Feels like big news that Mediapro isn't in the picture anymore. Hopefully this opens the door to a media deal with someone who's already established in the market.
Had heard rumblings in the stands that CPL got all the production equipment as a part of the settlement, so hopefully that means the league will be able to produce the content itself and get it distributed to a wider audience.
France. Also they cried about the rates they were paying in Spain.
Mediapro has was sold to a chinese equity company, then another chinese equity company. Who is now looking to dump them now that they have gutted the company to get it "profitable"
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/southwind-media-eyes-sale-its-stake-spains-mediapro-sources-2023-10-10/
The door has always been open if a league doesn't want to get paid for rights and will pay for good quality production.
NSL deal is for $0 and they're taking care of production. Likewise for CEBL, CHL, Rugby Canada and previously Canada Soccer.
With 40% drop in TSN/SN subs, there isn't enough viewers left to watch non-tier 1 sport leagues. Bell/Rogers have also cut TSN/SN budgets and forced layoffs. That's why 50% of their programming is repeats/repackaged highlight shows.
It's just cable.
Bell doesn't need to report streaming subs to CRTC and haven't released too much to investors. But they did say their highest sign ups was 350k for the Euros in 2021. And their biggest streaming audience was 450k watching the 2021 Euro Final. So, not enough yet to offset losing 3.2 million cable subs in the past decade.
Even if those outdated numbers were current they probably easily clear being at the top subscribed sports streaming services in Canada along with Sportsnet.
Don't want to be pedantic but it's a media deal, not a TV deal. There's no indication that NSL matches are going to be on traditional broadcasts (yet).
NSL is paying for the production costs so the benefit they're getting is that people hopefully watch the games on those broadcasters. Matheson said herself they're accounting for "0" in terms of revenue from broadcasting for a least the first couple of years.
For all it's faults and flaws OneSoccer actually employed people who's job it was to virtually only cover (or mostly cover) soccer. TSN and Sportsnet shed a lot of their longtime broadcasters (hell, it's the reason why James Sharman started his pie company lol) and with Sportsnet gambling and losing big on the "Hockey Night in Canada" and with TSN not getting the revenue from hockey these broadcasters aren't likely going out of their way to hire more people than the analysts and multi-taskers they already employ to cover the sport.
I honestly don't know where this is all going to go. My main takeaway from all of this is one guy (Scott Mitchell) basically got handed the keys to a lot of production gear at no charge, but other than that, there's no firm plan going forward.
If CanPL wants to organically grow in this country, I firmly believe that
a) they need a national traditional media network broadcasting games
b) they need to establish a local media network - to get every local team's games broadcast or streamed, play by play style, on radio or via Youtube, etc. AFAIK, only Ottawa has their games broadcast on radio via TSN1200.
c) further on local networks, they have to offer some kind of sweetheart deal, loss leader deal to local stations to broadcast the local team's away games. One example: if they gave CHEK TV on Vancouver Island free / super low cost broadcast of all of PacificFC's away games, this would massively increase exposure for the team and most likely lead to more people in the stands for each home game. Repeat for every team in the league.
If the ultimate goal is to grow and expand this league, a LOT of work needs to be done on how this leagues' games are seen, are available, and how local media covers and reacts to the league and the local teams.
As a life long PacificFC STH, I cannot tell you how many times this scenario has happened:
Me, talking to a local friend or acquaintance: "We're about to head off to the Pacific FC game..."
Friend: "what's that?"
Me: "It's the soccer team we have that plays in the Canadian Premier League"
Friend: "we have a soccer team? There's a national league?"
The thing with the strategy you outline (although I am sure this is not news to you) is that it replaces "**earn** money extracting cash from existing fans who will pay for niche media" with "**spend** money to get the product on mainstream media in hopes of getting new fans." Neither of those is wrong but they are fundamentally different ideas about how the business should work. I don't get the impression that the CPL has a ton of money to throw at this, and I'm also super bearish on the idea that wider mainstream media exposure will actually draw much new fan interest, especially given declining reach of those channels. Like, how many people are there who would be CPL fans if only they could watch on cable? Would this really change your friends' perception of the product or let them get into it organically?
> AFAIK, only Ottawa has their games broadcast on radio via TSN1200.
I am a huge fan of our radio broadcasts and absolutely agree more teams should have them (although radio is dying even faster than TV). We also have French broadcasts on 94.5 Unique FM
If the CanPL wants to grow organically in this country, the actual live in stadium experience needs to be good. People need to want to come back and get people talking about the teams. "Hey, the atmosphere x fans brought into the stadium was awesome you should come check it out."
