I am not sure that anyone outside of us might even care, but let me try to break this down for people looking from the outside in.

Imagine two large telecommunications giants in the US, say AT&T and Verizon (there is a third smaller player to be precise, but bear with me). Now picture that these two companies control nearly all of the teleinformation networks in the country. Say they have they own entire families of television channels, which they use to naturally support each of their other properties. These are bundled together without choice to the consumer to maximise their exposure. Being their core central business, these two companies completely dominate the phone industry, and as cell suppliers have more and more control over the consumer in the current era. They also manage to own the majority of larger radio stations in the US. On top of this, the companies are the owners of the primary newspaper publishing on a national level. Each of these business arms necessarily is very profitable due to the lack of any serious competition, and all the the revenue from each goes to support the other arms of the empire.

Now, imagine that, in addition to controlling all of the content that is made available to the American consumer, they also are responsible for the means to give you said content. In this world, AT&T and Verizon supply all of the cable, internet, and satellite providers, to pass information along to you, the average consumer. Furthermore, they have ownership over the physical network that any telecom company needs in order to compete or provide a similar service to Americans. Thus, they can dictate how much and at what level you have access.

Okay, now in due course one of these two companies purchases the sole exclusive rights to broadcast any NFL games, and all associated NFL content-related programming. And picture, if you will, a government broadcaster being made a subcontractor of AT&T. Add on a toothless 'regulatory agency' meant to provide oversight and protect the public interest that is operated by ex-members and close associates of the telecom giants. How do you think that is going to effect what information is ultimately available at the endpoint of delivery? They control the means of manufacture, delivery, content, supply, and message. If this seems like some kind of Orwellian dystopic vision, you would not be far off the mark.

I am sorry to draw the analogy, but if it came to football, American viewers would not stand for this. Any talk of the free market and competition is utter bullshit. Take a look at the collusion and monopolising practices at work here, and you will see in short notice how the system is set up as anything but. This is NOT about the market demanding something and the supply meeting the voice of the consumer based on spending. This is completely anti-capitalist and against the conservative economic policies which governments so widely tout as the high points of our respective countries. The more we move into the digital age, the more these companies are now able to control how, when, and what, exactly it is we have access to. Furthermore, they are partners in the physical media of information delivery. Are you going to tell me that they are not going to exercise control to support their own content on particular devices and limit [directly or indirectly] the availability of others?

Yes, terrible management at the CBC has to share in the blame, but that has been a long time coming now. And really, that is only symptomatic of something else with the broadcaster (a bigger issue of misdirection and public funding). This kind of blatant behaviour and finger to the Canadian public and fans of the game is just intolerable. And fuck Bettman for his running [ruining] of the NHL, in the almighty chase to squeeze every last dollar out of the business that he can. This, and all professional sports, is about entertainment, ultimately, and is not a goddamn bank. Any remarks about the fans winning this one just makes me steam.