The purpose of a couple of TelCo's owning sports teams in Canada's largest market is all about defending their position in content distribution. Be that content distribution be through cable, internet, or any other medium. They are scared shitless of a day someone like google plows their way into Canada and starts to more directly compete with their cable tv offerings. Sports / live content is one of the last reasons people continue to pay for cable. So the strategy is: get front row access to the league offices, have the right relationships with the right people, and when it comes time to draw up the TV contracts for content distribution for Canada slant things in your direction as hard as you possibly can.

How much they are willing to sink into in this strategy I have no idea. They could be thinking of sustaining losses (in the name of the broader business), breaking even, or demanding some level of profit.