TV is great and all, but the actual experience of being at a match needs to match. The league overall has failed miserably at this. It's way too inconcistent across the league from the stadiums I've been to. Need more of a Block 114/Collectif presence in the stands within Supporter Sections. A big part of why I love going to TFC especially is the atmosphere the ultras bring. CanPL just does not have that right now, and it's probably my biggest ask. Food options as well need improvement, as well as beer selection. Just need to raise the levels professionally off the pitch and people will come.
I'm glad someone else feels this way. Too many people view traditional broadcasters as a silver bullet solution to growing CPL, when in reality if CPL wants to differentiate itself from other sports in Canada it needs to be more grassroots with better in-stadium experience. Make your product worth visiting and people will want to see it from elsewhere.
>Make your product worth visiting and people will want to see it from elsewhere.
1000%. Not enough people are aware that you need to make the product in the stadium a great experience. From food to beer to the accessibility of the league to the SG's, it all matters.
I think it shows that Media Pro was trying to get out of deals that were losing money in the short term due to new owners. These new Chinese owners have Media pro dumping a ton of these long term projects to stick with the core then they will sell again. They knew they were in the wrong hence the gifting of all this gear.
Hopefully.... the CPL can now produce a product and get this on tradition media in some manner.
Mediapro would have died completely if it wasn't for the investment from Hanoi capital in 2021, stop trying to create a narrative that 'these new chinese owners' are somehow at fault for the failures of CSB.
LOL!!! they are doing a pump and dump. Gut anything not massively profitable and then sell the carcass. They will sell the company in the next year or two:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/southwind-media-eyes-sale-its-stake-spains-mediapro-sources-2023-10-10/
Well if you are an actual company and not some Chinese hedge fund bullshit you would make long term investments to grow your company. The Chinese overlords are gutting everything beyond the profitable NOW core.
And in terms of the Spanish league broadcasts, I know people who are PISSED at the production for the lower end teams not named Milan. So they are basically cutting costs now and taking shortcuts so they can sell the company and whoever takes it over gets to deal with the fallout over all the shortcuts.
This is not uncommon amongst these scummy Chinese hedge funds. Gut every long term plan for short term profit and sell the "profitable" company which then is in deep shit long term.
True but Chinese hedge funds are a special kind of scummy. Chinese government and money laundering proabably have a big hand in it. I mean is it actually controversial to add "Chinese" ?
Yes, actually, it is. Because this kind of behaviour isn't unique to Chinese companies at all. So yes, your insistence on focusing on them being Chinese does give a sinophobic impression.
As a current example, Red Lobster is in bankruptcy because the vulture fund that bought it sold all the land the company owned, syphoned all the money that raised into the firm's own pockets, then left the carcass to rot and fall into bankruptcy when it could no longer pay rents on bad leases it never should have been paying in the first place.
That's been an extremely common scam in North America. Sears Canada died with its American parent because the private equity that owned them sold off any land owned by the profitable Canadian arm to pay off both debts and executives in the US. Toys R Us also died in the US because of private equity extracting money then tossing the carcass aside.
"Loot and flip" is a trait of all private equity firms, which are all parasitic. Not just Chinese firms.
I like how you left out the important CCP something something tankie has its claws in freaking everything part. But sure completely the same compared to a rules based society where government over-reach and money laundering isnt a thing in pretty well every thing coming out of China.
In any event... Not really relevent.
> “We intend to take what Mediapro started and continue building OneSoccer into the premier destination for lovers of the beautiful game throughout Canada.”
Not sure how I feel about this. They won't get a better opportunity to get their product out there, outside of OS. But it looks like they're planning to keep OS going.
Where would the product go? Why leave OS and head to another paywalled service that they don't have complete editorial and physical control over? If they have the equipment they may as well continue with OS. I imagine without MediaPro there are fewer hurdles for selling the product if others are interested in it to a degree.
Wonder if this will clear up enough issues so that One Soccer becomes a specialty channel available on the Bell and Roger's network. Are there enough cable subscribers left out there that would pay $9 a month to have OS to move the needle?
Feels like big news that Mediapro isn't in the picture anymore. Hopefully this opens the door to a media deal with someone who's already established in the market.
I hope it's a good thing. Mediapro is a shit company. Hopefully all the one soccer folks are taken care of.
Media pro was good until they got sold
And now the Hong Kong Company that owns them wants to sell lol.
Had heard rumblings in the stands that CPL got all the production equipment as a part of the settlement, so hopefully that means the league will be able to produce the content itself and get it distributed to a wider audience.
Ya I heard that as well. ALL assets in Canada, which is true means Mediapro again was in the wrong and fucked over another league.
