.2 million Canadian homes, still well behind the nine million that receive the main TSN channel.
It is believed that being picked up by Rogers would put TSN2 in close to one million additional homes.
Raptors NBA TV is believed to be available in about two million households across the country.
Toronto-based sports consultant Bob Stellick said that part of the reason the Raptors would move games from its own digital channel onto TSN is to build the team into a more Canada-wide brand.
That would lead to an increase in national audiences and sponsorship revenues, following a strategy similar to that of the Toronto Blue Jays baseball team in the early 1990s.
"The Raptors are still perceived by a lot of people as a Toronto team," Mr. Stellick said.
gsurridge@nationalpost.com