It may soon get harder to watch sports at local bars
Posted March 22, 2017 11:37 am.
Last Updated March 22, 2017 11:57 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
VANCOUVER (NEWS 1130) – There many soon be fewer local restaurants showing the hockey, football or baseball game.
When it comes to commercial establishments, Bell and Rogers are hiking the rates for all of their sports channels on top of the existing bill.
Exactly how much isn’t known yet but even $100 extra a month would be a lot to stomach for restaurants that only casually rely on showing sports.
“They are saying that an establishment that has less than 100 seats is going to pay an additional $120 per month. That’s a lot of cash for a small restaurant,” says Ian Tostenson, from the BC Restaurant and Food Services Association. “If you and I have a 100-seat restaurant, and only 10 per cent of our patrons want to watch a sports event every once in a while, we are going to pay for 100 seats. So we’re not happy at all about this.”
He expects sports bars to stomach the extra cost for Sportsnet and TSN, which kicks in on May 1st.
“How many people go to White Spot to watch a sporting event? They have the TVs on but you’ve got a lot of families in there. I think it’s going to be just common sense from a business point of view, I think a lot of restaurants are just going to drop it.”
He believes the move will get many businesses thinking about other options.
“Their point of view is how many people are actually watching it? Are they just staring at a screen? Is it worth that extra money? We’ll put it on another channel.”
Bell and Rogers own the majority of the country’s sports channels.
Rogers is the parent company of NEWS 1130.
