Wray Morrison: Rogers that

Wednesday’s news from the sports broadcasting world points to why NHL owners like commissioner Gary Bettman.

Lance Hornby of the Toronto Sun referred to the news as “big name summer cuts”. That was his take following the news that Nick Kypreos and Rogers Sportsnet have agreed to part ways. Many big name sports media people are no longer with Rogers including Bob McCown, Doug MacLean and John Shannon.

In 2013 Rogers signed a 13 year deal with the NHL, which sees the media wing pay the league over $400 million annually. It’s a lucrative contract for the NHL to say the least. CBC used to pay about $100 million on Saturday nights. Yes, Rogers has four times as much hockey, but I wouldn’t be shocked to learn that the network can’t bring in four times the revenue with this contract.  So now if Rogers can’t make this deal profitable, they have to do their best to minimize their losses with decisions like the ones that have been made with staff this summer, while the NHL continues to cash the cheques.