rights to the Canucks under a 5-year deal to begin in the 2017–18 season. On April 25, 2017, Rogers announced that it would acquire CISL from Newcap Radio and convert it to a sports radio format to serve as team flagship. Sportsnet and Rogers hold a monopoly on all television broadcasts of the Canucks; regional games are aired by Sportsnet Pacific, and occasionally on the overflow channel Sportsnet Canucks. Sportsnet had held the television rights to the team since 1998. Since 2014, Sportsnet also held the NHL national TV rights in Canada, allowing Canucks broadcasts (including the now sublicensed Hockey Night in Canada from CBC) to be televised nationally on a number of occasions. Ownership The initial owners were Tom Scallen's Medicor group. In 1972, hints of impropriety were circulating about Scallen. He was charged with stock fraud and spent the last two years of his Canuck ownership in prison. In 1974, Scallen and Medicor sold the team to media executive Frank Griffiths. From 1988 to 1997, the Vancouver Canucks were owned by local businessman and philanthropist Arthur Griffiths, who had inherited ownership from his father, Frank. However, he was forced to sell his majority interest in the Canucks after overextending his resources trying to build a new arena, GM Place (currently known as Rogers Arena). As a result, he sold his majority share to an American billionaire, John McCaw Jr. On November 17, 2004, the Aquilini Investment Group, headed by Francesco Aquilini, purchased a 50% share in Orca Bay Sports and Entertainment (the owners of both the Canucks franchise and Rogers Arena) from John McCaw Jr. Prior to the sale, Aquilini and two business partners, Tom Gaglardi and Ryan Beedie, had negotiated with Orca Bay for several months without concluding an agreement. In January 2005, Gaglardi and Beedie filed a lawsuit against Aquilini and Orca Bay, alleging that Aquilini and Orca Bay had acted in bad faith in concluding a deal using information obtained from their joint offer. On November 8, 2006, Aquilini, along with his brothers Roberto and Paolo, purchased the remaining 50% of the Vancouver Canucks and Rogers Arena from McCaw. In May 2007, Gaglardi and Beedie's civil lawsuit over Aquilini's purchase reached the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The court ruled for Aquilini, on January 10, 2008. The court held that there was no legal partnership between Aquilini, Beedie, and Gaglardi, and that McCaw was free