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Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada

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This article refers to Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada. For broadcasting rights lists of other countries, see Sports television broadcast contracts.

Athletics

Australian-rules football

Baseball

Major League Baseball

International

Basketball

National Basketball Association

The NBA's Canadian marketing arm is managed by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, parent company of the Toronto Raptors. In turn, MLSE is majority-owned by Bell Canada and Rogers Communications; as such, coverage is mostly shared between their co-owned TSN and Sportsnet networks, along with the MLSE-owned NBA TV Canada. Toronto Raptors games are primarily aired by TSN, TSN2 and RDS, with selected games airing on Sportsnet, Sportsnet One, or Sportsnet 360.[3] Ancillary Raptors content, including game encores, air on NBA TV Canada.

All broadcasters air assorted non-Raptors games throughout the season (TSN promoted that it would air 148 regular-season games in total during the 2017-18 season);[4] NBA TV Canada typically airs selected games and simulcasts of games from U.S. broadcasters (most often from its U.S. counterpart). All remaining games are available through the NBA League Pass out-of-market sports package.

TSN and NBA TV have the Canadian TV rights to broadcast the NBA Summer League and NBA G League.

TSN, Sportsnet and NBA TV have the Canadian TV rights to broadcast the WNBA.[5]

U.S. college basketball

TSN owns the Canadian broadcast rights to the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament through a deal with ESPN International. CBS coverage of the tournament is also available in Canada. TSN also simulcasts regular-season games from ESPN.

Coverage of games is also available from U.S. networks carried in Canada, such as Big Ten Network and CBS Sports Network, along with broadcast network coverage. An out-of-market sports package offered by some providers includes other games from U.S. outlets that are not otherwise available in Canada.

International basketball

DAZN holds broadcast rights to the Canadian national men's basketball team and FIBA tournaments.[6] TSN holds the broadcast rights to the Basketball Africa League.[7]

Canadian basketball

Cricket

Asian Television Network owns the vast majority of Canadian cricket rights, with marquee events typically airing live on CBN, and selected events and other programming airing on ATN Cricket Plus. ATN also owns the rights to the ICC Cricket World Cup, this tournament is broadcast on pay-per-view throughout Canada.

International cricket

Domestic cricket

Curling

Cycling

Extreme sports

Golf

Gridiron football

Canadian football

Canadian Football League

  • TSN – all games including playoffs and Grey Cup
  • RDS – all Montreal and all Ottawa games, as well as select additional games throughout the season, the playoffs and the Grey Cup.

Canadian university football

As of 2019, CBC Sports and TVA Sports broadcasts the national U Sports playoff games, namely the Mitchell Bowl, the Uteck Bowl, and the Vanier Cup, succeeding Sportsnet (who aired it from 2013 to 2018).[18]

TVA Sports carries many QSSF games. In 2016, Sportsnet's sister broadcast network City began broadcasting a four-game U Sports Game of the Week package.[19][20] Games not covered by these contracts are often carried by local cable community channels.

In 2015, Global aired a Hardy Trophy semi-final and championship game as part of the Shaw TV (Shaw Cable) Canada West conference package (at the time, Shaw directly owned Global).[21] As of the 2017-18 season, Canada West conference rights are held by the three major IPTV providers in Central Canada—Bell MTS Fibe TV, SaskTel MaxTV and Telus TV (including a regular season package and playoff coverage).[22][23]

American football

National Football League

Contracts are current as of the 2020 NFL season.

Due to Canadian regulations that permit stations from different areas to be carried in the same market, several games may be available in each of the Sunday timeslots through a combination of domestic and American stations from different areas, without a subscription to Sunday Ticket. By contrast, outside a handful of areas where multiple neighbouring network affiliates are available, no more than three games may be aired in a given U.S. market on any Sunday afternoon (up to four games in week 17).

U.S. college football

Many ESPN College Football games are aired by TSN's feeds, including the regular season and most bowl games (which were, in the past, shared with Sportsnet 360, and not withstanding conflicts with other programming such as the World Junior Hockey Championship), and all College Football Playoff bowls. TSN also carries some of ESPN's studio programming, such as College GameDay.

Coverage of games is also available from U.S. networks carried or available for streaming in Canada:

An out-of-market sports package offered by some providers includes other games from U.S. outlets that are not otherwise available in Canada (such as Fox Sports Networks, and ESPN games not picked up by the TSN channels). FloSports and Stadium also carry several FCS conferences such as Colonial Athletic Association, Gulf South Conference and Patriot League.

