Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada


Sports broadcasting contracts in Canada include:

Athletics

Australian-rules football

Baseball

Major League Baseball

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 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. 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 since 2019.

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

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.

International cricket

Domestic cricket

Curling

Cycling

Extreme sports

Golf

Gridiron football

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.
  • 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.
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. 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 Bell MTS Fibe TV, SaskTel MaxTV and Telus TV. The conference also operates an over-the-top subscription service known as Canada West TV, which broadcasts events not shown on these packages.

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.

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 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

Hockey

National Hockey League

Rogers Communications is the sole national rightsholder of the NHL in Canada through the 2037–38 season. Most national telecasts air on Sportsnet properties, and include, but are not limited to:Hockey Night in Canada: Exclusive national window for Canadian teams on Saturday nights, multiple games airing across CBC Television, Citytv, and Sportsnet channels.
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 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 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. 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. 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. 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. 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.
  • RDS will broadcast 20 national games from across the CHL's leagues.

Other events

Horse racing

Since 2024, Woodbine Entertainment Group has held the Canadian broadcast rights to a number of major domestic and international horse racing events, including the Canadian triple crown and U.S. triple crown, the Breeders' Cup, and other domestic and international races. These events are packaged under the branding Ignite World Racing, with Woodbine sublicensing television rights to Sportsnet and Citytv, and also handling distribution via partnered sports betting services.
Previously, TSN held Canadian rights to the U.S. triple crown, as well as the Canadian triple crown.

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

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.
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.

Canadian and North American 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

Other