Sportsnet 360

Last updated

Sportsnet 360
Sportsnet 360 logo
Country Canada
Broadcast areaNational
Headquarters Toronto, Ontario
Programming
Language(s) English
Picture format 480i (SDTV)
1080i (HDTV)
Ownership
Owner Rogers Sports & Media (Sportsnet 360 Television Inc. [1] )
Sister channels Sportsnet
Sportsnet One
Sportsnet World
WWE Network
History
Launched1994 (as licence-exempt service)
May 1997
(as licensed channel)
Former namesSportscope (1994–1997)
Headline Sports (1997–2000)
The Score Television Network (2000–2013)
Links
Website Sportsnet 360

Sportsnet 360 (SN360) is a Canadian discretionary specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. The channel primarily broadcasts automated blocks of sports news and highlights, along with live sports coverage as an overflow channel for Sportsnet's national programming.

Contents

The channel was launched in 1994 as the licence-exempt service Sportscope, which featured a display of sports news and scores. In 1997, the network was re-launched under Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) licensing as Headline Sports, adding anchored segments to its rolling sports news programming. In 2000, the network gained the ability to air occasional broadcasts of live sporting events, and was re-launched as The Score. In 2012, the network's parent company Score Media announced that it would sell the network to Rogers Communications, which owns the competing Sportsnet family of sports television networks; in 2013, the network was re-branded as Sportsnet 360.

Sportsnet 360 is also Rogers' main linear channel for combat sports programming, as Canadian broadcaster of WWE's flagship professional wrestling programs ( WWE Raw, SmackDown, and NXT) from the late 2000s to 2024; as well as TNA ( Impact! ) starting from 2025, and UFC mixed martial arts events in 2013–14 and again since 2024.

As of 2014, Sportsnet 360 is available in 5.8 million Canadian homes. [2]

History

Sportscope, Headline Sports

Logo as Headline Sports (1997-2000) Headlinesports cdn.jpg
Logo as Headline Sports (1997-2000)

The channel has its origins in Sportscope, a sports news service for cable television providers launched in 1994. Its programming consisted solely of an alphanumeric text rotation of sports scores, news, and sports betting information. As it did not include any video content, it did not require a license from the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to operate. [3]

On September 4, 1996, Sportscope was granted a licence from the CRTC for "Sportscope Plus", an expansion of the service into a specialty channel capable of carrying video programming. The channel planned to carry anchored blocks of sports news and highlights, accompanied by a ticker with updated sports scores and headlines. Sportscope disclosed plans for localized tickers and additional streams of alphanumeric data. [3] The expanded service launched in May 1997 as Headline Sports. [4]

The Score

Logo as The Score (2002-2013) Score TV Network logo.svg
Logo as The Score (2002–2013)

In March 2000, the CRTC approved an amendment to Headline Sports' license allowing it to carry limited live programming, provided that it operate in a manner that still prioritizes its licensed format as a sports news and information service. This included continuing to display the ticker during all programming, and breaking away from live programming at least once every 15 minutes to present video highlights. [5]

To promote the expansion, and due to trademark issues with Turner Broadcasting over the "Headline Sports" name (as CNN Headline News aired sports segments carrying the name), [6] the channel was rebranded as The Score Television Network (or simply The Score) that year.

On June 6, 2006, The Score launched a high definition simulcast, available through all major television providers in Canada. On September 3, 2008, the channel began broadcasting from a new studio on the corner of King and Peter in Downtown Toronto. [7] In the 2007–08 season, The Score acquired the Canadian television rights to the Premier League. The network sub-licensed the majority of the package to long-time rightsholder Rogers Sportsnet, which carried a weekly match on Saturdays, and all other matches on its newly launched premium service Setanta Sports Canada. The Score would broadcast a weekly match on Sundays, and launched the bi-weekly studio program The Footy Show. [8]

On September 20, 2011, Score Media announced that it would put The Score Television Network up for sale. [9]

Purchase by Rogers, relaunch as Sportsnet 360

Reports surfaced on August 24, 2012, that Rogers Media, owners of the competing network Sportsnet, would acquire The Score's parent company. [10] The following day, Rogers Media announced that it acquired Score Media in a transaction valued at $167 million. Pending CRTC approval, Rogers acquired Score Media's television business which included the closed captioning service Voice to Visual Inc., mixed martial arts promotion The Score Fighting Series, and The Score Television Network. [11]