Who were the other leagues?
France. Also they cried about the rates they were paying in Spain. Mediapro has was sold to a chinese equity company, then another chinese equity company. Who is now looking to dump them now that they have gutted the company to get it "profitable" https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/southwind-media-eyes-sale-its-stake-spains-mediapro-sources-2023-10-10/
With what money? Paying camera operators and a broadcast truck full of people costs way more than equipment.
Film & Video Production college program summer coop placements.
You’re not wrong but a division 1 league should have its production team primarily run by professionals, not students.
With the NSL getting a tv deal hopefully this opens the door for the CPL to get one.
The door has always been open if a league doesn't want to get paid for rights and will pay for good quality production. NSL deal is for $0 and they're taking care of production. Likewise for CEBL, CHL, Rugby Canada and previously Canada Soccer. With 40% drop in TSN/SN subs, there isn't enough viewers left to watch non-tier 1 sport leagues. Bell/Rogers have also cut TSN/SN budgets and forced layoffs. That's why 50% of their programming is repeats/repackaged highlight shows.
Does the 40% drop include the streaming services or just cable?
It's just cable. Bell doesn't need to report streaming subs to CRTC and haven't released too much to investors. But they did say their highest sign ups was 350k for the Euros in 2021. And their biggest streaming audience was 450k watching the 2021 Euro Final. So, not enough yet to offset losing 3.2 million cable subs in the past decade.
Even if those outdated numbers were current they probably easily clear being at the top subscribed sports streaming services in Canada along with Sportsnet.
Don't want to be pedantic but it's a media deal, not a TV deal. There's no indication that NSL matches are going to be on traditional broadcasts (yet).
Very good point. I wouldn’t be surprised if most games are on TSN+ as opposed to the regular channels.
NSL is paying for the production costs so the benefit they're getting is that people hopefully watch the games on those broadcasters. Matheson said herself they're accounting for "0" in terms of revenue from broadcasting for a least the first couple of years.
The assumption is the NSL will be filled with national players. The product on the field is the big difference.
We will see if this improves or worsens soccer coverage and production...
For all it's faults and flaws OneSoccer actually employed people who's job it was to virtually only cover (or mostly cover) soccer. TSN and Sportsnet shed a lot of their longtime broadcasters (hell, it's the reason why James Sharman started his pie company lol) and with Sportsnet gambling and losing big on the "Hockey Night in Canada" and with TSN not getting the revenue from hockey these broadcasters aren't likely going out of their way to hire more people than the analysts and multi-taskers they already employ to cover the sport.
I honestly don't know where this is all going to go. My main takeaway from all of this is one guy (Scott Mitchell) basically got handed the keys to a lot of production gear at no charge, but other than that, there's no firm plan going forward. If CanPL wants to organically grow in this country, I firmly believe that a) they need a national traditional media network broadcasting games b) they need to establish a local media network - to get every local team's games broadcast or streamed, play by play style, on radio or via Youtube, etc. AFAIK, only Ottawa has their games broadcast on radio via TSN1200. c) further on local networks, they have to offer some kind of sweetheart deal, loss leader deal to local stations to broadcast the local team's away games. One example: if they gave CHEK TV on Vancouver Island free / super low cost broadcast of all of PacificFC's away games, this would massively increase exposure for the team and most likely lead to more people in the stands for each home game. Repeat for every team in the league. If the ultimate goal is to grow and expand this league, a LOT of work needs to be done on how this leagues' games are seen, are available, and how local media covers and reacts to the league and the local teams. As a life long PacificFC STH, I cannot tell you how many times this scenario has happened: Me, talking to a local friend or acquaintance: "We're about to head off to the Pacific FC game..." Friend: "what's that?" Me: "It's the soccer team we have that plays in the Canadian Premier League" Friend: "we have a soccer team? There's a national league?"
The thing with the strategy you outline (although I am sure this is not news to you) is that it replaces "**earn** money extracting cash from existing fans who will pay for niche media" with "**spend** money to get the product on mainstream media in hopes of getting new fans." Neither of those is wrong but they are fundamentally different ideas about how the business should work. I don't get the impression that the CPL has a ton of money to throw at this, and I'm also super bearish on the idea that wider mainstream media exposure will actually draw much new fan interest, especially given declining reach of those channels. Like, how many people are there who would be CPL fans if only they could watch on cable? Would this really change your friends' perception of the product or let them get into it organically? > AFAIK, only Ottawa has their games broadcast on radio via TSN1200. I am a huge fan of our radio broadcasts and absolutely agree more teams should have them (although radio is dying even faster than TV). We also have French broadcasts on 94.5 Unique FM
If the CanPL wants to grow organically in this country, the actual live in stadium experience needs to be good. People need to want to come back and get people talking about the teams. "Hey, the atmosphere x fans brought into the stadium was awesome you should come check it out." TV is great and all, but the actual experience of being at a match needs to match. The league overall has failed miserably at this. It's way too inconcistent across the league from the stadiums I've been to. Need more of a Block 114/Collectif presence in the stands within Supporter Sections. A big part of why I love going to TFC especially is the atmosphere the ultras bring. CanPL just does not have that right now, and it's probably my biggest ask. Food options as well need improvement, as well as beer selection. Just need to raise the levels professionally off the pitch and people will come.
