Posted on 09/15/2016 10:42:24 AM PDT by jerod
TORONTO - Canada is one of the few countries in the world where the first ‘tweetcast’ in NFL history cannot be viewed.
Rogers is blacking out tonight’s New York Jets at Buffalo Bills game on Twitter, coast to coast.
The NFL has arranged for the next 10 Thursday Night Football telecasts to be streamed live on Twitter, accessible either on the social media giant’s website or app. That is, the root TV feed from either CBS (this week) or NBC can be watched live, for free, on mobile phone, tablet, PC or connected TV.
Rogers Communications Inc.’s Sportsnet cable network owns Canadian multi-media rights to Thursday Night Football.
“Unfortunately, Canadian football fans won’t be able to stream the game on Twitter due to local broadcast considerations via Rogers,” Cameron Gordon, communications director for Twitter Canada, said Thursday morning in an email, without elaboration.
Rogers Communications Inc., through a spokesperson, provided the following explanation:
"In April when the announcement was first made by the NFL and Twitter, we clarified that the deal does not include the Canadian market. As per our licencing agreement with the NFL, Sportsnet is the exclusive Canadian rights holder to the Thursday NFL package this season."
Since announcing the initiative in April, the NFL has been touting that these 10 games will be “streamed to a global audience across devices for free on Twitter.”
That, indeed, will be the case in other large countries where the NFL is popular, including the U.K., Mexico, Germany, Brazil and Australia, Postmedia is informed.
Just not in Canada.
Apparently, this is what Justin was talking about.
Canada controls it's internet and the CBC controls commenting, so essentially free speech is slowing dying away under Trudeau. Pretty soon, we will truly be China North.
While Trudeau is a jack—s in the tradition of his father, this strikes me as a contract law issue. The NFL has a contract with Sportsnet, who doesn’t want to allow the NFL to change their deal.
Free speech is not a license to rewrite the contract between the NFL and Sportsnet.
That’s not a blackout, people can still watch it on Rogers. That’s the nature of exclusive contracts, nobody else in the area gets the contract.
Will anybody notice?....................
Yes, but it shows the ability to block Twitter. These are the things that China and Turkey do to control the internet.
I have the MLB package. They always check my location to see if blackout restrictions are in play.
There must be some way around this. Is Rogers sending its own announcers, or just taking the US network feed?
Use TOR.
I watch youtubes that are banned in the US by using TOR so I appear to be elsewhere.
I have to ask.....what YouTubes are banned in the U.S.?
What is TOR?
Man, that’s cold.
EVERYTHING can be blocked. The company where I work has their network wired up very strangely, so even though I’m in Tucson as far as the internet is concerned I’m often in Canada (corporate HQ) and for long time Brazil (no idea what part of the company is there). And I run into all kinds of problems with content that somebody doesn’t have the rights to in those countries, ESPN can be especially troublesome. Netflix content is highly regional too, if you’ve got an American account and go to Mexico you’ll find a bunch of content is blocked because they don’t have the rights to in Mexico. The new Star Trek is going to be like that, Netflix has the rights to it everywhere but America.
It ain’t China or Turkey. It’s entertainment lawyers, they’ve been controlling content distribution since before there was a China or Turkey, and they’re better at it than them.
TOR is a browser that is popular amongst the global criminal community. Is able to hide your identity and location behind various proxies.
Often someone will post a film or TV show that is covered under US copyright but is free to watch in various other countries.
Just Google TOR browser bundle.
It’s an encrypted network that protects your anonymity.
Yep, it’s cold in Buffalo..............
Toronto has a contingent of Buffalo fans, due to the cities’ proximity to each other. Beyond that, I can’t imagine anyone in Canada being even slightly interested in Thursday Night Football. They have their own football league, whose season is in full swing.
Interesting. Thanks for the info.
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