TSN2 deal is done

Well, Rogers Cable finally came to an agreement [Fadoo.ca] to carry TSN2 shortly before Jaypocalypse Now would have occured next week when the Jays faced the Red Sox in games only available on TSN2 [Neate Sager, Out of Left Field]. No specifics have been released yet, but it's a good bet that Rogers caved in the end; TSN had all the leverage in this one thanks to their agreements with every other cable/satellite provider (which demonstrated that their terms can't have been all that unreasonable). Someone at Rogers' baseball division ultimately sold the cable side for 30 pieces of silver with the decision to put Jays-Red Sox on TSN2, as the great Chris Zelkovich of the Toronto Star noted earlier this week on his blog:

"A deal has to be coming because, if it isn't, Rogers call-centre employees will have to show up for work that day with bulletproof vests and industrial-strength earplugs as they try to explain to angry Jays fans that they can watch the game only by switching to Bell TV or Star Choice."

Exactly. You can't have a company-owned asset only visible on a channel the company refuses to carry for what seem like highly spurious reasons (namely, not wanting more competition to hurt the ailing Rogers Sportsnet). TSN2 has proven to be a legitimate channel and carries a lot of good stuff, so this should have happened much earlier, but the Jays-Sox deal was the final straw that eliminated the cable division's remaining leverage. It's a shame for Rogers subscribers that it took the company so long to come to their senses, as they've already missed a lot of good stuff (notably Raptors games and NBA playoff games), but better late than never. In the end, this will allow Canadians to watch more sports if they want to shell out the extra cash for TSN2, and that's a good thing in my mind. However, it's still disappointing that Rogers felt they could walk all over their subscribers in a misguided battle to try and make Sportsnet more relevant. It's unfortunate that it took so long to work out a deal, but at last it's finished.