When 'plus' just doesn't add up

A bad news email from Rogers this didn't sit well with a whole bunch of sports fans. And they've got reason to be as hot as the weather about it all.

Maybe it’s the oppressive summer heat that has me a little cranky. Or perhaps a certain email that landed in my email box on Thursday brought all of this on. Or maybe it’s a little bit of both (as a certain former Ottawa Senators coach often said … if you know, you know).

But anyways … the top half of today’s column is a bit of a rant (in other words, the Roy Kent in me is about to spring to life). And the rather generic picture above should tell you where I’m headed with this (maybe you even know exactly where this is going). And for those of you used to seeing a certain other thing to start your weekend reading … indulge me for a bit, and I will indeed get to some of that.

First, though, a bit of background on why this Substacker allows himself to get a little … oh, let’s call it riled up on occasion. Simply put, it’s awfully hard not to develop a cynical side when you’ve been in the journalism world for more than four decades. As one former colleague of mine once put it in his Twitter bio: “I think everything is a scam.”

While I might not go quite that far personally, here’s how I’d say it: Do this long enough and you develop a very finely tuned bullshit meter. It’s especially useful in the height of a political campaign, when — as the editors at The Line once so delightfully described it — you get way too many servings of “a big ol’ bowl of Cap’n Crunch bullshit.”

Yeah, there’s a whole heap of manure out there these days.

But being as this is a very non-political space of the Substack world, we’re talking about something entirely different today. It’s what you’ll find in the contents of this email from the folks at Sportsnet …

Notice that there’s no “here’s why we’re doing this” part to this email, or suggestion I’ll get more for my money. Just that it’s going to happen. Now while they’ve basically given you the option of saying ‘nah, I’m good, see ya later,’ I found it rather amusing (some might use the word infuriating) to read that the cancel option wasn’t available the day I got this letter because it was on the fritz (or perhaps their system just got overwhelmed with a lot of angry people).

You betcha this grinded the gears of a whole lot of people out there (you’ll find some of that reaction here). Here’s an example of the fury that’s out there, found on Reddit: “That’s crazy, I feel like you can slip a 5-10% increase by without people complaining too much but 30% is an outright middle finger to the existing subscriber base.”

(and for annual subscribers, that number is the outrageous amount of the increase. From $249.99 to a whopping $329.99 for Sportsnet+ Premium. There are similar increases for the basic tier).

For the uninitiated, Sportsnet+ is a package aimed at “cord cutters” who dumped their cable subscription (or never had one to begin with) but just want to watch their sports or their favourite team (there’s also a TSN+ out there as well). The Sportsnet package is especially attractive to Toronto Blue Jays fans (the majority of the Rogers-owned team’s games are broadcast by the Rogers-owned network) and hockey lovers — especially those whose favourite squad isn’t in the market in which they live.

All of which brings this around to why I subscribe to Sportsnet+ Premium (well, at least for now). While there is a cable TV subscription in my household and it does indeed included Sportsnet, TSN and other sports channels, there’s also this: the NHL long ago carved up Canada into broadcast regions. Ontario is split into two regions and, as an Ottawa Senators fan, I’m on the wrong side of the line to see the games TSN shows as part of that team’s regional TV package (55 games in all). Instead, I’m inundated with all the games of the “other” NHL team in this province.

While there is a way to escape all of that, it comes at — as the title of the product implies — a premium (it’s also marketed and sold as NHL Centre Ice by cable companies and Bell). And the cost for that premium is about to shoot up dramatically. Not that Sportsnet is telling us why.

Now, one might suggest (and it’s true) that streaming services across the board are generally going up in price. When Bell first launched Crave, it cost you $4 a month to subscribe. That price has more than tripled. Apple TV+ launched at $5.99 per month. It costs a bit more than twice that much now. If you’ve got Netflix, Prime Video or Disney+ in your life, all of that costs you more. Yeah, it seems like a never ending cycle, doesn’t it?

But what makes this particular one hit home a little more is well, it’s a Rogers-owned entity. And as someone I know who formerly worked in the television industry once told me, “we all know that Rogers and Bell two of the most hated companies in Canada.” Things like this latest round of price gouging by Rogers (hey, let’s call it what it is) — even though it’s Sportsnet setting the price, we all knows who’s in the owners’ suite — just inflame that sentiment even more.

(an aside: I should mention that I’ve dealt with both of those companies and the customer service has been generally good, and the waiting on hold is less, at least from my point of view. So this isn’t aimed at anyone who works in any area of the business other than the money crunchers who make these decisions. I’m very much a ‘don’t shoot the messenger’ guy).

So yeah, in conclusion, a lot of folks have good reason to be feeling more than a little cranky today (the heat just makes it worse). And now we’ve all got a decision to make. One would hope the geniuses behind this decision at Sportsnet should have seen all of this vitriol coming — and the fallout that will be associated with it. The cancellations are happening, without a doubt (perhaps faster than their system can handle) and it says here they are entirely justified. Sometimes you just have to say enough’s enough, take your ball somewhere else and hope you can find someplace better.