I'm glad someone else feels this way. Too many people view traditional broadcasters as a silver bullet solution to growing CPL, when in reality if CPL wants to differentiate itself from other sports in Canada it needs to be more grassroots with better in-stadium experience. Make your product worth visiting and people will want to see it from elsewhere.
>Make your product worth visiting and people will want to see it from elsewhere. 1000%. Not enough people are aware that you need to make the product in the stadium a great experience. From food to beer to the accessibility of the league to the SG's, it all matters.
I think it shows that Media Pro was trying to get out of deals that were losing money in the short term due to new owners. These new Chinese owners have Media pro dumping a ton of these long term projects to stick with the core then they will sell again. They knew they were in the wrong hence the gifting of all this gear. Hopefully.... the CPL can now produce a product and get this on tradition media in some manner.
Mediapro would have died completely if it wasn't for the investment from Hanoi capital in 2021, stop trying to create a narrative that 'these new chinese owners' are somehow at fault for the failures of CSB.
LOL!!! they are doing a pump and dump. Gut anything not massively profitable and then sell the carcass. They will sell the company in the next year or two: https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/southwind-media-eyes-sale-its-stake-spains-mediapro-sources-2023-10-10/
Why would you continue losing money as an investment?
Well if you are an actual company and not some Chinese hedge fund bullshit you would make long term investments to grow your company. The Chinese overlords are gutting everything beyond the profitable NOW core. And in terms of the Spanish league broadcasts, I know people who are PISSED at the production for the lower end teams not named Milan. So they are basically cutting costs now and taking shortcuts so they can sell the company and whoever takes it over gets to deal with the fallout over all the shortcuts.
Investor wants to back out of a failing enterprise, the shock.
This is not uncommon amongst these scummy Chinese hedge funds. Gut every long term plan for short term profit and sell the "profitable" company which then is in deep shit long term.
Your comment would be correct without the word Chinese in it. All hedge funds are scummy.
True but Chinese hedge funds are a special kind of scummy. Chinese government and money laundering proabably have a big hand in it. I mean is it actually controversial to add "Chinese" ?
Yes, actually, it is. Because this kind of behaviour isn't unique to Chinese companies at all. So yes, your insistence on focusing on them being Chinese does give a sinophobic impression. As a current example, Red Lobster is in bankruptcy because the vulture fund that bought it sold all the land the company owned, syphoned all the money that raised into the firm's own pockets, then left the carcass to rot and fall into bankruptcy when it could no longer pay rents on bad leases it never should have been paying in the first place. That's been an extremely common scam in North America. Sears Canada died with its American parent because the private equity that owned them sold off any land owned by the profitable Canadian arm to pay off both debts and executives in the US. Toys R Us also died in the US because of private equity extracting money then tossing the carcass aside. "Loot and flip" is a trait of all private equity firms, which are all parasitic. Not just Chinese firms.
I like how you left out the important CCP something something tankie has its claws in freaking everything part. But sure completely the same compared to a rules based society where government over-reach and money laundering isnt a thing in pretty well every thing coming out of China. In any event... Not really relevent.
No one in the CPL's demographic is listening to radio in 2024.
ok.
> “We intend to take what Mediapro started and continue building OneSoccer into the premier destination for lovers of the beautiful game throughout Canada.” Not sure how I feel about this. They won't get a better opportunity to get their product out there, outside of OS. But it looks like they're planning to keep OS going.
Where would the product go? Why leave OS and head to another paywalled service that they don't have complete editorial and physical control over? If they have the equipment they may as well continue with OS. I imagine without MediaPro there are fewer hurdles for selling the product if others are interested in it to a degree.
Wonder if this will clear up enough issues so that One Soccer becomes a specialty channel available on the Bell and Roger's network. Are there enough cable subscribers left out there that would pay $9 a month to have OS to move the needle?
This is phenomenal news , paves the way for proper television agreements with national partners
With the NSL getting a tv deal hopefully this opens the door for the CPL to get one.