That huge sigh of relief you just heard was me. And the one you heard right before that was Rogers. The reason? The CRTC has granted official approval for the WWE Network to operate in Canada, which is obviously good news.
I’m not sure whether or not I should be surprised that this happened since the CRTC has a thing for letting big media do what the fuck ever, but I’ll admit I was a little concerned because what the fuck ever tends not to apply in cases involving something fun or that consumers actually want. This entire thing has been botched by Rogers to such a massive extent that it would’ve only been fitting for the CRTC to whip out its big ‘ol Canadian content dick and beat them half to death with it.
But now that this is no longer a concern, Rogers is free to make deals with other cable and satellite providers to bring the network to their customers so that Rogers and WWE can finally call this a national launch without overflowing with excrement. Those, of course, are the deals they’ve been crowing about on their WWE TV broadcasts every single week since the summer, which was just another brick in the stupidity puzzle. Like seriously, what company is going to take a gamble by paying Rogers a hefty rights fee for a service that might not even be around in a few months? If the family members on Shaw and Bell constantly asking me why they don’t have the Network yet are an indicator, none of them is the correct answer. But if you aren’t on Rogers and you do want WWE Network, now is the time to start pain in the assing your carrier into making a deal. Now that it’s much more of a sure thing, the convincing should hopefully be much easier.