We were expecting some big changes to NHL TV rights deals after the Rogers 12-year deal expired in 2026. As it turns out, less and less is set to change.
On Friday, Bell Media announced a renewal of a regional rights deal between TSN and RDS and the Montreal Canadiens, which will see them continue to broadcast regular-season games “for years to come.”
The announcement didn’t say how many years, or how much will be paid, so it gets added to an annoyingly long list of rights deals whose expiry dates are unknown.
Under the deal, which starts with the 2026-27 season, TSN will get 50 games a season, the same as it does now (but in an 84-game season, that means two more national games for Sportsnet). But RDS will get only 45 games, down from the current 60.
Presumably this means whoever the French national broadcaster is will get the remaining 39 games in French. But we still don’t know who that will be. When Rogers announced the renewal of its deal with the NHL, it didn’t include TVA Sports, and TVA boss Pierre Karl Péladeau has talked openly about the future of the channel being precarious. It’s possible that TVA will still renew, or that RDS gets the national rights back for the first time since 2014, or that Rogers decides to broadcast national games in French, or something else out of left field (Amazon? Radio-Canada?)
Here’s how the broadcast rights deals work, as best as I can piece together, and when they expire:
| Team | English TV | French TV | English radio | French radio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (National) | Sportsnet (2038) | TVA Sports (2026) | N/A | N/A |
| Vancouver Canucks | Sportsnet Pacific (2033) | None | Sportsnet 650 (2033) | None |
| Edmonton Oilers | Sportsnet West (2035) | None | Corus/CHED (Unknown) | None |
| Calgary Flames | Sportsnet West (2035) | None | Sportsnet 960 (2035) | None |
| Winnipeg Jets | TSN3 (Unknown) | None | Corus/CJOB (2027) | None |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | TSN4* | None | TSN 1050* | None |
| Sportsnet Ontario* | Sportsnet 590* | |||
| Ottawa Senators | TSN5 (2026) | RDS (2026) | TSN 1200 (2026) | Cogeco (2028) |
| Montreal Canadiens | TSN2 (Unknown) | RDS (Unknown) | TSN 690 (Unknown) | Cogeco (Unknown) |
| Laval Rocket (AHL) | None | RDS (home games only) | None | Sick Media (home games only) |
*Leafs rights are governed by an agreement between Bell and Rogers as part of Rogers’ takeover of Leafs owner MLSE. The rights remain split between the two in the short term and guarantees Bell rights to continue those rights at fair market value for the next 20 years.
There have been a couple of changes on radio — Corus’s CJOB taking over Jets games after Bell pulled the plug on TSN Radio in Winnipeg, and Cogeco getting rights to the Senators — but otherwise it’s pretty much the same for the coming years, with Rogers owning the Canucks, Oilers and Flames, TSN having the Jets and Canadiens and the two splitting the Leafs.
Besides TVA’s national rights deal, Senators rights are also up in the air beyond this season. TSN renewing its agreement makes the most sense, but Sportsnet East is available if Rogers gets the Senators back, and TVA Sports might be willing to deal with blackouts to get some Senators hockey viewership, though I don’t think they have the kind of money to spare on getting those extra rights.
Oh, you may have noticed another change in the above chart. The Laval Rocket has dropped both BPM Sports and TSN 690 as radio broadcasters, and signed a deal with podcast network Sick Media instead, which will have only French audio broadcasts and only for home games. Not ideal for the team or its fans, but a great get for the digital media outlet.
Sick is interesting
How so?
I think you will find that unlike in the past with big price tag deals and long terms, that most of them are scared as hell and prefer flexible deals with plenty of escape clauses. So one of the reasons you don’t see expiry dates is that it is very likely year to year.
The media companies are worn down by high costs and low viewership. So I think you will never see the actual price paid out there, nor will you see an actual expiry anymore.
As for Sick Media, I think they are something to watch closely. They are picking away at the bottom of the pile, but they are getting good things for probably not that much money. They are getting very much into the right places. To be honest, if the new owners of the former TPP media sites had a brain, they would be trying to work a deal with these people for content.
The deals explicitly state that they are multi-year, which means they’re not year-to-year.
Thanks for this breakdown, Steve. Do you happen to know which radio crews still travel on roadtrips? I know this is the first season that the Sens English radio team is staying in Ottawa all season. My understanding is that this was already the case for both the Habs English radio crew, and the Leafs crew, but I’m wondering if there are any others already in that same boat.
Cheers.
I don’t have access to any more data than you do on that, so I’d have to try to figure it out for each team. I think we’re definitely seeing a trendline toward more calling of away games remotely on radio.
TSN690 send their radio crew out on the road for the Canadiens games.
Rogers could get a better French TV deal if it goes with 39 Habs games. Now, who can pay the money Rogers wants ? My take : 50 % Crave/Amazon Prime, 50 % TVA Sports or Rogers Sports (in French !) Of course, that’s highly speculative…
39 Habs games out of the RDS regional deal, means that Rogers is in a better place to sell its French TV rights to new or old partners. The Canadiens are more popular than ever and the next years could see a dominant team with lots of playoff games. It will be more difficult for PKP to say NO to Rogers and kill TVA Sports. It will be tought for Bell to see its competitor to become the Canadiens true TV partner with more game on the whole season. But these rights are awfully expensive and its almost impossible to make money out of it. My take : a partnership with Crave, RDS and Amazon to share the games.
Amazon is on boycott in Montreal because they send 6000 people to the street and the city is already in a housing and homelessness crisis. Add Trump to that. People will use IPTV apps like LEMO to watch the games is the habs decides to go that way. Rogers would be out of Toronto if they broadcast themselves the games. Some Saturday games may end up on NOOVO, it would be great for that Network. Even Radio Canada could get some games if the deal is split.