Problem is, as the Rogers sports monopoly continues to grow, it’s gonna be harder and harder to escape all of this. And the pain is just beginning, it would appear. Just because they can.

And with that said, it’s time to change the mood here a little bit …

The numbers game

Another thing you learn very quickly in the sports journalism game (or at least you should) is to pay attention to your readers. As in, notice exactly what they care about and what they don’t because if you fail to do that, you’ll never truly serve your audience (or grow it as much as you could).

Those who follow me regularly here (eternally grateful for those who do!) know the origins of this space. Hammer The Keyboard wasn’t founded with the idea of focusing on a single sport or subject. It was meant to be a space for a certain person (that would be me) to have a home for his writing, one he could call his own, and shape its direction over time (recognizing that it will always be a fluid, living thing).

What was quickly learned was a certain sport garnered the highest level of readership here, and it wasn’t even really close. While it isn’t at the top of this week’s column, it is most other weeks. And the audience for the figure skating pieces posted here continues to grow over time, at a rate that, quite frankly, still blows me away to a certain extent (understand that I went into this with the absolute lowest of expectations).

One of the cool things about Substack, at least to this publisher of words in particular, is the huge volume of data that is available in regard to the content you create. This platform not only tells you how many people read any given post, it shows where the traffic comes from (both in terms of source and geographically) and when it happens.

Over time, you discover a few things. Like this, for example:

• There appears to be no sweet spot in terms of what time of day you publish. If people are interested in what you have to say, they’ll find you some way, somehow, on their schedule. Which is why there is no regularity in terms of when subscribers get their emails (other than you’ll generally see one on Friday or Saturday at some point).

• What does really matter is being regular in terms of how often you publish. I get an email every week reminding me about how many weeks in a row that I’ve published something here. For the record, that number now sits at 104 straight weeks, which Substack tells me is a longer run than 99 per cent of people on this platform. That is one big way to keep your subscribers happy when they choose to join your little journey. Make sure you’re there regularly for them.

• The old newspaper guy in me spent years reporting and writing stories that went into a print product that was, for the most part, only seen by people within the community in which I worked (or at least nearby). Of course, the advent of online journalism changed all of that and your work can now literally be seen by anyone in the world with an internet connection. Even knowing that, I found this to be a bit of mind bender: Substack says the content here has been viewed by people in 22 American states and 16 countries around the world (naturally, given what I do, the majority of my readership — 68 per cent of it, to be exact — comes from Canada).

Now that we’ve gotten this nerdy bit of data out of the way, some numbers that might interest the skating crowd that most frequently populates this little area of the internet. As in, who exactly do you care about the most when I write about those masters of the ice world.

A few nights ago, we went through the audience numbers for every skating-based article that’s been produced here, just to get an idea of where reader interest truly lies. What jumps out in a most dramatic way is this: you really, really want to read about women’s skating in Canada. Three of the top four most trafficked columns here (and five of the top eight) are about them (with four different skaters represented in that group).

By contrast, only two stories which featured pair teams and one about an ice dance duo were in that top 10 (and they’re not about the skaters you’d think). None of the stories on Canadian men made that cutoff.

(for the record, the two most popular stories by far on this site are the Maddie Schizas-Lion King column and the piece about World Figure Skating Championships commentator Kirsten Moore-Towers. Both of them were produced within the last three months. Feel free to tap on either link if you want to give them some extra love).

We point out all of this to give you a bit of an idea about the thinking that goes behind some of the subject choices here (and yeah, it’s fun to geek out about numbers every now and then). Mind you, an interesting story will always be an interesting story, and that’s always going to be front of mind in this particular space. It’s what I’ve always fervently believed readers want to see more than anything. And we’ll keep chasing them.

Around the boards

The summer domestic competition season is about to heat up over the next few weeks in these parts. The big one out of the gate is next week’s Skate Canada NextGen competition, which will be held July 17-20 at the Slush Puppie Centre in Gatineau, Que. — the same facility in which 2026 nationals are set to be held in January. On the line for skaters next week at the event, which is being live streamed, is selection to junior international events. More on this competition to come here in this space next week … The Skate Ontario Sectional Summer Series begins July 25-27 with an event at the Bob MacQuarrie Recreation Complex in Orleans, in the east end of Ottawa. Among the prominent skaters on the senior entry lists are reigning Canadian bronze medallist Katherine Medland Spence, Breken Brezden and John Kim … A second Summer Series event is set for Aug. 15-17 at RIM Park in Waterloo … Lastly, a sorta kinda skating note. Olympic gold medallist (2002) and world champion (2001) David Pelletier, who earned those honours with former pairs partner Jamie Sale, has been hired as an assistant coach by the NHL’s Dallas Stars. The 50-year-old (!) from Sayabec, Que., had been a skating coach with the Edmonton Oilers for the past 11 seasons. Now he’s about to try something entirely new.