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Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada

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Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada include:

Athletics

Australian-rules football

Baseball

Major League Baseball

Basketball

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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 Rogers Communications. Coverage is mostly shared between 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.[2] 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);[3] 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.[4]

U.S. college basketball

TSN owns the Canadian broadcast rights to the NCAA Division I men's 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

2024 Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament (Canada games): Sportsnet

Canadian basketball

Cricket

Willow owns the vast majority of Canadian cricket rights, with live coverage available through its cable TV channel and streaming apps. Willow owns the Canadian and American rights to all ICC events until 2027.[5]

International cricket

Domestic cricket

Curling

Cycling

Extreme sports

Golf

Gridiron football

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Canadian football

Canadian Football League

  • TSN – all games including playoffs and Grey Cup
  • CTV – selected Saturday afternoon and playoff games since 2024, simulcasts the Grey Cup with TSN.[14]
  • 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).[15]

TVA Sports carries many QSSF games. In 2016, Sportsnet's sister broadcast network Citytv began broadcasting a four-game U Sports Game of the Week package.[16][17] 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).[18]

As of the 2017–18 season, Canada West conference rights are held by Bell MTS Fibe TV, SaskTel MaxTV and Telus TV (including a regular season package and playoff coverage).[19][20] The conference also operates an over-the-top subscription service known as Canada West TV, which broadcasts events not shown on these packages.[21]

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

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National Hockey League

Rogers Communications is the sole national rightsholder of the NHL in Canada through the 2025–26 season. Most national telecasts air on Sportsnet properties, and include, but are not limited to:[28][29][30]

  • 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.[31] 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.
  • National Monday-night game.
  • Simulcasts of all-U.S. games from regional sports networks, and U.S. national rightsholders (including ESPN and TNT Sports).
  • Stanley Cup Playoffs coverage; all games carried by Sportsnet, with at least one game per-day simulcast by CBC. All games from the conference finals onward are simulcast by Sportsnet and CBC.
  • Canadian distribution and marketing rights to the NHL.tv (Sportsnet+) 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.[33]
  • Since 2019, the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network (APTN) simulcasts selected Hockey Night in Canada (initially Hometown Hockey prior to 2022) games with commentary in Indigenous languages; the coverage initially focused on Plains Cree,[34] while games in Inuktitut were added in 2025.[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 2021–22 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. During the 2013–14 season, Bell Satellite TV and Bell Fibe TV acquired 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 were made available to Bell TV subscribers in this region at no extra cost, and were no longer available as part of the NHL Centre Ice package through other providers serving this region.[40] The Sabres' agreement with Bell eventually ended, and the team later reached a similar agreement with streaming TV provider Fubo beginning in the 2023–24 NHL season.[41] 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 ABC's national rights package, are also available without blackout, though from time to time Rogers has simulcast these productions on Citytv for simultaneous substitution purposes.

Canadian Hockey League

As of the 2021–22 season, the national CHL package is divided between TSN and CBC Sports.[42] 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]

Other events

Horse racing

Lacrosse

Kickboxing

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

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Major League Soccer

Beginning with the 2023 season, Apple is the primary global rightsholder to Major League Soccer and the Leagues Cup through its MLS Season Pass streaming product, under a contract in effect until 2032.[60]

From 2023 to 2026, Bell Media, through TSN and RDS, will simulcast coverage of at least one MLS match per week involving a Canadian club, as well as select playoff and Leagues Cup matches. Coverage of games aired by the Fox broadcast network will also be available to most Canadian TV service subscribers.[61]

Canadian and North American soccer

Note, The Main OneSoccer channel is on Fubo TV

South American soccer

Note, beIN SPORTS Canada is on Fubo TV

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

Other

See also

References

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