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Hamilton Spectator
7 hours ago
- Business
- Hamilton Spectator
As 2026 FIFA World Cup looms, CRTC dispute between OneSoccer and Rogers drags on
As the one-year countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup looms, a fight to open the door to a wider TV audience for Canadian soccer drags on. On one side is OneSoccer, the subscription streaming service that carries Canadian national team games as well as the Canadian Premier League and Canadian Championship. On the other is telecom giant Rogers Communications Canada Inc., which has refused to carry OneSoccer. In March 2023, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) ruled in favour of OneSoccer, saying that Rogers, by refusing to carry OneSoccer, 'has given an undue preference to itself and to other services comparable to OneSoccer, and has subjected OneSoccer to a disadvantage.' The CRTC directed the two parties to submit 'by no later than 11 April 2023, proposed remedies for resolving the finding of undue preference and disadvantage.' Two years later, nothing has changed other than the case's paper trail has grown exponentially. 'Delays such as these are devastating for new independent programming services, such as ours,' OneSoccer said in a February submission to the CRTC. 'OneSoccer is spending millions of dollars this year to produce our channel, and we have very little revenue coming in.' OneSoccer remains available as a streaming service and as one of the channels provided by Fubo, also a subscription service. Telus cable subscribers in the West can also access it. Scott Mitchell, owner of OneSoccer's parent company Timeless Inc., as well as chairman of both the Canadian Premier League and Canadian Soccer Business, is 'perplexed' at the delay, saying the ruling was 'very clear.' 'Clearly Rogers has being doing what they can to delay that … It's been with the CRTC for several years now and clearly it's taken far too long,' he said in an interview. 'We have a home World Cup on the horizon and we clearly have a growing soccer audience and ecosystem. And this issue should be dealt with quickly.' Rogers declined to make a spokesperson available, issuing a brief statement while referring a reporter to past company filings. 'We offer our customers a wide variety of popular and premium sports programming from multiple leading content providers,' the statement said. 'For those who want even more soccer content, they have the option to subscribe to OneSoccer as a stand-alone streaming service.' As a result, Sunday's high-profile CONCACAF Champions Cup final between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Mexican powerhouse Cruz Azul is available only to OneSoccer and Fubo subscribers in Canada. 'It's disappointing that not as many Canadians are going to be able to watch the match as there should be,' said Mitchell. 'Because clearly there is an audience for it.' Mitchell reports OneSoccer subscriptions are up 40 per cent this year. But a larger audience is out there. Rogers, in the wake of its merger with Shaw, controls about half the linear TV audience in Canada, Mitchell points out. Rogers says there are 'valid commercial reasons' for refusing to distribute OneSoccer, saying the channel has 'limited appeal to Canadian consumers.' OneSoccer's audience is small other than for Canadian national team games, it argues. Rogers also notes that other major cable providers — including Bell, Cogeco, Videotron, Eastlink, and Sasktel — do not currently carry OneSoccer's linear television channel. Rogers has offered to show some of OneSoccer's programming on Rogers On Demand and on the OneSoccer app on Ignite TV. The two have partnered in the past. In 2021, Rogers Sportsnet carried OneSoccer's broadcasts of Canadian men's World Cup qualifying games, agreeing to split advertising revenue with the proviso there be no OneSoccer branding on the programming. In its submissions, Rogers has also argued that Timeless was 'under the control of a non-Canadian entity' when it filed its CRTC complaint, referencing foreign-owned Mediapro. It argues 'Canadian ownership and control' is a 'foundational tenet of the Canadian broadcasting system.' Mediapro was OneSoccer's production partner until the two parted in a legal dispute, since resolved. OneSoccer argues that while Mediapro 'ran day-to-day operations and provided other services for OneSoccer, this was done on behalf of and under the direction of Timeless. 'At all times Timeless retained the authority to make strategic or organizational changes. Therefore, the service was always controlled by Timeless.' Canada's upcoming games at the Canadian Shield Tournament are being shown on TSN as well as OneSoccer. While Mitchell's group owns the rights, he said it was happy to work with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which organized the event. But such deals are rare. 'To this day, we've not been offered a single penny of investment for any of the media companies in Canada to carry any of the matches,' said Mitchell. Canada's games in March at the CONCACAF Nations League Finals were carried by both TSN and OneSoccer. Michell said OneSoccer, which produced the games itself, did not get a rights fee. 'Unfortunately we've been pushed into, at times, doing deals that are very economically harmful to us. But we do feel a responsibility, particularly on the national team games, to get the games distributed as far and as wide as we can. Unfortunately giving away the content for free is just not economically feasible in the long term.' 