Source : Globe & Mail

Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment is pondering the expansion of its television holdings to include a soccer channel and perhaps a general-interest sports service modelled after MSG in New York.

Sources say MLSE has gone further than pondering the acquisition of a soccer channel. The company, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors as well as Leafs TV and Raptors NBA TV, is in negotiations to acquire GolTV, a digital service that airs European and South American soccer programming.

Larry Tanenbaum, the chairman and 13-per-cent owner of MLSE, could not be reached for comment yesterday.

However, sources said the deal is close to completion.

It is speculated MLSE will buy GolTV from its owner, Insight Sports in Toronto, a company in which Tanenbaum has a majority interest, for about $12-million.

Insight has invested at least $6-million in GolTV since its launch in 2005. The channel lost more than $2-million in each of its first two fiscal years.

MLSE would use GolTV to carry a schedule of games involving its Major League Soccer team, Toronto FC.

Even more ambitious would be an application to launch a general-interest sports channel.

MLSE is looking at the example of MSG, the New York-based cable channel formerly called MSG Network, which airs New York Rangers, New York Knicks, Buffalo Sabres, MLS's New York Red Bulls and the WNBA's New York Liberty games.

Tomorrow's release of a Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission decision will help MLSE make a decision about further TV expansion. The CRTC will rule on issues such as genre protection. It may also deregulate the cable TV business.

If MLSE were allowed to launch a general-interest sports service in a deregulated environment, it could compete with other sports channels for national and regional rights.

It's conceivable that Toronto Blue Jays games could air on an MLSE channel nationally. Regionally, it could compete for regional rights to any NHL team in Canada.

A source close to the company said management hasn't made a decision on pursuing a sports channel.

"They're going to sit and wait and see what the CRTC says, and then they're going to figure out what they're going to do," the source said.

"They don't have a feel for what the CRTC's thinking is. They look at it this way: They have a nice business with a bunch of rights holder partners and a couple of specialty channels that talk to their specific brands. The question they have to ask themselves is: Do they want to get into it deeper?"

In addition to the Air Canada Centre, MLSE's assets include the Toronto Marlies of the AHL.

MLSE also manages and operates the Ricoh Coliseum and BMO Field in Toronto and the General Motors Centre in Oshawa, Ont.

Annual revenue for MLSE, a private company, has been pegged at close to $400-million, with profit in the $85-million range.

© Globe and Mail