The acquisition closed on October 19, 2012, at which point Score Media's digital assets (the website theScore.com and associated mobile apps) were spun off into another company primarily owned by Score Media's previous shareholders, theScore Inc., in which Rogers Media retained a 10% interest. Score Media's television properties were immediately placed into a blind trust, under trustee Peter Viner, pending final CRTC approval. [12] [13] As part of CRTC requirements to spend 10% of the value of an acquisition on initiatives to strengthen the broadcasting industry, Rogers planned to fund the organization and broadcast of the "Sportsnet Winter Games" (which would have been an annual winter sports competition) and provide funding for the production of amateur sports programming. [14] While Rogers planned to continue running The Score as a sports news service, it also requested that the CRTC ease some of the restrictions that were placed on the network in order to allow it to be more competitive with other Canadian sports channels. Namely, Rogers requested that it only be required to air one sports news update per-hour during live programming. [14]

On April 30, 2013, the CRTC approved the acquisition of The Score by Rogers, as well as an amendment to its license to reduce the required number of sports updates during live programs to once per-hour. The CRTC rejected its proposal to spend its tangible benefits on the Sportsnet Winter Games. Immediately following the approval, it was announced that The Score would begin airing Hockey Central Playoff Extra (a spin-off of Sportsnet's NHL news program) nightly during the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs, and the network replaced its afternoon programming with a telecast of Tim & Sid , a radio show on Rogers-owned CJCL hosted by former The Score personalities Tim Micallef and Sid Seixeiro. [15] [16]

On June 4, 2013, Rogers announced that it would relaunch The Score under the Sportsnet brand as Sportsnet 360 on July 1, 2013; it was launched with a simulcast of a Toronto Blue Jays baseball game, followed by the premiere of the new post-game show, Blue Jays Xpress. [17] [18] Alongside the rebranding, an updated version of The Score's on-screen sports ticker was introduced. Rogers stated that the network would continue to target its programming towards "hardcore" sports fans with "a vast breadth of premium sports content in a fast-paced, energetic and entertaining manner". [18]

Programming

Sportsnet 360's schedule consists of automated blocks featuring sports news and highlights (primarily during the morning and overnight periods, and on weekend afternoons), alongside other full-length programs, and overflow and simulcasted sports programming from other Sportsnet channels. The network's daytime lineup also features television simulcasts of programs from the afternoon lineup of co-owned sports radio station CJCL. [19]

The channel aired a simulcast of CJCL's Tim & Sid from the acquisition of The Score by Rogers in 2013 until 2015, when the show relaunched on Sportsnet with a television-oriented format. The channel then began simulcasting their replacement Brady & Walker (which had moved from mornings) until February 2016, after Greg Brady was fired from the station. Prime Time Sports also aired on Sportsnet 360 until the show's end in October 2019; the station then joined the main Sportsnet channels in simulcasting Tim & Sid once again, after the show was given an audio simulcast on CJCL as a replacement for Prime Time Sports.

For many years ending in December 2024, Sportsnet 360 was the exclusive Canadian broadcaster of WWE programs; the programs had been mainstays of the network since its period as The Score. [15] Rogers' most recent contract with WWE began in 2014; the contract also gave Rogers exclusive Canadian distribution rights to WWE Network. [20] This contract concluded at the end of 2024, with all WWE content moving to Netflix in Canada starting January 6, 2025, as part of its acquisition of exclusive international rights to WWE Raw. [21] [22] [23] On December 22, 2024, Rogers announced a multi-year deal with Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA)—owned by Canadian broadcaster Anthem Sports & Entertainment—to air its programming (including flagship weekly series TNA Impact! ) on Sportsnet 360 beginning on January 2, 2025. [24] Due to a talent-sharing partnership between WWE and TNA which began in 2024 and was extended in early 2025, certain performers from both organizations that had been seen on NXT in its final year on Sportsnet 360 continue to appear on the channel via Impact!. [25] [26]

Sportsnet 360 formerly broadcast regular season events in U Sports football and basketball. In August 2014, Sportsnet announced that it would not renew its Ontario University Athletics conference television contracts for the 2014 season because of low viewership and the resulting high cost-per-viewer of producing the game broadcasts. [27] UFC mixed-martial arts, including UFC on Fox events, preliminary fights, and the reality series The Ultimate Fighter , largely moved from the Sportsnet regional networks and Sportsnet One to Sportsnet 360 following its launch. [28] On December 22, 2014, it was announced that TSN and Fight Network would take over Canadian rights to UFC programming beginning in 2015. [29] [30] Sportsnet regained the UFC rights starting in January 2024, with programming once again primarily airing on Sportsnet 360. [31]

