Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada


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

Athletics

Major League Baseball

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. Ancillary Raptors content, including game encores, air on NBA TV Canada.
All broadcasters air assorted non-Raptors games throughout the season ; NBA TV Canada typically airs selected games and simulcasts of games from U.S. broadcasters. 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.

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 simulcast 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 or syndicated packages. 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.

Canadian basketball

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

Canadian Football League

Contracts are current as of the 2019 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.

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.
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. 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 Canada West conference package. 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.

U.S. college football

Many ESPN College Football games are aired by TSN's feeds, including the regular season and most bowl games, and all College Football Playoff bowls. TSN also carries College GameDay.
Coverage of games is also available from U.S. networks carried in Canada, such as NFL Network, 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. FloSports carries some Fox College Football broadcasts, while DAZN carries content from Pac-12 Network.

Australian football

National Hockey League

Rogers Communications is the sole national rightsholder of the NHL in Canada as of the 2014–15 NHL season. Most national telecasts air on Sportsnet properties, and include, but are not limited to:
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.

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 2019–20 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 or Rogers NHL Live. If the originating channel is available outside a team's region, 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 rights deals with RDS, the Canadiens forwent a separate regional rights contract 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 in the team's designated broadcast region.
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. 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 NBC broadcast network's national rights package.

Canadian Hockey League

and TVA Sports airs the Memorial Cup tournament and selected other games from across the CHL's member leagues, primarily on Saturday afternoons. Many regular-season games are aired locally by the applicable cable community channels.

U.S. college hockey

TSN and RDS also carries a package of regular season games from various broadcasters. Games are also available via Big Ten Network and CBS Sports Network.

Field Hockey

FIA

Rugby Union

International

Major League Soccer

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. Through separate rights deals negotiated with individual teams, TSN also holds rights to all Toronto FC and Vancouver Whitecaps FC matches. All other matches are available on the streaming service DAZN.
As of the 2017 season, TVA Sports is the French-language national rightsholder, and is the broadcaster of all Montreal Impact matches.

North American/Canadian 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