the past week has given me too much free time. lack of structure in my life and i relapse into the net clicking endlessly onto people's blog, my space pages, fitness forums, music forums and repeat cycle.

and throw a porn site or two as well.

but occassionaly the intrawebs offer up tidbits of information. like that canada's media steamroller Bell Globemedia is bidding for the rights to CBC's longtime staple Hockey Night in Canada. hockey coverage in canada is profittable, especially come playoff time as the ad revenues start rolling in. cbc was making $30 million off its nhl coverage. the nhl profits were then used to fund in-house programming devoted to canadian society and culture.

for the past few years, tsn (bell's sports channel)and cbc playoff coverage has been pretty even, but cbc had a hold on covering canadian teams. tsn was relegated to covering san jose/dallas/phoenix games, which well, no one pays much attention to. now bell is swooping in, aiming to eliminate dual coverage between the networks. ironically, right-winged pundits have long complained cbc hinders media competition. with this potential deal, the nhl monopoly will be in the hands of the private sector. but of course, they'll argue that's better than in the hands of a public corporation.

as to where the cbc's is going to generate its revenues has the execs anxious right now. as much i love the fifth estate, passionate eye, its nighly national, and respectable newsworld, these programs are going to suffer without nhl's cash.

considering CBC's lifeline is its hockey coverage, this could spell disaster for our publicly funded media. do the nhl folks care hockey night in canada has been a coast-to-coast tradition even prior the television? probably not. bell globemedia is throwing money around that simply cbc cannot match, which is more than double what cbc pays right now.

aside from the obvious end of hockey tradition, this could be the end of cbc as we know it. without its hockey coverage, losing the olympics a while back, won't be long before taxpayers groan as to why the network should exist? those who oppose state-funded media are already salivating at the prospect of the nhl's jump to another network as the deathblow to the cbc.

it will be interesting to see how this plays out. more importantly, with cbc's nhl rights set to expire in two years, it will be interesting to see how the federal government responds. will the conservatives--or whatever government--support cbc's right to hockey night in canada or allow the private media to take away this country's sports/cultural icon?

and yeah, what's gonna happen to don cherry?