'We appreciate TSN's willing to work with us on it but those arrangements are economically not feasible in the least.' While companies like Rogers don't like being told what to do, OneSoccer consultant Laura Mellanby believes Rogers' resistance is down to the bottom line. Cable providers are primarily willing to launch their own channels and work with inexpensive options, she argues. In contrast, One Soccer is a live sports channel with an expensive production budget. Mellanby, who has worked for both Rogers and Bell, points to Willow, a cricket-themed channel carried by Rogers, that takes feeds from others rather than produce games themselves. 'Production is very expensive, especially sports production. And you can only simplify it so much. You can't do a single-camera coverage of a soccer game.' If Rogers were to carry OneSoccer, it would pay the service a monthly fee negotiated on the basis of the number of subscribers. Rogers would then mark their fees up, to recover its investment. 'Cost is always a problem,' said Mellanby. But she argues that the shared risk of carrying a sports channel with high production costs also comes with a shared reward — especially with a channel featuring a sport 'that is in a pivotal moment in its history in this country.' 'A good investment, if you ask me,' she said. Mellanby says OneSoccer has had 'really productive conversations' with Bell about distributing the channel. But she says the rest of the industry is waiting to see what happens with the CRTC case. 'Nobody wants to spend any money … This is not a charity, it's a business,' she said. 'There needs to be a revenue stream.' Canada Soccer, which clearly wants to expands its audience, is understandably watching with interest, although CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue declined comment citing the ongoing CRTC case. —- This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2025.
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Business
- Yahoo
As 2026 FIFA World Cup looms, CRTC dispute between OneSoccer and Rogers drags on
As the one-year countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup looms, a fight to open the door to a wider TV audience for Canadian soccer drags on. On one side is OneSoccer, the subscription streaming service that carries Canadian national team games as well as the Canadian Premier League and Canadian Championship. On the other is telecom giant Rogers Communications Canada Inc., which has refused to carry OneSoccer. In March 2023, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) ruled in favour of OneSoccer, saying that Rogers, by refusing to carry OneSoccer, "has given an undue preference to itself and to other services comparable to OneSoccer, and has subjected OneSoccer to a disadvantage." The CRTC directed the two parties to submit "by no later than 11 April 2023, proposed remedies for resolving the finding of undue preference and disadvantage." Two years later, nothing has changed other than the case's paper trail has grown exponentially. "Delays such as these are devastating for new independent programming services, such as ours," OneSoccer said in a February submission to the CRTC. "OneSoccer is spending millions of dollars this year to produce our channel, and we have very little revenue coming in." OneSoccer remains available as a streaming service and as one of the channels provided by Fubo, also a subscription service. Telus cable subscribers in the West can also access it. Scott Mitchell, owner of OneSoccer's parent company Timeless Inc., as well as chairman of both the Canadian Premier League and Canadian Soccer Business, is "perplexed" at the delay, saying the ruling was "very clear." "Clearly Rogers has being doing what they can to delay that … It's been with the CRTC for several years now and clearly it's taken far too long," he said in an interview. "We have a home World Cup on the horizon and we clearly have a growing soccer audience and ecosystem. And this issue should be dealt with quickly." Rogers declined to make a spokesperson available, issuing a brief statement while referring a reporter to past company filings. "We offer our customers a wide variety of popular and premium sports programming from multiple leading content providers," the statement said. "For those who want even more soccer content, they have the option to subscribe to OneSoccer as a stand-alone streaming service.' As a result, Sunday's high-profile CONCACAF Champions Cup final between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Mexican powerhouse Cruz Azul is available only to OneSoccer and Fubo subscribers in Canada. "It's disappointing that not as many Canadians are going to be able to watch the match as there should be," said Mitchell. "Because clearly there is an audience for it." Mitchell reports OneSoccer subscriptions are up 40 per cent this year. But a larger audience is out there. Rogers, in the wake of its merger with Shaw, controls about half the linear TV audience in Canada, Mitchell points out. Rogers says there are "valid commercial reasons" for refusing to distribute OneSoccer, saying the channel has "limited appeal to Canadian consumers." OneSoccer's audience is small other than for Canadian national team games, it argues. Rogers also notes that other major cable providers — including Bell, Cogeco, Videotron, Eastlink, and Sasktel — do not currently carry OneSoccer's linear television channel. Rogers has offered to show some of OneSoccer's programming on Rogers On Demand and on the OneSoccer app on Ignite TV. The two have partnered in the past. In 2021, Rogers Sportsnet carried OneSoccer's broadcasts of Canadian men's World Cup qualifying games, agreeing to split advertising revenue with the proviso there be no OneSoccer branding on the programming. In its submissions, Rogers has