Rogers Hate Thread

["Issues"Mcgee]

The telecom cartel has decided that local news coverage is no longer profitable.

[1argoholic]

Plus Rogers blows dead donkey's.

[Double Dare]

http://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/canada...=mailsignoutmd

[1argoholic]

hahahaha. Why the mob doesn't use social media.

[rdavies]

As much as I hate Rogers people do have to be accountable for what they say. In this day and age we don't know which people threatening violence are serious or not. Some of these morons are dumb enough to post their very real threats online.

I would assume with the title of this thread being what it is Rogers probably knows about it. I don't like the company but I can't blame them for taking tweets like that seriously.

Is there a RPB hate thread, because what some of those aholes have been posting lately I might start one if it doesn't already exist.

[Ron]

Well considering his username is "I am an asshole" I feel it was justified for Any company to act as they did.

[Double Dare]

Is there a RPB hate thread, because what some of those aholes have been posting lately I might start one if it doesn't already exist.

Right on!!!

[1argoholic]

I think CFL fans should all stop at least once or twice during Grey Cup weekend to use a certain building as a place to dispose of kidney filtered alcohol.

[Double Dare]

I think CFL fans should all stop at least once or twice during Grey Cup weekend to use a certain statue as a place to dispose of kidney filtered alcohol.

Fixed it.

[jerrym]

With all the Canadian teams officially out of the playoffs now, karma has come to haunt Rogers.

But Lord Stanley's Cup will not return to Canada this year. For the first time since 1970, there are no Canadian teams in the NHL playoffs. ...It's not only the fans who will be affected. This is also bad news for bars, restaurants and broadcasters hoping to draw big revenue from Canadians looking to root for the home team. ...

Some suggest the success of Canada's other professional sports franchises in recent years is helping grow those games — at hockey's expense.
Major League Baseball returns this weekend, with the Toronto Blue Jays, still riding high on an impressive late-season run in 2015 that saw them reach the ALCS. And the Toronto Raptors have clinched an NBA playoff berth that begins mid-month.
Canada has become a breeding ground for NBA talent in recent years, with Canadian players taking the No. 1 draft picks in 2013 and 2014.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nhl-pl...yche-1.3516793

[jerrym]

These comments for a blog in January not only note that the Canadian NHL teams are not likely to make the playoffs, they show strong hostility to Rogers in general and "brutal broadcasts" of the games. There are more quotes besides the ones I copied.

[quote]
Rogers in the second year of its 12-year, $5.2 billion deal with the NHL. If no Canadian teams make the playoffs, ratings will take a serious hit, and there's absolutely nothing Rogers can do about it.
Personally, the only Canadian-based NHL team I give a rat's ass about is my Toronto Maple Leafs, and I'm loving the Shanaplan. Everything is going according to plan... I just hope Reimer doesn't steal too many points down the stretch. Just lose, baby... our future depends on it.

Rogers in the second year of its 12-year, $5.2 billion deal with the NHL. If no Canadian teams make the playoffs, ratings will take a serious hit, and there's absolutely nothing Rogers can do about it. ...

Comments
anon Love it that Rogers is losing $$$$, but don't worry they make up for it with the Jays. It was a complete overbid for those rights & that buffoon Bettman was all too eager to accept. (Note: a smart buffoon was he) Avoid anything related to Bell/Rogers, like Domi says "Support the little guy".

January 23, 2016 / 14:59
Rob J Ok, they spent huge on the rights...but then they commit a double-minor by presenting a brutal broadcast, foisting unlikeable pro-Leafs personalities onto a national audience, and then decide to hitch their wagon to one of the league's worst teams over 40+ years giving them the prime HNIC slot most weeks. Almost like Rogers owns the team or something. January 23, 2016 / 15:10

---

GAry I don't think the lack of Canadian teams in playoff contention is the biggest reason for the ratings decline. Their horrible broadcasts are a big contributor in my opinion.
steve Wednesday's horror show won't help ratings, Columbus 3 - 1, over the Leafs. It was terrible hockey, from both teams! The quality of play was sub-par, broken plays, missed passes, unforced giveaways, there was never any sense of urgency or tenacity from either team, certainly nothing that triggered an extended run of quality shifts by either team.

http://www.torontomike.com/2016/01/c..._suck_and.html

[jerrym]

Further evidence that Rogers will suffer because of the lack of Canadian teams in the playoffs.

So a looming Canadian playoff drought could spell trouble for Rogers, he said. The company depends on high viewership to be able to sell playoff advertising spots for hundreds of thousands of dollars or more. That revenue then helps pay for the yearly cost of its NHL broadcast rights.
Rogers declined to comment on the prospect of a Canada-free playoff season.
But Ryder predicts playoff viewership could fall by 25 to 35 per cent this year.

