The dreams of two high-profile Canadian entrepreneurs appeared to have taken divergent paths. Jim Balsillie, co-CEO with Research in Motion, has walked away from a $175-million offer to buy the Pittsburgh Penguins (and hockey phenoms Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin Eugeny Malkom) – apparently due to the National Hockey League’s refusal to provide him with any kind of flexibility to move the franchise. It must have been a difficult decision for Balsillie, who’s a passionate hockey fan and pick-up player (note: I wonder if he’s allowed to bring his Blackberry on the bench?)
Meanwhile, John Bitove (one-time part owner of the Toronto Raptors) is trying to become the Mark Cuban of Canada with the launch of HDTV Networks, which aims to be Canada’s first high-definition TV network. In applying for a license, Bitove plans to offer free, over-the-air broadcasts. Bitove has a few bucks lying around after taking Canadian Satellite Radio (aka XM Canada) public last year – a move that was a major, major financial home run. Bitove, however, may find HD a tougher nut to crack given there doesn’t appear to be a lot of momentum/consumer adoption despite all the buzz. Maybe it’s a programming issue; maybe cablecos are simply charging too much for the “right” to watch HD.
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4 Comments
Eugeny Malkom? I think you mean Evgeni Malkin,
Evgeni Malkin, exactly! Thanks for the fact-checking.
cheers, Mark
I’m disappointed to hear that the deal to buy the Penguins has fallen through. Would have been nice to perhaps see Jim move to team to a Canadian city.
Regarding HD, I am a bit of an HD snob. In the past 18 months I’ve purchased two HDTVs and I loathe watching anything broadcast in standard definition. The price of these sets has fallen greatly, and you can purchase a very nice one for under $1500.
The whole situation is a bit of a chicken-and-egg thing. Consumers may be unwilling to adopt HD until more broadcasting and channels are available. Personally, I already receive about 30 HD channels, and most primetime network programming is in HD, along with quite a few sports games. Even some shows like Jeopardy are now in HD.
I applaud any efforts to add more HD programming.
It appears that Mark Cuban is already coming to Canada. Sunday night I watched Dan Rather’s new HDNet show on channel 541 on Rogers cable. Appears to be a live “preview” as the info band says it is a “Free preview until Jan.2″.
Seems like Bitove wants to do an over-the-air Canadian HD network. But keep in mind content is king. Where will he source it, given that there is currently a shortage of technical personnel and crews able to produce HD programming? Give him credit for being the true entrepreneur if he can pull it off.