Your “WOO! – Hockey’s Back!” Wednesday Evening Open Thread

Excuse me while I play the Canadian national anthem.

NFL News:

• Dez Bryant has come to the realization that no one loves him, so he might as well go home.

I’ll rather it be the Dallas Cowboys if not I’ll be ready to play somewhere else https://t.co/IRUmDXMZa7

— Dez Bryant (@DezBryant) October 2, 2018

• Leonard Fournette will not play for the Jags against the Chiefs.
  • His hamstring is still tenuous.

• The League office finally got around to suspending Mychal Kendricks for his insider trading conviction.
  • He was given the rarely-used “indefinite” term, which means he’s done for the year, and likely forever after he’s sentenced in January.
    • He’s facing 30-37 months in prison.
  • At least the Seahawks got three games out of him.

• Oof – LeSean McCoy is accused of physical abuse of his (ex-)girlfriend starting in the 2017 season.
  • “McCoy is extremely strong and was heavy-handed,” the lawsuit claims. “He would often grab Plaintiff in a manner that was painful and would leave Plaintiff’s skin reddened. McCoy did not care who was around when he would become enraged. McCoy once physically kicked Plaintiff out of the bed.”
  • This is in conjunction with previous allegations of physical abuse towards his son and his mother’s dog.

• TV ratings are up over the first four weeks versus last year.
  • It’s only 2%, but it has as much to do with the quality of the football (read: offence) as with the lack of outside pressures (kneeling; President Bone Spurs).

Now,

during the offseason I had a half-brained idea to do a comparison on the complaints received by the FCC (in the US) and the CRTC (in Canada) about the Super Bowl broadcast. This was because people LOVE to complain, and the more trivial the issue the better. (See: the internet) That fell by the wayside for a couple of reasons:

1. In the US, you can only contact the FCC via snail mail, and you apparently have to have an USA address for a response.
2. In Canada, the CRTC only received 14 complaints – none about the game broadcast; most about the “signal substitution” during the pre-game show.

Now signal substitution, also known as “SimSub”, is the process by which a Canadian broadcast rights holder can substitute their broadcast feed over the American cable signal so as to claim advertising rights & revenue. Since there are only three national private media broadcasters in Canadian television, and they account for 75% of channel ownership, it is in their best interests to maintain this monopoly. I have written about this issue a couple of times before, mostly to express outrage.

Well, for two glorious years (2017-18), the US signal wasn’t blocked, due to a CRTC ruling that prohibited the practice for the live games.

They had received enough complaints about the shoddy SimSub work that they ended the practice. Consumers were happy, but the NFL and the networks were not. The NFL saw the value of its Canadian broadcast rights greatly reduced, and the Canadian network CTV saw a deep plunge in their first-quarter ad revenue. Still, score one for the consumer, right?

So imagine my outrage when I come across at Deadspin a story about how Roger Goodell & the NFL got Donald Trump to include a codicil in the new Free Trade Agreement about prohibiting the continuation of this practice. According to BNN Bloomberg, Annex 15-D of the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) reads:

“Canada shall rescind Broadcasting Regulatory Policy CRTC 2016-334 and Broadcasting Order CRTC 2016-335. With respect to simultaneous substitution of commercials during the retransmission in Canada of the program referenced in those measures, Canada may not accord the program treatment less favorable than the treatment accorded to other programs originating in the United States retransmitted in Canada.”

This Agreement not only deletes the CRTC ruling from 2015, it practically cements in place all SimSub practices in use by Canadian networks. The only recourse would be to propose eliminating the entire SimSub category from the CRTC code, which would be nigh-impossible, since that political party would be portrayed as weakening Canadian culture. Trudeau’s got it hard enough right now, he doesn’t need more sniping from the left-wing (NDP) or right-wing (Tories).

That’s not to say the Ginger Hammer isn’t happy. To quote Roger Goodell:

“We greatly appreciate President Trump’s leadership and determination in bringing about a resolution to our intellectual property issue in Canada,” Goodell said in a written statement released by the NFL.

Starting in 2019, the Canadian networks will get their SimSub rights back to the Super Bowl, and Canadians will be ‘treated’ to approximately 300 Canadian Tire ads. Bart Scott?

Tonight’s sports:

• NHL:
  • Habs at Leafs – 7:00PM | Sportsnet
  • Bruins at Capitals – 7:30PM | NBCSN
  • Flames at Canucks – 10:00PM | Sportsnet
  • Ducks at Sharks – 10:30PM | NBCSN

• MLB:
  • Athletics at Yankees – 8:00PM | TBS / Sportsnet1

HAIL GAMBLOR – HOCKEY IS BACK!