• Rogers NHL deal could take years to pay off, Quebecor says

"They're going to take a massive hit," said Detlev Zwick, an associate professor of marketing at York University's Schulich School of Business. He projects a viewership drop between 30 and 40 per cent — if not more — compared to last year.
"Simply, the product they sold to or they're going to sell to advertisers is just not worth as much."
If significantly fewer fans tune in, he said, it's likely Rogers will offer discounted ad space, while companies that have already purchased slots may try to renegotiate the terms of their contracts. ...


"They're going to take a massive hit," said Detlev Zwick, an associate professor of marketing at York University's Schulich School of Business. He projects a viewership drop between 30 and 40 per cent — if not more — compared to last year. ...
But if the low Canadian dollar weakens the ability of Canadian franchises to attract top talent, Ryder added, Rogers could be facing the same problem next year.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/roge...offs-1.3461906

[Argo57]

Further evidence that Rogers will suffer because of the lack of Canadian teams in the playoffs.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/roge...offs-1.3461906

What a shame!

[R.J]

http://torontosportsmedia.com/busine...snet-nhl/20682

I can see a lot more changes coming; the deal rogers signed was a massive mistake, keeping PJ Stock, Glenn Healy and naming George Strompolos host were mistakes as well IMO.

[Neely2005]

Rogers sold the French NHL TV rights to TVA for 1.5+ Billion dollars.

The first regular season Blue Jays game had almost 1.5 million viewers.

[R.J]

Rogers sold the French NHL TV rights to TVA for 1.5+ Billion dollars.

The first regular season Blue Jays game had almost 1.5 million viewers.

And ?

[Ron]

In summary

If you hate Rogers then Karma is at work and their financials are not good.

If you have no hate for Rogers and just see them as they are ... then no Karma at work and their financials are solid. (Going from sell to hold is a big deal in the current market climate)

Conclusion

This thread is an example of latent longing. Even after Rogers has nothing to do with the Argos .... some folks are so enamored with thinking about them that they have to keep talking about them. Much like that girlfriend you hated and finally were rid of... still fills your mind with thoughts about her that you refuse to let go of due to latent longing.

Bullet point: 1argo is right. They suck so forget about them. (If you can)

[rdavies]

Top hockey producer’s firing before NHL playoffs hints at Rogers turmoil
DAVID SHOALTS The Globe and Mail Apr. 08, 2016

An Angus Reid Institute poll has driven an exclamation point into what executives at beleaguered Rogers Media already know – most Canadians will not be watching the NHL playoffs this spring.

But at Rogers, the blood was already on the floor thanks to the fact that none of the seven Canadian NHL teams will be in the playoffs for the first time since 1970. On Tuesday, the man in charge of hockey production at Sportsnet and Hockey Night in Canada, senior vice-president Gord Cutler, was fired. Before that, several staffers in the hockey department were laid off.

While company insiders said Cutler’s dismissal was a financial move since he was undoubtedly hired away from rival Bell Media’s TSN two years ago with a healthy salary, the timing was extraordinary. No one could remember a network firing its head of production with the NHL playoffs days away.

The move hinted at the turmoil in Rogers Media, which has seen even more ratings trouble in the second season of its $5.2-billion, 12-year contract with the NHL for the national Canadian broadcast rights. While Cutler cannot be held responsible for a 16-per-cent decline in Hockey Night In Canada ratings through late March, which follows a 16-per-cent decline in the first year of the deal from the 2013-14 season, CBC’s last year broadcasting the show, his departure is a sign there may be unhappiness with the on-air product at the highest level of Rogers, even above Sportsnet president Scott Moore and Rogers Media president Rick Brace.

A Rogers spokeswoman said Moore would not be available for comment until later this week.

When ratings do not reach the projections given to advertisers, broadcasters have to give their clients free commercial time as compensation, known as make-goods. The problem for Rogers is that the loss of viewers is so severe that it has to give out far more make-goods than was planned.

One source in the advertising industry and one in the broadcast industry say the free spots, two of which are being given for every paid ad, have eaten up a significant portion of Rogers’s playoff hockey inventory. This means there is much less to sell to paying clients, which further hurts revenue when Rogers usually would expect to sell playoff advertising at a significant premium. The company is putting some make-goods on its Toronto Blue Jays broadcasts and entertainment shows, and that, too, cuts into the sales of advertising time.

“It is kind of grim, but unlike the fairy tales, it is reality,” said the advertising source, who requested not to be identified because of a business relationship with Rogers.

Hockey fans’ unhappiness has been building since late January, when all seven Canadian teams started wobbling. Of the 1,522 Canadian adults Angus Reid surveyed from March 28 to 31, 54 per cent said they planned to watch either less of the NHL playoffs than they did a year ago or none.

