Rogers's planned Sportsnet magazine may be part of larger plans

“There are certain things that just lead you to speculate.” 

That was the response that Nadir Mohamed, CEO of Rogers Communications, gave to Bloomberg News when refusing to say if the company was going to bid for Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd., owners of the Maple Leafs and the Raptors NBA team to go along with its Toronto Blue Jays.

He was explaining why Sportsnet TV was going to become a growth engine to expand sports content into radio and now into magazines, with the recent announcement of the bi-weekly Sportsnet magazine.

He said that content owners must balance the importance of making money from existing customers (sports entertainment makes about 1.2% of Rogers's C$12.2 billion in revenue) with a desire for widespread distribution.

A takeover of MLSE  and to consolidate its existing and possible future franchises may be one reason for why Rogers chose this time to create a new print product, the first major sports magazine to be created in Canada in many years. 

The decision and the breadth of coverage such a magazine may have could be giving pause to the owners of other sports-related publications such as Canadian Controlled Media Communications Sports Group (CCMC) which has partnerships with the Canadian Hockey League, the Canadian Football League and publishes a variety of magazines, most prominent being SCOREGolf.