Discussions

Saw this on Facebook in the wheatkings fanaholics and friends page Sunny and Sizzle broke the news and said they heard from a reliable source.  
 
"WCG has opted not to carry the WHL anymore starting immediately. They were offered an amazing deal that was a lot less than what other stations pay for the rights and they declined to even make an offer saying that the Wheat Kings and the WHL hold no value to them. So our games are on Shaw for the rest of Western Canada...but not in Westman on WCG TV.  
 
So no Wheat Kings Playoffs on TV for Westman. Ridiculous."  
 
So much for community support  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Edited by Nessie04, 2016-04-20 16:29:50

I find it ironic that they refused to air the Wheaties games considering the Wheaties play at "Westman Communications Group Place!" That is a joke! Name on the arena but you can't support the team that plays in it. Glad I don't support WCG and have MTS now

"The Wheat Kings and WHL hold no value to them." Really? So night after night of continuous near sold out play off games are worthless to WCG?  

Safe to say with some of the tone used here (especially the comment from the original poster that "the WHL holds no value to them") that it's best to get info from WCG themselves to clarify. I'll put in a request and post back what I learn.  
 
Edited by Adam, 2016-04-20 16:59:34

Response from Westman Communications Group is pasted below:  
 
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Westman values its strong and long standing relationship with the Brandon Wheat Kings. We continue to proudly support the Wheat Kings through a number of initiatives, including direct sponsorship of the team, naming rights of the Keystone Centre's main arena, Westman Communications Group Place, and free Wi-Fi during home games. Additionally, our local radio station broadcasts all home and away games live on 880 CKLQ, and has done so for the past 25 years. Westman was committed to offering the Wheat King games for the remainder of the playoffs on WCGtv. However, today we received a call from the Western Hockey League (WHL) proposing that in order to provide these games to the community, effective immediately, the cost would excessively increase. We are disappointed that the WHL chose this timing, as the Wheat Kings reach the Eastern Conference Final. As a locally owned cooperative, we strive to provide programming within our available financial resources, while maintaining affordability of our services to all members. Westman will continue to support the Brandon Wheat Kings, including broadcasting the games live with Bruce Luebke on 880 CKLQ. We will keep our members and Wheat King supporters informed should the WHL provide an offer for these games to be broadcast on WCGtv at a reasonable cost.  
 
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So when WCG raises my TV and Internet fees I guess I just stop using them instead of paying more for the service. Fine by me

My understanding is that the Wheat Kings fully support these games being televised for their fans and that they will comment on this situation tomorrow.

$29.95 for the Eastern or Western Final Series  
 
$59.95 for both Final Series

MTS. Should buy the rights to show these games. I'm sure they could afford them.

MTS should only buy the games if they can make money selling them... same with Westman

Just so Im clear, are these the games they used to pick up from Shaw? It would be nice to see the actual numbers and be able to judge just how unreasonable the increase is. After all, as a 30 year subscriber, I am a part owner of WCG.

Whl on shaw is picked up by cable companies with an access channel as a part of free programming. If there is indeed a cost to wcg why was the 2 round of the playoffs shown with Victoria and Kelowna? West an would have to pay for all whl on shaw games they show to their viewers. So why now is it a big problem? It seems very coincidental and suspicious that because they've decided to cover the wheat kings and Rebels series that there is all of a sudden a giant cost increase. Why will it be blacked out for a wcg customers? Seems like censorship. Why not let wcg customers pay a membership fee to catch all whl action on their station instead of outright deciding in a hot minute they can't show the games. It came together too fast and sudden for it to be a "policy" change. And furthermore what a poor time for the whl to make such a major policy change. Why wouldn't it take effect next season and how can they get away to showing everyone else whl on shaw and black out the city it's being shown in? I would have expected a statement from the whl commission regarding this confirming it to be true. Will be interesting to see what the Wheat Kings have to say today in regard to this matter. I do hope Adan will keep us all up to speed.

My guess is that the only way WCG could get the live feed was to pay a per customer fee. Not a per viewer fee like the Wrestling events. WeCG probably have over $10,000 customers in Brandon. Same thing happened when Jets TV first came out. There are not enough Wheatking fans to justify the cost. It's Shaw and the WHL to blame here.

They were offered an amazing deal that was a lot less than what other stations pay for the rights and they declined to even make an offer  
 
How amazing of a deal? As usual, Facebook is vague with no real facts. Let's say Shaw has to pay $1M and the Westman deal was half price, that's a pretty decent deal. Shaw can spread that $1M cost over their 500k cable customers for $2 each. Westman has to spread $500k over ~15k customers for $33 each. So even an amazing deal may make no financial sense to them.  
 
Edited by ultraguy, 2016-04-21 08:47:28

and other access stations break into the telecast with local advertising then. I don't need to continually see adverts for Bob Dale Gloves and Leavitt Machinery!!! Local advertising could offset the cost.

I sent a copy of WCG's statement to the WHL. So far crickets. But lets remember to keep it civil, but if we as fans are upset then we should tell both WCG and the WHL that this is a service we would like.