Hockey

National Hockey League

Rogers Communications is the sole national rightsholder of the NHL in Canada until the end of 2025–26 NHL season. Most national telecasts air on Sportsnet properties, and include, but are not limited to:[30][31][32]

  • Hockey Night in Canada: Exclusive national window for Canadian teams on Saturday nights, multiple games airing across CBC Television, Citytv, and Sportsnet channels.
    • In rare circumstances, due to non-hockey programming conflicts, the Sportsnet regional channels may air different games.[33] However, all four Sportsnet regional channels are available nationwide through the digital services of most providers.
  • Scotiabank Wednesday Night Hockey; Exclusive national Wednesday-night game on Sportsnet.
  • Rogers Hometown Hockey: National Monday-night game on Sportsnet, with a travelling pre-game show broadcast from various Canadian cities.
  • Simulcasts of all-U.S. games from regional sports networks and NHL on NBC coverage (primarily on Thursday nights), including NBC's Sunday-afternoon games and the Winter Classic.
  • Stanley Cup Playoffs coverage; early rounds divided between CBC and Sportsnet. All games from the conference finals onward are simulcast by both networks.
  • Canadian distribution and marketing rights to the NHL.tv (Rogers NHL Live) and NHL Centre Ice services, which carries out-of-market games and U.S. nationally televised games not aired by Sportsnet channels.
  • Hockey Night in Canada: Punjabi Edition: Coverage of selected Hockey Night in Canada games with Punjabi language commentary on Omni Television.[34]
  • Since 2019, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) simulcasts selected Hometown Hockey games with commentary in the Plains Cree language.[35]

French-language rights were sub-licensed to Quebecor Media; all coverage airs on TVA Sports. La super soirée LNH serves as the flagship broadcast on Saturday nights, typically featuring the Montreal Canadiens.[36][37]

Regional

Canadian teams also contract with local or regional broadcasters for selected pre-season and regular season games not covered by the national contracts. These deals are separate from the national rights deal, and may cover up to 60 regular-season games per season. Rights are current as of the 2020–21 NHL season.

Each team's regional game broadcasts are restricted to viewers of that team's designated home broadcast region as assigned by the NHL. Outside said region, these broadcasts are made available exclusively through NHL Centre Ice (TV) or Rogers NHL Live (streaming). If the originating channel is available outside a team's region (e.g. out-of-market Sportsnet feeds), the game broadcasts must be blacked out in these other areas. Sportsnet also operates part-time channels for the Canucks, Flames, and Oilers in case of scheduling conflicts: these channels are tied to the Sportsnet One licence. During the period that it held the rights, Sportsnet used City station CJNT as the overflow channel for Canadiens games instead.

Under previous (2002–14) rights deals with RDS, the Canadiens forwent a separate regional rights contract (at the time of its establishment, RDS was the only national French-language sports channel in Canada) and allowed all of its games to be broadcast nationally in French in conjunction with RDS's package. With the transition to TVA Sports as national rightsholder, the Canadiens chose to negotiate a 12-year regional rights deal with RDS (the team is partially owned by the channel's parent BCE Inc.) in the team's designated broadcast region.[38][39]

U.S. teams in close proximity to the Canada–US border are now also able to sell Canadian regional broadcast rights to their games. As of the 2013–14 season, Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe TV own regional rights to Buffalo Sabres broadcasts for portions of Canada within a 50-mile radius of First Niagara Center, approximately stretching from Niagara Falls to the community of Stoney Creek in Hamilton. Sabres game broadcasts are available to Bell TV subscribers in this region at no extra cost, and moreover are no longer available as part of the NHL Centre Ice package through other providers serving this region.[40] The Detroit Red Wings, whose market borders on Windsor, Ontario, is presumably able to sell similar rights but has not yet done so.

As with other sports properties, game broadcasts on U.S. terrestrial stations carried in Canada, such as the ABC broadcast network's national rights package.

Canadian Hockey League

As of the 2021-22 season, the national CHL package is divided between TSN and CBC Sports.[41] Many regular-season games are aired locally by community channels.

  • TSN and RDS hold rights to the Memorial Cup and other national CHL-organized events
  • TSN will broadcast 30 national games from across the CHL's leagues.[42]
  • RDS will broadcast 20 national games from across the CHL's leagues.[42]
  • CBC Television will carry a package of six games on Saturday afternoons in October and November.[43]
  • CBC will stream a weekly "game of the week" package beginning in November.[43]

Other events

Horse racing

Mixed martial arts

Motorsports

FIA

Stock car

IndyCar

FIM

International Motor Sports Association

Other

Multi-sport events

Professional Wrestling

Rugby

Rugby Union

International

Club

Rugby League

Skiing

Soccer

See also: Soccer on Canadian Television

Major League Soccer

TSN is the English-language rightsholder of Major League Soccer in Canada, under a contract most recently extended in 2017 to 2021. The deal includes a national window on Fridays and Saturdays, and selected Saturday games simulcast on CTV.[53] Through separate rights deals negotiated with individual teams, TSN also holds rights to all Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC matches (there are no regional blackouts on these games, meaning that these games air nationally as well).[53] All other matches are available on the streaming service DAZN.[54]

As of the 2017 season, TVA Sports is the French-language national rightsholder, and is the broadcaster of all CF Montréal matches.[53][55]

North American/Canadian Soccer

South American Soccer

International soccer

European Soccer

As with other sports properties, game broadcasts on U.S. terrestrial stations carried in Canada, such as selected Premier League games aired on the NBC broadcast network as part of NBC's U.S. rights package, are not subject to blackout for Canadians receiving those stations over-the-air or through a cable/satellite package.