Personalities

See also

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References

  1. ↑ "CRTC Ownership Chart: Rogers Specialty Services" (PDF). Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission. October 1, 2013. Retrieved November 2, 2013.
  2. ↑ "Rogers Sportsnet draws fewer viewers to NHL opening night than CBC, still sets network record". National Post . Archived from the original on October 11, 2014. Retrieved October 11, 2014.
  3. 1 2 "Decision CRTC 96-610". CRTC. September 4, 1996. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  4. ↑ "CANADIAN HEADLINE SPORTS DEBUTS, BUT NEEDS LARGE MARKETS". www.sportsbusinessjournal.com. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  5. ↑ Government of Canada, Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) (March 24, 2000). "ARCHIVED - Summary - Sportscope Television Network Ltd. - Approved". crtc.gc.ca. Retrieved May 28, 2022.
  6. ↑ Canadian Trade-mark Database record for application no. 0832430, "Headline Sports", filed by Sportscope Television Network Ltd. and opposed by Cable News Network Inc.
  7. ↑ Grand Opening of The Score's new head office Archived March 4, 2016, at the Wayback Machine , City of Toronto, September 20, 2008.
  8. ↑ Fitz-Gerald, Sean (August 1, 2007). "Premiership getting booted around TV dial". National Post . Toronto. p. S3. Retrieved August 31, 2019– via PressReader.
  9. ↑ Specialty sports channel The Score for sale, The Globe and Mail , September 20, 2011.
  10. ↑ Ladurantaye, Steve. "Rogers Communications to acquire Score Media". The Globe and Mail. Canada. Retrieved August 24, 2012.
  11. ↑ Rogers Media to Acquire theScore Television Network CNW press release 2012-08-25
  12. ↑ Score Media (October 19, 2012). "Score Media Inc. completes plan of arrangement" . Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  13. ↑ Rogers Media (October 19, 2012). "Rogers Media Completes Acquisition of Score Media" . Retrieved October 19, 2012.
  14. 1 2 "Rogers wants CRTC to ease Score licence rules". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved January 17, 2013.
  15. 1 2 "CRTC clears way for Rogers to buy Score". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  16. ↑ "CRTC Gives Final Approval to Rogers' Acquisition of Score Media". Broadcaster Magazine. Archived from the original on December 3, 2013. Retrieved May 1, 2013.
  17. ↑ "Sportsnet 360 Goes to Air July 1". Broadcaster. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  18. 1 2 "Rogers rebrands The Score as Sportsnet 360". Marketing Magazine. Retrieved June 5, 2013.
  19. ↑ Thiessen, Connie (September 25, 2019). "Tim & Sid return to radio as part of new Sportsnet 590 The Fan lineup". Broadcast Dialogue. Retrieved November 27, 2019.
  20. ↑ Rogers Communications; WWE (July 31, 2014). "Rogers and WWE® Announce Landmark Television and WWE® Network Agreement" . Retrieved August 6, 2014.
  21. ↑ Rogers Media. "Are WWE pay-per-views included in Sportsnet+?". Sportsnet+ Support. Retrieved November 6, 2024. Please note that WWE content will no longer be available on Sportsnet as of January 1, 2025.
  22. ↑ Weprin, Alex (January 23, 2024). "Netflix Nabs WWE 'Raw' Rights in Major $5B Deal". The Hollywood Reporter . Retrieved November 6, 2024.
  23. ↑ Adamson, Dave (December 17, 2024). "January 3 WWE SmackDown Broadcast Important Update". WrestleTalk. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  24. ↑ "Sportsnet, TNA Wrestling announce multi-year agreement". Sportsnet.ca. December 23, 2024. Retrieved January 2, 2025.
  25. ↑ "WWE & TNA Wrestling announce multi-year partnership". WWE (Press release). January 16, 2025.
  26. ↑ "WWE & TNA Wrestling announce multi-year partnership". TNA (Press release). January 16, 2025.
  27. ↑ "Rogers drops OUA football, but says don't blame NHL deal". Toronto Star. Retrieved August 24, 2014.
  28. ↑ "Canadian UFC programming headed to new Sportsnet 360 channel". MMAJunkie. Gannett. Retrieved July 1, 2013.
  29. ↑ "UFC reaches Canadian broadcast deal with TSN, RDS". Postmedia News. Retrieved December 23, 2014. UFC reaches Canadian broadcast deal with TSN, RDS
  30. ↑ "TSN, RDS, and Fight Network become new Canadian home for UFC". TSN.ca. Retrieved December 23, 2014.
  31. ↑ "UFC returning to Sportsnet with multi-year deal starting in 2024". Sportsnet.ca. November 8, 2023. Retrieved November 6, 2024.
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