Good for WCG to stand up for themselves.  
Agreed very bad timing be the WHL.  
 
We have our seats for the Home games!  
 

unfortunately the way Manitobans are, and society in general these days, entitlement is the way of the world. Customers want more & more feeling they should be entitled to it and pay for bare-bones service. Local carriers make less profit and they need to look at trimming the fat to keep their heads above water. Shaw is a Goliath compared to MTS & WCG. Sad to say you'll need to stream games or better yet talk to your local lounge etc to get the games and pack the place making them $$$. Anything sports-related on TV is a cash-cow for the big TV providers like Shaw as they jack the prices for the local providers as it's cheaper than buying and streaming from WHL on your pc. Just wait til all the pick-and-pay changes later this year -the sports channels will be pricey.

I do think its important to make efforts to take in info and viewpoints from all sides on this kind of topic and have a request for comment in this morning with the right person at the WHL. Will post if I learn more, but have to keep in mind that with the amount of fan interest in the topic this is likely a fluid situation today. What's a relevant comment now might not be a relevant comment an hour from now and so may not hear anything more from anyone until later in the day.

Tweet from 880 cklq is reporting that the Wheat King games will now be broadcast on westman cable  
 
See photo attached  
 
Edited by cleopatra, 2016-04-21 17:27:28

Have received a press release also confirming that playoffs games will be broadcasted on WCG's high and standard def channels. If the WKs make it to the WHL finals their games in that series would also be broadcasted.

Full release is below:  
 
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[i]Westman Communications Group is pleased to announce we will be broadcasting the Brandon Wheat Kings' games through to the Western Hockey League final.  
We will be broadcasting the games live in HD on channel 1012 to all Westman subscribers who have HD packages and live in Brandon and the following communities: Boissevain, Carberry, Dauphin, Killarney, Minnedosa, Neepawa, Rivers, Shilo, Souris, Ste. Rose, Swan River and Virden. For Westman subscribers who have standard definition packages the games will be available on channels 12/112.  
 
2016 WHL EASTERN CONFERENCE FINALS SCHEDULE ON WCGtv (Central Time)  
BRANDON vs. RED DEER  
Game 1 - Fri Apr 22 7:30 PM Red Deer at Brandon  
Game 2 - Sat Apr 23 7:30 PM Red Deer at Brandon  
Game 3 - Tue Apr 26 8:00 PM Brandon at Red Deer  
Game 4 - Wed Apr 27 8:00 PM Brandon at Red Deer  
Game 5 - Fri Apr 29 7:30 PM * Red Deer at Brandon  
Game 6 - Sun May 1 6:00 PM * Brandon at Red Deer  
Game 7 - Tue May 3 7:00 PM * Red Deer at Brandon  
 
"We are pleased to show our continued support for the Brandon Wheat Kings by airing the games on WCGtv for all the residents and Wheat King fans in the Westman region," said Dave Baxter, President and Chief Executive Officer of Westman.  
 
Each game will also be available on 880 CKLQ for those hoping to catch the game over radio  
 
[/i]  
 
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This response from WCG has been long overdue. I for one will not be supporting them in future, their stance and timing on these issues has been abismal.  
 

fdsafdsa said "This response from WCG has been long overdue. I for one will not be supporting them in future, their stance and timing on these issues has been abismal.     "

I'm not sure how the response is overdue, they resolved the issue the same day. If anything perhaps they could have delayed the first release, but they may have been using it for some leverage. It would be interesting to know the whole story here. But to criticize their timing is rediculous, sounds like it was the league who initiated the whole thing.

fdsafdsa said "This response from WCG has been long overdue. I for one will not be supporting them in future, their stance and timing on these issues has been abismal.     "

Without knowing the intimate details of negotiations, what stumbling blocks they were able to get over and how they were able to get over them I'm not sure what basis there would be to skewer Westman over this. IMO they deserve two big thumbs up for their communication with the public while this was going on... the responses I got when I sent in inquiries were real fast and in the end the viewer has the end result they were looking for. The Wheat Kings as well I can tell you took all of this very seriously and assume put to rest the myth that they don't want home games broadcasted. I never did hear a word from the WHL however, which was a little disappointing.....  
 
at any rate we have an Eastern Conference final starting in this city in T-minus 10+ hours that's going to make all of this seem like yesterday's news in a hurry!  
 
Edited by Adam, 2016-04-22 09:24:58

bring on the GOLDRUSH

Just to update, I did hear back from the WHL this morning.  
The one thing to clarify that I imagine is a minor detail to a lot of Wheat King fans, but permission for WCG to carry games for the rest of the playoffs applies to Wheat King games only.

Will WCG continue to pick up whl on shaw for the September 2016/2017 year or was something just ironed out to bring us round 3 of the playoffs? Just excited about right now but wondered for the future of the programming?

Thanks to everyone involved to bring home viewers the gold rush!!

My WHL source has apologized for any mixup and corrected with the fact that Westman actually has permission to carry all Shaw broadcasts during the 2016 playoffs, Wheat Kings or not.  
 
Regarding future years, a long-term agreement will be discussed during the off-season.