also argued that Timeless was "under the control of a non-Canadian entity" when it filed its CRTC complaint, referencing foreign-owned Mediapro. It argues "Canadian ownership and control" is a "foundational tenet of the Canadian broadcasting system." Mediapro was OneSoccer's production partner until the two parted in a legal dispute, since resolved. OneSoccer argues that while Mediapro "ran day-to-day operations and provided other services for OneSoccer, this was done on behalf of and under the direction of Timeless. "At all times Timeless retained the authority to make strategic or organizational changes. Therefore, the service was always controlled by Timeless." Canada's upcoming games at the Canadian Shield Tournament are being shown on TSN as well as OneSoccer. While Mitchell's group owns the rights, he said it was happy to work with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which organized the event. But such deals are rare. "To this day, we've not been offered a single penny of investment for any of the media companies in Canada to carry any of the matches," said Mitchell. Canada's games in March at the CONCACAF Nations League Finals were carried by both TSN and OneSoccer. Michell said OneSoccer, which produced the games itself, did not get a rights fee. "Unfortunately we've been pushed into, at times, doing deals that are very economically harmful to us. But we do feel a responsibility, particularly on the national team games, to get the games distributed as far and as wide as we can. Unfortunately giving away the content for free is just not economically feasible in the long term." "We appreciate TSN's willing to work with us on it but those arrangements are economically not feasible in the least." While companies like Rogers don't like being told what to do, OneSoccer consultant Laura Mellanby believes Rogers' resistance is down to the bottom line. Cable providers are primarily willing to launch their own channels and work with inexpensive options, she argues. In contrast, One Soccer is a live sports channel with an expensive production budget. Mellanby, who has worked for both Rogers and Bell, points to Willow, a cricket-themed channel carried by Rogers, that takes feeds from others rather than produce games themselves. "Production is very expensive, especially sports production. And you can only simplify it so much. You can't do a single-camera coverage of a soccer game." If Rogers were to carry OneSoccer, it would pay the service a monthly fee negotiated on the basis of the number of subscribers. Rogers would then mark their fees up, to recover its investment. "Cost is always a problem," said Mellanby. But she argues that the shared risk of carrying a sports channel with high production costs also comes with a shared reward — especially with a channel featuring a sport "that is in a pivotal moment in its history in this country." "A good investment, if you ask me," she said. Mellanby says OneSoccer has had "really productive conversations" with Bell about distributing the channel. But she says the rest of the industry is waiting to see what happens with the CRTC case. "Nobody wants to spend any money … This is not a charity, it's a business," she said. "There needs to be a revenue stream." Canada Soccer, which clearly wants to expands its audience, is understandably watching with interest, although CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue declined comment citing the ongoing CRTC case. --- This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2025. Neil Davidson, The Canadian Press
Winnipeg Free Press
7 hours ago
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
As 2026 FIFA World Cup looms, CRTC dispute between OneSoccer and Rogers drags on
As the one-year countdown to the 2026 FIFA World Cup looms, a fight to open the door to a wider TV audience for Canadian soccer drags on. On one side is OneSoccer, the subscription streaming service that carries Canadian national team games as well as the Canadian Premier League and Canadian Championship. On the other is telecom giant Rogers Communications Canada Inc., which has refused to carry OneSoccer. In March 2023, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunication Commission (CRTC) ruled in favour of OneSoccer, saying that Rogers, by refusing to carry OneSoccer, 'has given an undue preference to itself and to other services comparable to OneSoccer, and has subjected OneSoccer to a disadvantage.' The CRTC directed the two parties to submit 'by no later than 11 April 2023, proposed remedies for resolving the finding of undue preference and disadvantage.' Two years later, nothing has changed other than the case's paper trail has grown exponentially. 'Delays such as these are devastating for new independent programming services, such as ours,' OneSoccer said in a February submission to the CRTC. 'OneSoccer is spending millions of dollars this year to produce our channel, and we have very little revenue coming in.' OneSoccer remains available as a streaming service and as one of the channels provided by Fubo, also a subscription service. Telus cable subscribers in the West can also access it. Scott Mitchell, owner of OneSoccer's parent company Timeless Inc., as well as chairman of both the Canadian Premier League and Canadian Soccer Business, is 'perplexed' at the delay, saying the ruling was 'very clear.' 'Clearly Rogers has being doing what they can to delay that … It's been with the CRTC for several years now and clearly it's taken far too long,' he said in an interview. 'We have a home World Cup on the horizon and we clearly have a growing soccer audience and ecosystem. And this issue should be dealt with quickly.' Rogers declined to make a spokesperson available, issuing a brief statement while referring a reporter to past company filings. 