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.
Baseball
Major League Baseball
Sportsnet holds the national contract with MLB to carry national broadcasts, including the MLB All-Star Game and the postseason, with the current contract expiring in 2013. Since May 2010, it has sub-licensed its rights to Sunday Night Baseball to TSN2 for the same period, in exchange for TSN and TSN2 releasing their rights to Toronto Blue Jays games. However, individual SNB games may still air on Sportsnet in the event of scheduling conflicts on both TSN and TSN2.
All Canadian broadcast rights to Blue Jays games are now held by Sportsnet, with the possible exception of any SNB games (however, the Jays have not been featured on SNB in several years). Since August 2010, some games have aired on the digital-only channel Sportsnet One (as opposed to the regional Sportsnet channels which are available on analogue cable). Since the Blue Jays and Sportsnet are both wholly owned by Rogers Communications, Sportsnet's rights are of indefinite duration.
Most Sportsnet channels (including Sportsnet One) also carry a variety of non-Blue Jays games of regional interest that are not part of the U.S. national packages. For example, Sportsnet Pacific carries many Seattle Mariners games, while Sportsnet East carries several Boston Red Sox games, simulcasting the applicable local broadcaster. Sportsnet also airs many games involving the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers.
The MLB Extra Innings pay-per-view package is available through Canadian PPV services.
Finally, U.S. over-the-air coverage, such as the national Saturday afternoon package on Fox and sometimes team broadcasts from local stations, is also available in Canada. Peachtree TV, an Atlanta station which holds a share of the local broadcast rights to the Atlanta Braves, is available through most Canadian cable and satellite providers, and on rare occasions has covered games between the Braves and the Blue Jays not covered by any Canadian outlet. The same applies to WGN-TV and WPIX, which are also carried in Canada as superstations.
Basketball
National Basketball Association
The NBA's Canadian marketing arm is managed by Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, parent company of the Toronto Raptors. As a result, MLSE sells packages typically including both Raptors and non-Raptors games. Simulcasts of U.S. national broadcasts from TNT, ESPN, or NBA TV typically have priority, although in many cases out-of-market team broadcasts may be aired as well.
For the 2010-11 season, TSN and TSN2 will together carry 47 Toronto Raptors games, with the remaining 35 games airing on either Sportsnet or Sportsnet One.[1]
All four of these channels, as well as The Score and NBA TV Canada, will carry non-Raptors regular-season games and/or NBA Playoffs games, with TSN2 carrying most regular-season TNT games, and TSN carrying the NBA Finals (although virtually every viewer who receives TSN also gets ABC from their cable or satellite service provider).
Sunday afternoon on ABC via NBA on ESPN games, which were previously simulcast on Sun TV, are now expected to air on CHCH-TV (due to Sun TV's plans to leave the air at the end of 2010).
In addition, some NBA games are available on United States local broadcasters carried on Canadian cable systems. One such example is Chicago based WGN, several Chicago Bulls games are carried on this network, through its status as the Bulls' local broadcaster.
All remaining games are available through the NBA League Pass out-of-market sports package.
NCAA
TSN owns the Canadian broadcast rights the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament, with coverage on both TSN and TSN2. CBS coverage of the tournament is also available in Canada.
Some regular-season and conference-tournament games air on The Score. They usually air ESPN's Wednesday and Saturday night games. Sportsnet has a contract to air Pac-10 games from Fox Sports Net stations. Most of these games air on Sportsnet Pacific and West; however, some air nationally.
In addition, many games are covered on United States based networks that are carried by Canadian cable systems. CBS and ABC carry many Saturday and Sunday afternoon games. In addition, the Big Ten Network is widely available in Canada and features several Big Ten Conference games throughout the season. Also, in some areas of Canada, local broadcasters of colleges are available. One such example is KHQ, a Spokane based, NBC affiliate, carries many Gonzaga Bulldogs games during the season.
Some cable systems offer packages of college games that air on ESPN or syndication in the U.S.
Canadian Interuniversity Sport
TSN currently owns the rights to the CIS men's and women's basketball tournaments. Some games are not broadcast but instead streamed online.
Cricket
Asian Television Network 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.
The Indian Premier League was telecast live on CBN with replays and highlights on ATN Cricket Plus. However, starting with the 2011 IPL tournament, games were shifted to being aired live on pay-per-view and on Sportsnet.
Curling
- CBC airs World Curling Tour Grand Slam events. For 2008 these are The Masters, The National, The BDO Canadian Open and The Players' Championship. Usually a quarter final airs on CBC on Saturday afternoon, a semi final airs on CBC Bold on Saturday night, and then the final airs on CBC on Sunday afternoon. The exception is the Players' Championship, where the Women's final airs on Saturday and the Men's final airs on Sunday, both are carried by CBC.
- TSN shows The Season of Champions. Events include The Continental Cup, Canadian Junior Championships, Scotties Tournament of Hearts, Tim Hortons Brier, Canada Cup of Curling and World Curling Championships. They only air weekend draws for The Canadian Junior Championships, Canada Cup; as well as the World Championship that is taking play outside of Canada. They air all draws of The Brier, Tournament of Hearts; as well as the World Championship that is taking place in Canada. Some of these draws can air on TSN2. TSN also airs The Casino Rama Skins game. They air all three draws (semi finals and final) at this event.
