Geoff Molson, Kent Hughes and Martin St-Louis had promised that the Montreal Canadiens would be in the mix this season.
Where are they on Tuesday, November 12, just one month after the start of the season? In the cellar of the Eastern Association rankings, very far from this famous “mix”, this another discovery from Martin St-Louis, who has as much difficulty with words as with his players. Not counting yesterday afternoon’s game in Buffalo, the Canadiens are in last place of the 32 teams in the National League with the most goals scored against them (62) and only 39 goals scored, a record that places them in 29the league rank.
It is a monumental bankruptcy for the team’s management, a catastrophe for hundreds of thousands of hockey fans — including me — and a calamity for RDS and TVA Sports. Our sports channels would have greatly needed a competitive team in these lean years where they are increasingly struggling to counter competition from foreign platforms.
CONSIDERABLE LOSSES
During the last year of broadcasting (from September 1 to August 31, 2023), the three RDS channels lost $22 million and 112,000 subscribers. Not so long ago, RDS was the most profitable French-language TV channel in Quebec with profits that exceeded the sum of current losses. Faced with such a catastrophic situation, it is even possible that Bell Media will close RDS Info, whose revenues have melted like snow in the sun.
As for TVA Sports, which has never made a profit since its creation in 2012, it lost 115,000 subscribers and $18 million last year. In the hope of compensating for the losses incurred with hockey, advertising invades all available space on the screen during the presentation of matches. The ad takes up almost as much airtime as the game itself!
WHAT A PITCHOUS PERFORMANCE!
Despite this, nothing can compensate for the loss of income caused by the Canadian’s miserable performance over the last three years. As soon as the team is virtually eliminated, which won’t be long at the rate the losses pile up, audiences will begin to decline and television’s financial losses will begin to pile up.
In 2001, to the great dismay of fans who had no confidence in the American George Gillett, he bought the Canadian and the Bell Center. In 2009, hope returned with the purchase of the club by the Molson family. Alas! since his unexpected journey to the Stanley Cup final in 2021, the Canadian goes from defeat to bad decision.
The disastrous season that is beginning could well pave the way for Amazon Prime. The American platform seems destined to become the next hockey broadcaster. Our national sport will then no longer have much that is Canadian or Quebecois.
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