'We offer our customers a wide variety of popular and premium sports programming from multiple leading content providers,' the statement said. 'For those who want even more soccer content, they have the option to subscribe to OneSoccer as a stand-alone streaming service.' As a result, Sunday's high-profile CONCACAF Champions Cup final between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Mexican powerhouse Cruz Azul is available only to OneSoccer and Fubo subscribers in Canada. 'It's disappointing that not as many Canadians are going to be able to watch the match as there should be,' said Mitchell. 'Because clearly there is an audience for it.' Mitchell reports OneSoccer subscriptions are up 40 per cent this year. But a larger audience is out there. Rogers, in the wake of its merger with Shaw, controls about half the linear TV audience in Canada, Mitchell points out. Rogers says there are 'valid commercial reasons' for refusing to distribute OneSoccer, saying the channel has 'limited appeal to Canadian consumers.' OneSoccer's audience is small other than for Canadian national team games, it argues. Rogers also notes that other major cable providers — including Bell, Cogeco, Videotron, Eastlink, and Sasktel — do not currently carry OneSoccer's linear television channel. Rogers has offered to show some of OneSoccer's programming on Rogers On Demand and on the OneSoccer app on Ignite TV. The two have partnered in the past. In 2021, Rogers Sportsnet carried OneSoccer's broadcasts of Canadian men's World Cup qualifying games, agreeing to split advertising revenue with the proviso there be no OneSoccer branding on the programming. In its submissions, Rogers has also argued that Timeless was 'under the control of a non-Canadian entity' when it filed its CRTC complaint, referencing foreign-owned Mediapro. It argues 'Canadian ownership and control' is a 'foundational tenet of the Canadian broadcasting system.' Mediapro was OneSoccer's production partner until the two parted in a legal dispute, since resolved. OneSoccer argues that while Mediapro 'ran day-to-day operations and provided other services for OneSoccer, this was done on behalf of and under the direction of Timeless. 'At all times Timeless retained the authority to make strategic or organizational changes. Therefore, the service was always controlled by Timeless.' Canada's upcoming games at the Canadian Shield Tournament are being shown on TSN as well as OneSoccer. While Mitchell's group owns the rights, he said it was happy to work with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment, which organized the event. But such deals are rare. 'To this day, we've not been offered a single penny of investment for any of the media companies in Canada to carry any of the matches,' said Mitchell. Canada's games in March at the CONCACAF Nations League Finals were carried by both TSN and OneSoccer. Michell said OneSoccer, which produced the games itself, did not get a rights fee. 'Unfortunately we've been pushed into, at times, doing deals that are very economically harmful to us. But we do feel a responsibility, particularly on the national team games, to get the games distributed as far and as wide as we can. Unfortunately giving away the content for free is just not economically feasible in the long term.' 'We appreciate TSN's willing to work with us on it but those arrangements are economically not feasible in the least.' While companies like Rogers don't like being told what to do, OneSoccer consultant Laura Mellanby believes Rogers' resistance is down to the bottom line. Cable providers are primarily willing to launch their own channels and work with inexpensive options, she argues. In contrast, One Soccer is a live sports channel with an expensive production budget. Mellanby, who has worked for both Rogers and Bell, points to Willow, a cricket-themed channel carried by Rogers, that takes feeds from others rather than produce games themselves. 'Production is very expensive, especially sports production. And you can only simplify it so much. You can't do a single-camera coverage of a soccer game.' If Rogers were to carry OneSoccer, it would pay the service a monthly fee negotiated on the basis of the number of subscribers. Rogers would then mark their fees up, to recover its investment. 'Cost is always a problem,' said Mellanby. But she argues that the shared risk of carrying a sports channel with high production costs also comes with a shared reward — especially with a channel featuring a sport 'that is in a pivotal moment in its history in this country.' 'A good investment, if you ask me,' she said. Weekly A weekly look at what's happening in Winnipeg's arts and entertainment scene. Mellanby says OneSoccer has had 'really productive conversations' with Bell about distributing the channel. But she says the rest of the industry is waiting to see what happens with the CRTC case. 'Nobody wants to spend any money … This is not a charity, it's a business,' she said. 'There needs to be a revenue stream.' Canada Soccer, which clearly wants to expands its audience, is understandably watching with interest, although CEO and general secretary Kevin Blue declined comment citing the ongoing CRTC case. — This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 31, 2025.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Nearly 1 in 3 Canadians grumbled about internet provider in 2024: CRTC