Asian Soccer

Swimming

Tennis

References

  1. ^ "Television Info - Aussie Rules TV Coverage for North America in 2015". Australian Football Association of North America. July 2006. Retrieved April 16, 2015.
  2. ^ "ESPN Reaches Agreement with Eclat Media Group to Provide Exclusive English-Language Coverage of KBO League, South Korea's Most Popular Sports League, throughout Canada, Parts of Latin America, the Caribbean, Europe, Middle East, Africa, and Select Countries in Asia". ESPN. May 22, 2020. Retrieved June 3, 2020.
  3. ^ Zelkovich, Chris (June 16, 2010). "Sportsnet back in the game with Raptors". Toronto Star. Archived from the original on June 19, 2010. Retrieved July 14, 2010.
  4. ^ "NBA 2017-2018 TSN Broadcast Schedule". Bell Media. Retrieved October 21, 2017.
  5. ^ "Three Canadian Networks To Air Live WNBA Games". Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  6. ^ "DAZN Becomes New Home of FIBA Basketball in Canada". Canada Basketball.
  7. ^ "Basketball Africa League reveals broadcast partners for debut season".
  8. ^ Staff, S. V. G. "Global T20 Canada League Appoints Mediapro as New Global Consultant". Sports Video Group. Retrieved August 9, 2019.
  9. ^ "Curling Canada, TSN, and RDS Announce Eight-Year Extension of Broadcast Partnership".
  10. ^ "Sportsnet new owner of Grand Slam curling". The Curling News. August 30, 2012.
  11. ^ "BREAKING: Sportsnet, CBC back on curling ice". The Curling News. August 29, 2012.
  12. ^ "Grand Slam of Curling returns to CBC". CBC Sports. August 30, 2012.
  13. ^ Woods, Tiger; Press, The Canadian (January 29, 2019). "Golf on TSN Broadcast Schedule - TSN.ca". TSN. Retrieved February 3, 2019.
  14. ^ @BubbaCHCH (January 10, 2020). "Pleased to announce that @CHCH is the..." (Tweet) – via Twitter.
  15. ^ Murray, Ewan (June 4, 2018). "Sky faces battle to keep golf rights as PGA Tour strikes $2bn Discovery deal". The Guardian. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  16. ^ Clarke, Stewart (June 4, 2018). "Discovery Inks International Deal for PGA Tour Golf Rights". Variety. Retrieved June 5, 2018.
  17. ^ Clarke, Stewart (October 22, 2018). "Discovery and PGA Tour Tee Up 'GOLFTV' Streaming Brand for 2019 Launch". Variety. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
  18. ^ "U SPORTS announces football post-season broadcast partners". U SPORTS. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  19. ^ "CIS announces nationally-televised Football Game of the Week on City". CIS. Retrieved October 24, 2016.
  20. ^ "Sportsnet Announces Six-Year Deal with CIS, Including Vanier Cup". Sportsnet.ca. Retrieved April 5, 2014.
  21. ^ "Global TV catches Canada West's 79th Hardy Cup". Global News. Shaw Media. Retrieved November 7, 2015.
  22. ^ "Canada West Football Showcase coming to SaskTel, TELUS". Canada West Universities Athletic Association. August 30, 2017. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  23. ^ "Football Weekend Watch: Canada West kicks off league play, full slate of games on Week 2 - U SPORTS - English". en.usports.ca. Retrieved September 2, 2017.
  24. ^ a b "Thursday Night Football comes to TSN". TSN.ca. Bell Media. June 7, 2017. Retrieved June 7, 2017.
  25. ^ "Self-professed 'Netflix of sports' app DAZN launches in Canada with all NFL games". CBC News. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  26. ^ "DAZN, the Netflix of sports, launches in Canada with exclusive NFL streaming rights". Financial Post. July 20, 2017. Retrieved July 21, 2017.
  27. ^ "Streaming service DAZN buys Canadian NFL rights". Toronto Sun. Retrieved July 24, 2017.
  28. ^ "NFL apologizes for 'inadequate service' that left Canadian DAZN viewers fuming in Week 1". National Post. September 12, 2017. Retrieved September 15, 2017.
  29. ^ "DAZN working on making all NFL games available via cable, satellite providers". National Post. October 7, 2017. Retrieved October 10, 2017.
  30. ^ "Rogers scores national NHL TV rights for $5.2B". CBC. November 26, 2013. Retrieved December 7, 2013.
  31. ^ "500-plus NHL games to air under Rogers deal". Sportsnet. February 4, 2014. Retrieved February 5, 2014.