Only 30 per cent of the respondents said they plan to watch the same amount they did in 2015. Nineteen per cent said they will watch no playoff hockey, while 35 per cent said they will watch less than a year ago. All of the respondents said they usually watch the playoffs. The full results of the survey, released on Thursday, are on Angus Reid’s web site.

The trouble signs for Sportsnet began at the start of the 2015-16 NHL season thanks to the network’s unexpected success story, the Toronto Blue Jays. According to multiple sources, some major advertisers took advantage of provisions in their contracts with Rogers that allowed them to switch their commercials from the hockey broadcasts to the Blue Jays as they went on their run through the baseball playoffs in October.

According to another advertising source (who also requested anonymity because of direct dealings with Rogers), some companies could do this, but they had to pay a premium, because the Jays were getting audiences of three million or more.

Another source said the audience numbers for hockey reached only 77 per cent of the projections Rogers gave advertisers in the fall of 2015.

Rogers was also hit by a drop in ratings for its conventional shows on its City channels and specialty networks such as OLN, the source said. This makes it difficult to satisfy advertisers who demand a certain audience level for make-goods on those channels. It also eats into the advertising inventory for those shows.

Broadcasting insiders have suggested Rogers could get some revenue relief by selling games from its national package to TSN. However, a source close to senior management at TSN said the network, which remains profitable, is not interested in buying any NHL games.

This is not surprising given the ratings tumble for Rogers. By late March, the average audience for the early game on Saturday’s Hockey Night In Canada was down to 1.66 million from more than 1.9 million in 2014-15. When the biggest driver of hockey ratings, the Toronto Maple Leafs, were competitive, audiences for those games routinely exceeded two million.

However, the largest audience for a Leafs game between Jan. 3 and April 2 was the 1.8 million who watched on Saturday, Jan. 23. That may look good compared with this season’s average, but it was against the Montreal Canadiens, a matchup that used to draw more than two million viewers. By April 2, the viewers were down to 826,500 on both the CBC and City for a game between the Leafs and another strong rival, the Detroit Red Wings.

Moore acknowledged the problems of poor ratings and falling advertising revenue caused by the Canadian teams’ lacklustre play in a recent memo to Sportsnet staff. He also mentioned layoffs, part of Rogers’s announcement a few months ago of 200 job losses, that hit the hockey department for the first time. But he did not draw a direct link between the Canadian teams and the layoffs.

However, Sportsnet staffers see the connection and it has not been good for morale. This was compounded by Cutler’s firing, which came long after Moore’s memo. There is much fear at the network about more layoffs once the hockey season is over.

“There’s tons of concern about that,” one Rogers employee said. “That’s all anybody talks about.”

[jerrym]

the biggest roll of the dice in Canadian TV history has come up snake eyes. All seven Canadian teams sit on the sidelines as Rogers Media wraps up the second season of a $5.2-billion, 12-year deal with the NHL.The Canadian team collapse will cost money, says Sportsnet president Scott Moore.
"There are definitely differences in our ratings expectations that definitely impacts the prices that we charge," he said in an interview.
Last year, for example, first-round playoff games between the Montreal Canadiens and the Ottawa Senators averaged 3.2 million viewers, with one game soaring to 3.763 million. When all Canadian teams were eliminated by the third round, half the audience went with them.
In addition to the elimination of the Canadiens, Senators and other Canadian teams, the last-place finish for the Toronto Maple Leafs has also been a blow for Rogers. With little to cheer for in Canada's largest TV market, ratings took a massive hit. ...
Overnight estimates for last Saturday's "Hockey Night in Canada" broadcast — a Canadian tradition that for decades routinely averaged more than two million viewers — were just 721,000.
Over a 30-week period, ratings for the early game on "Hockey Night in Canada" are down 18 per cent for the season. Later games out west are down 19 per cent on average.

http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2016/04...n_9671502.html

[Neely2005]

Further evidence that Rogers will suffer because of the lack of Canadian teams in the playoffs.



http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/roge...offs-1.3461906

Rogers Communications Inc. says it will make profit on NHL rights deal this year, ‘without any shadow of a doubt’

http://business.financialpost.com/in..._lsa=c490-d2fc

TORONTO — Even without any Canadian teams in this year’s National Hockey League playoffs, Rogers Communications Inc. expects to make a 10 per cent return on its NHL rights investment this year.

Speaking to media following the company’s annual general meeting Tuesday, chief executive Guy Laurence said that figure is an estimate that depends on how the playoffs go. However, he said this year’s spending on NHL rights “will absolutely, definitely, without any shadow of a doubt, make a profit, period,” although likely a slightly smaller one than last year.

Last year’s return on NHL rights was “in excess” of 10 per cent by a couple of percentage points, he said.