Almost one-third of Canadians complained about their internet service provider last year, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission research suggested. Grievances about costs were not included in that tally. 'Just under one in three, 31.5%, reported having had a complaint related to the service provider they were subscribed to in the last 12 months, excluding complaints about pricing,' researchers wrote, per Blacklock's Reporter. Complaints were 'most often related to home internet service (47%) followed by mobile phone service (29%) and television (22%).' 'In terms of the nature of the complaints, respondents most often said they related to either service delivery or billing disputes,' said the report, entitled Understanding Consumer Awareness and Satisfaction With the Commission For Complaints For Telecom Services. Findings were gathered from questionnaires with 1,295 telecom users across the country. The CRTC paid $112,943 for the study by Nanos Research, per Blacklock's. Of those who complained, nearly half, 48%, 'reported their service provider was able to resolve their complaint.' Even fewer contacted the little-known Commission for Complaints for Telecom Services though the federal agency has been mandated to investigate customer service issues since 2007. LILLEY UNLEASHED: The CRTC is stuck in the past, it needs to be abolished Vandalism possibly to blame for widespread service outages: Cogeco When asked 'Why did you not submit a complaint to the Commission?', 63% said they 'did not know about it.' Others replied they 'didn't see the point' (mentioned by 11%), 'couldn't be bothered' (6%) or 'weren't sure how' (6%). The report said that low public awareness of the commission was a serious issue. Fewer than 1% of telecom users said they would know to contact the agency. 'A crucial aspect of the Commission's effectiveness is public awareness, as this increases consumers' ability to seek recourse with the Commission and allows the Commission the opportunity to help Canadians where it can,' Consumer Awareness said. 'When asked unprompted where they would go to try and resolve a complaint related to one of their communications service providers a strong majority, 84%, said they would go to their service provider,' researchers wrote. Most Canadians surveyed, 79%, said they had never heard of the Commission. Customers who complained to their internet service provider typically found it an uneven experience, said the report. 'More than 9 in 10 respondents who contacted their service provider about a complaint and whose provider did not resolve their complaint, 97%, reported their service provider did not mention the Commission as an avenue to address their complaint,' it said.
CTV News
4 days ago
- General
- CTV News
Minister blasts Telus' ‘lack of information' during 911 outage, calls for CRTC to step in
Manitoba's Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz pictured in his constituency office in Winnipeg on May 16, 2025. (Danton Unger/CTV News Winnipeg) A provincial minister is calling for the CRTC to step in and take action after Telus refused to publicly release critical details surrounding a 911 outage during which a Manitoba man died. On Monday, Manitoba's Innovation and New Technology Minister Mike Moroz wrote a letter to the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) in response to the outage. 'Our government strongly believes that all Manitobans need to be able to access 911 services in their time of need,' Moroz wrote. His letter comes following the death of Dean Switzer, a 55-year-old man who suffered a heart attack at his home just outside Fisher Branch, Man. His family has said Dean's wife and friends made more than 20 desperate calls to 911, but none got through. Read more: Manitoba family unable to contact 911 during deadly heart attack Telus has since confirmed there was an outage lasting 38 hours and 15 minutes from March 22 to 24, which impacted some customers' ability to call 911. Two months later, Telus filed a three-page final report following its investigation into the outage. However, the company redacted critical details such as what caused the outage, how many people were impacted, and what was done to fix the problem. Click here to read more about the report: Telus has filed its final report on a 911 outage, but critical details are redacted Telus cited security concerns of Canada's 911 networks as the reason for the redaction, but Moroz said he's not satisfied. 'The lack of information in the interim report and in communications by Telus with my office does little to reassure Manitobans they can count on these telecommunications companies,' the minister wrote in his letter, noting Telus did not alert the province of the outage at any point. He has called on the CRTC to release the full unredacted report from Telus. He has also asked the federal regulatory body to direct all telecommunications providers in Manitoba to proactively alert the province and his department of any service disruptions or failures of 911 services. 'Matters of 911 service are of the utmost importance, and Manitobans need assurance from the CRTC that these networks will be available when they need them most,' Moroz wrote. CTV News has reached out to the CRTC for comment. Tories call for public inquiry Opposition Leader Obby Khan called for a public inquiry into the outage. 'The family and Manitobans deserve an answer as to why the emergency system wasn't working when they needed it most,' he said during Question Period on Monday. 'Work has to be done to ensure that this doesn't happen in the future.' In response, Deputy Premier Uzoma Asagwara, Manitoba's health minister, called the situation an unacceptable tragedy. 'We're going to work with partners who were involved to deliver the service to make sure that Manitobans don't see that happen again,' they said.