  32. ^ Rogers Media (June 22, 2014). "Rogers Unveils 2014-15 National NHL Broadcast Schedule". CNW Group. Retrieved June 22, 2014.
  33. ^ Faguy, Steve (June 22, 2014). "NHL schedule: Rogers will air 32 Canadiens games nationally in 2014-15". Fagstein. Retrieved June 23, 2014.
  34. ^ "Canadians to Experience NHL Content in 22 Languages, This Season on OMNI Television". Rogers Media. Retrieved September 24, 2014.
  35. ^ "APTN inks 3 year deal with Rogers to broadcast NHL games in Plains Cree". APTN News. Retrieved December 13, 2019.
  36. ^ "TVA SPORTS DÉVOILE SON CALENDRIER". TVASports.ca. Groupe TVA. August 5, 2014. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
  37. ^ "NHL, TVA Sports launch French-language agreement". NHL.com. Retrieved September 21, 2014.
  38. ^ "Canadiens reach new TV deal with RDS". The Gazette (Montreal). December 20, 2013. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  39. ^ Cousineau, Sophie (November 28, 2013). "TVA to pay Rogers $120-million a year to be NHL's French-language broadcaster". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved December 20, 2013.
  40. ^ Buffalo Sabres (October 9, 2013). "SOUTHERN ONTARIO IS NOW "SABRES COUNTRY"". Retrieved October 16, 2013.
  41. ^ "Canadian Hockey League announces new multi-year broadcast partnerships". CHL. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  42. ^ a b "Canadian Hockey League announces new multi-year broadcast partnerships". CHL. Retrieved July 27, 2021.
  43. ^ a b "Canadian Hockey League announces 2021-22 CBC broadcast schedule". CHL. Retrieved September 25, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  44. ^ "TSN and RDS secure long-term media rights with Hockey Canada". TSN. January 7, 2020. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  45. ^ "American Triple Crown Continues on TSN with the Preakness Stakes". TSN. May 18, 2017. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  46. ^ "TSN delivers Canada's biggest horse racing events". TSN. June 9, 2015. Retrieved October 17, 2017.
  47. ^ Meltzer, Dave (December 11, 2018). "UFC renews Canadian broadcast deals with TSN, RDS". MMA Fighting. Retrieved March 7, 2019.
  48. ^ "ESPN, TSN Ink Deals for Professional Fighters League Broadcast Rights". February 26, 2019. Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  49. ^ "2018 Formula Two Racing on TSN". TSN.ca. Retrieved May 4, 2018.
  50. ^ "Last-minute deal gets IndyCar race coverage for Canadian fans". Toronto Star. Retrieved January 9, 2020.
  51. ^ "IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship To Be Broadcast in More Than 200 Countries". SportsCarChampionship.IMSA.com. Retrieved January 23, 2019.
  52. ^ http://www.sportspromedia.com/news/top-14-canal-international-rights-rugby-france
  53. ^ a b c "Canadian national broadcast schedule for 2017 revealed; CTV to air 7 games". MLSSoccer.com. Retrieved February 22, 2017.
  54. ^ "DAZN Canada and Major League Soccer Sign 3-Year Deal". MLS Soccer.
  55. ^ "MLS reaches deals with TSN and TVA for Canadian television rights". ESPN FC. Retrieved January 11, 2017.
  56. ^ "OneSoccer to air exclusive coverage in Canada of 2021 and 2023 Concacaf Gold Cups". Retrieved January 17, 2020.
  57. ^ "Univision, ESPN, TSN and TVA Sports to Air Leagues Cup in the United States and Canada, Televisa in Mexico". Retrieved July 27, 2019.
  58. ^ "TSN Delivers Complete Coverage of COPA AMERICA, Beginning June 13". Retrieved June 12, 2021.
  59. ^ "UEFA Nations League Finals on TLN TV". Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  60. ^ "DAZN gets Canadian broadcast rights for Champions League soccer". The Globe and Mail.
  61. ^ "Where to watch the UEFA Women's Champions League final". UEFA. Retrieved May 15, 2019.
  62. ^ "Streaming service DAZN makes English Premier League broadcast deal official". Retrieved May 12, 2019.
  63. ^ a b "ESPN and LaLiga Reach Historic Rights Agreement Bringing Top-Rated Soccer League to Millions More Fans Across the U.S." ESPN Press Room U.S. May 13, 2021. Retrieved May 31, 2021.
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