Cable companies file complaint over Sportsnet’s surcharge for NHL games

Three cable companies complained to the federal TV regulator on Tuesday that Sportsnet shouldn’t be allowed to charge customers an extra $13 per month to get NHL games on Monday nights.

Eastlink, Cogeco and SaskTel filed a complaint with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission alleging that Rogers Communications Inc. acted anti-competitively by introducing the surcharge this season.

Fans who subscribe directly to the Sportsnet+ streaming service get access to nationally broadcast NHL games on Monday nights, while customers who receive the Sportsnet TV channel through a traditional provider, such as a cable or IPTV service, are served alternate programming, such as NBA games or highlight shows.

Sportsnet says it is in talks with some of those cable or IPTV providers – known as broadcast distribution undertakings, or BDUs – to offer their customers the NHL games as part of their service. So far, Rogers Communications’ Xfinity, a corporate cousin of Sportsnet, is the only service to strike such a deal. It has created three new digital channels to carry the NHL programming.

In their filing, the three cable companies said that, if the commission doesn’t step in “with swift and decisive regulatory intervention,” the “predatory siphoning of must-have live sports content … will inflict immediate and irreversible structural damage on the Canadian broadcasting ecosystem.”

“What begins today as a handful of regular-season NHL games and playoff rounds will inevitably escalate to the Stanley Cup finals and the season finale of hit TV shows, creating an unchecked slippery slope that starves independent BDUs of vital content and dismantles the integrity of Canada’s entire broadcasting system.”

The complaint cites reporting by The Globe and Mail that the hasty introduction of the surcharge, which was unveiled shortly before the new NHL season this fall, caused confusion among consumers and led some fans who already receive Sportsnet through their cable provider to also subscribe directly to the Sportsnet+ streaming service, which retails for $35 to $45 per month.

Sportsnet did not immediately return a request for comment.