- TSN - all games including playoffs and Grey Cup
- RDS - all Montreal games in French; as well as playoffs and the Grey Cup.
- CTV - Sunday "early" (1:00 p.m. ET) games, all playoff games, and the Super Bowl.
- Playoff games conflicting with CTV's other first-run programming may air instead on TSN. More specifically, the divisional playoff game on late Sunday afternoon usually airs on TSN due to the possibility of a late-running game interfering with CTV's broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards that evening.
- Beginning with the 2010 season, TSN2 also carries games during the Sunday 1:00 ET window, which may or may not be different from any of the CTV games.
- TSN - all primetime games from NBC and ESPN (i.e. Sunday and Monday nights and the Thursday night kickoff game). CTV apparently has the option to simulcast these games, as occurred for the 2007 New England Patriots-New York Giants game (following the last-minute decision to simulcast that NFLN game on NBC and CBS; at that time TSN also held the NFLN package).
- Sportsnet - Sunday "late" (4:05 / 4:15 p.m. ET) games, plus the NFL Network primetime package and the Pro Bowl.
- Citytv (under sublicence from Sportsnet) - Sunday late games (the game carried by a given Citytv station is usually a reverse mirror of the one carried by the local Sportsnet feed); afternoon games on U.S. Thanksgiving
- RDS / RIS - exclusive French-language rights. Presently RDS carries selected Sunday games (up to two per week in either the 1:00, 4:05/4:15, and 8:15 ET timeslots, mainly towards the end of the season) and the playoffs, and RIS carries Monday night games.
Based on past practice, it appears that CTV and TSN2 are limited to a maximum of four different games in the early window, while Sportsnet and Citytv are limited to two games in the late window.
NBC, CBS, and Fox are available in Canada but their broadcasts may be subject to simultaneous substitution. NFL Network is available as well, but its games are similarly blacked out in Canada in deference to Sportsnet. Finally, NFL Sunday Ticket is also available through virtually all service providers, whereas in the U.S. the service is exclusive to DirecTV.
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).
TSN and RDS broadcast the national CIS playoff games, namely the Mitchell Bowl, the Uteck Bowl, and the Vanier Cup. The Score carries some OUA games while SRC carries many QSSF games.
Games not covered by these contracts are often carried by local cable community channels.
Some NCAA games air on The Score, usually on Thursday nights in 2008. Most bowl games are split between TSN and The Score. The BCS Games air on TSN or TSN2. This is in addition to U.S. broadcast network coverage and, in some areas (depending on the set(s) of network affiliates received), syndicated packages such as ESPN Plus.
Golf
- TSN carries coverage of The Masters (first two rounds live, final two rounds on tape delay), the U.S. Open, The Open Championship, and the PGA Championship, as well as selected other R&A, USGA and PGA of America events. It also carries a limited schedule of PGA Tour coverage (including the early rounds of the Canadian Open, sub-licensed from The Golf Channel).
- Global carries live weekend coverage of The Masters, as well as most PGA Tour events carried by U.S. network television (in many cases carrying the final round only).
- The Golf Channel (based in the U.S. but available in much of Canada on digital cable/satellite) carries early-round coverage of all PGA Tour events (i.e. not the majors) and four-round coverage of some late-season tournaments. This coverage was carried on TSN prior to 2007.
Hockey
National Hockey League
National broadcast rights, including both TV and Internet broadcast rights (current contracts run until 2014) are as follows. Note that in the case of playoff games (particularly in the second and third rounds), CBC and TSN have the flexibility to trade games in case of scheduling conflicts, and therefore the games broadcast during any particular season may not correspond exactly to the contracted rights listed below.
- CBC (Hockey Night in Canada)
- Regular season: Exclusive rights to Saturday broadcasts (including Saturday night doubleheader and selected Saturday afternoon games), occasional weeknight games
- Playoffs:
- Conference quarterfinals: Four series (first, second, fourth, and sixth choice)
- Conference semifinals: Two series (first and second choice)
- Conference finals: All games of first-choice series; games 4-7 of second-choice series (all games if both series involve a Canadian team)
- Stanley Cup Finals
- TSN / TSN2 (NHL on TSN)
- Regular season: most national weeknight and Sunday games, including exclusive rights to Wednesday broadcasts. 70 games per season will involve at least one Canadian team. Some all-U.S. matchups beyond this limit are also aired (mainly from Versus), airing primarily on TSN2.
- Toronto Maple Leafs: 17 games, including 10 "regional" telecasts aired nationally with the consent of the NHL and the other Canadian teams.[2] Due to Molson's title sponsorship of the Leafs' regional broadcasts, these telecasts are branded "NHL on TSN Presented by Molson".
