Yesterday, the NHL, Rogers and Quebecor finally settled the big missing piece of broadcast rights for the coming season (less than a month away), confirming that TVA Sports will remain the national French-language rights holder for the NHL, minus Wednesday night games that are going to Amazon.
With that in mind, let’s review the breakdown of national and regional rights by team. In bold are changes taking effect this season.
| Team | English TV | French TV | English radio | French radio |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| (National) | Sportsnet (2038) | TVA Sports (2038) | N/A | N/A |
| Amazon** (2038) | Amazon** (2038) | |||
| Vancouver Canucks | Sportsnet Pacific (2033) | None | Kiss FM (2033) | None |
| Edmonton Oilers | Sportsnet West (2035) | None | Corus/CHED (2029) | None |
| Calgary Flames | Sportsnet West (2035) | None | Corus/QR 770 (2031) | None |
| Winnipeg Jets | TSN3 (Unknown) | None | Corus/CJOB (2030) | None |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | TSN4* | None | TSN 1050* | None |
| Sportsnet Ontario* | Sportsnet 590* | |||
| Ottawa Senators | TSN5 (2038) | RDS (2038) | TSN 1200 (2038) | Cogeco/104.7 FM (2028) |
| Montreal Canadiens | TSN2 (Unknown) | RDS (Unknown) | TSN 690 (Unknown) | Cogeco/98.5 FM (2027?) |
| Laval Rocket (AHL) | AHL TV/FloHockey | 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.
**Amazon national rights are limited to Wednesday evening games (27 per season), two first-round playoff series and one second-round playoff series.
Besides Amazon’s increasing presence in English and new presence in French, the only major differences relate to English radio rights in the two markets where Rogers shut down its Sportsnet radio stations. In Vancouver, it will reportedly move the games to Kiss Radio on FM, while in Calgary, a new deal was signed with Corus’s QR 770.
The rest of the announcements were all renewals of contracts, including CHED with the Oilers, and Bell Media with the Senators and Canadiens. Starting last season, French-language radio rights for the Senators were contracted to Cogeco, while the online outlet Sick Media got French-language radio rights to Laval Rocket games.
Two of these deals are up for renewal after this season. CJOB’s Winnipeg Jets deal will likely get renewed has been renewed because there’s no competition there — it’s the only talk station. Cogeco’s Canadiens radio rights deal might be more contentious. We don’t officially know when it ends, but BPM Sports’s new owner said recently he believes it’s up next year and he may be gunning for it.
Are we surprised that TVA is still in the market for this contract?
And today comes word that Rogers will be paywalling its national Monday night games, unless you’re with Rogers or Shaw for your TV service. If you’re with Bell or anyone else, those 4-5 games will cost you an extra $12.99 a month.
I hate being a hockey fan.