from Bruce Dowbiggin of Troy Media,

Audacious.

That’s perhaps the best word to describe Rogers Communications’ attempt to supplant CBC and TSN as the go-to network for the National Hockey League in Canada in 2013.

It committed $5.2 billion over 12 years to buy national rights to Hockey Night in Canada and the rest of the TV and digital product on offer from the league.

Disastrous.

That’s probably the best word to describe the outcome of the gamble. With the announcements the past few weeks that a significant slice of the on-air talent was being let go (apparently for economic reasons), it’s now clear that Rogers’ plans – shepherded by then-Rogers Media president Keith Pelley and his second in command Scott Moore – are an embarrassing failure.

The predicted uptick in digital revenues that would supplant money lost by declining TV advertising never materialized. With a $25-million bump in each year of the deal, finding new money in the market has become unsupportable.

The contributions of controversial Chinese communications company Huawei through advertising delayed the impact but now even that’s not enough....

While the news that Nick Kypreos, Doug MacLean and John Shannon were joining Bob Cole, Bob McCown, Daren Millard, Damian Cox, Gord Cutler and others as ex-employees came as a shock to many, the culling was determined a year ago in a meeting little reported at the time.

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