Bell could not wait. They had practiced their high-handed monopoly tactics on Canadians for years. Now they are taking on the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the team owners of the National Hockey League. Bell had learned the tactics in the years when it was the only game in town. Mind you, the previous management of CTV, that knocked the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation out of the Olympic ballpark for the Vancouver and London games, was no slouch at the monopoly game. Now Bell owns CTV, it invited the CBC in on the game and then low-balled the IOC.
For the package that included the 2010 Games in Vancouver and the London Games this year, CTV bid and won with its very generous offer of $153 million. They did not expect any profit on Vancouver and, with $100 million in production costs, CTV and Rogers are reported to have lost more than $20 million. They expect to lose more on the London games this coming summer. It is no wonder Rogers has bailed out on the Olympics for the next round. Now that Bell owns CTV, it decided to invite the CBC back and play in a field in which the taxpayer-owned corporation had particular skills. Canadians still remember the excellent job the CBC has done on international sports over the years.
The IOC officials were the ones in for a shock when they opened the one bid from Canada for the next set of games. These will be the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. The new Canadian consortium offered less than half of the Vancouver/London bid. It is estimated at just $70 million. The IOC took its marbles and went home in a huff. They would rather take nothing.
The broadcasters will go back with something, eventually, but what they really would like to know is if there will be National Hockey League players on the men’s hockey teams in Sochi. That makes a huge difference in the size of the Canadian audience and the profit from the commercials. The networks could be in for a long wait to find out as the NHL is playing its own game. The NHL team owners want a share of the profits that their players produce and the IOC does not believe in sharing. This means three powerful monopolies are locking horns and seeing who blinks first. To complicate matters further, the team owners have to negotiate with the players later this year and the players will also want some of the profits from their participation.
Unless somebody breaks the chain by acting reasonably, there will either be no NHL players in the Sochi Olympics or no Olympic coverage except from an American television network or the CBC could be trying to do the whole thing on the cheap itself without government support. Nobody really wants any of those scenarios.
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Copyright 2012 © Peter Lowry
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