- Montreal Canadiens: 15 games
- Winnipeg Jets: 60 games
- All other Canadian teams: 10 games each
- Playoffs (primarily on TSN, although in case of conflicts TSN2 is also used)
- Conference quarterfinals: Four series (third, fifth, seventh, eighth choice)
- Conference semifinals: Two series (third and fourth choice)
- Conference finals: Games 1-3 of the second-choice series (if no Canadian teams involved)
- NBC (NHL on NBC)
- Regular season: Exclusive rights to early Sunday broadcasts for U.S. teams near the end of the season.
- Playoff broadcasts would be shared between NBC and Versus.
- NHL Network: Selected regular season games (currently only all-U.S. matchups), plus live look-ins of regional games
- RDS / RIS: Exclusive French-language rights to NHL games, including all Montreal Canadiens games, several Ottawa Senators games, selected games sourced from TSN or Versus that do not conflict with the preceding, and all possible playoff games. No regional restrictions for any games.
- NHL Centre Ice: pay-per-view package available via various cable / satellite providers
The CBC has occasionally shared its rights with ethnic broadcasters to provide simulcast game coverage in languages other than English or French. Presumably TSN has the same rights for its games should it choose to exercise them.
The contracts in effect since the 2008-09 season allow for several weeknight games on CBC each season, but also place limits on the number of CBC regular-season broadcasts featuring a single team. TSN is also now permitted to carry first and second round playoff games involving Canadian teams, which were previously exclusively broadcast by CBC.
Canadian teams also contract with local or regional broadcasters for selected regular season games not covered by the national contracts:
No U.S. team holds any regional broadcast territory within Canada. This means that teams such as Detroit Red Wings and the Buffalo Sabres, whose markets border on Windsor and Niagara Region respectively, are unable to sell regional rights to their broadcasts in Canada; both bordering municipalities are within the Maple Leafs' exclusive territory.
WGN Sports has some broadcasts of the Chicago Blackhawks in Canada.
Sportsnet airs the Memorial Cup tournament and selected other games from across the CHL's member leagues. Many regular-season games are aired locally by the applicable cable community channels.
Other events
Mixed Martial Arts
Ultimate Fighting Championship
Sportsnet airs all television events in Canada including pay-per-view preliminary fights, live non pay-per-view events, The Ultimate Fighter and UFC Fight Night.[3]
Motor Racing
Soccer
- National broadcasts: TSN has the primary national broadcast contract for the 2011 to 2016 seasons, including first selection of games involving Canadian teams. Games may air on either TSN or TSN2 in English, and in some cases also on either RDS or RIS in French. This includes:
- 30 games involving Canadian teams per season. It is not yet clear whether the games must be evenly divided among the Canadian teams.
- The MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup for all six seasons. TSN also owns broadcast rights to the MLS Cup Playoffs, but it is not clear how many playoff games it will air.
- Additional games not involving Canadian teams, presently all simulcast from ESPN / ESPN2 or Fox Soccer Channel.
- GolTV Canada airs additional U.S. games from ESPN or FSC that TSN chooses not to air.
- Regional broadcasts: (Note there are no out-of-market blackouts, so all games are available across Canada to digital cable and satellite subscribers.)
Other domestic leagues
North American/Canadian Soccer
International soccer
- FIFA events, including the World Cup (through 2014): CBC, Radio-Canada (French) and TLN (Italian and Spanish). Some lesser-known FIFA events may be sublicensed to other broadcasters; TLN-owned soccer channel EuroWorld Sport claims to own some of these rights.
- UEFA's key national-team competitions, including the European Championship, UEFA Women's Championship and UEFA Under-21 Championship: TSN / RDS; contract runs 2011-2017 (including Euro 2012 and Euro 2016; U-21 tournaments in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017; and Women's Euro 2013). Some games will air on TSN2 / RIS.[5] Tournaments apart from the main Euro championship may be carried online only.[6]
- UEFA Champions League:
- Sportsnet (all four regional channels): First pick of Wednesday matches, and the final
- Sportsnet One: Third pick of Wednesday matches, if applicable
- Sportsnet World: Second pick on each of Tuesday and Wednesday, plus any matches originating in Russia not selected by the TSN or Sportsnet channels, and tape-delayed coverage of most other matches.
- UEFA Europa League: TLN and EuroWorld Sport
- Premier League : Rights are currently divided between TSN2 (Saturday morning and Monday afternoon games), Sportsnet and Sportsnet World.
- Serie A: The Score airs one game on Saturday (5:00pm ET) and two games on Sundays, at 9:00am and 11:00am ET. TLN airs games Sundays at 2:30pm ET. Games also air on Fox Sports World and EuroWorld Sport.
- Primera División Argentina: Fox Sports World
- La Liga: Gol TV
- Campeonato Brasileiro Série A: Gol TV
- Fußball-Bundesliga: Gol TV
- Primera División de México: Fox Sports World
- Scottish Premier League: Sportsnet World
- Coppa Italia: Gol TV
- Copa del Rey: Gol TV
- FA Cup: Sportsnet World
- Carling Cup: Sportsnet World
Tennis
Skiing
Swimming
Olympics
References
|
Sports broadcasting contracts in North America
|
|
| Sovereign states |
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Canada
- Costa Rica
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Dominican Republic
- El Salvador
- Grenada
- Guatemala
- Haiti
- Honduras
- Jamaica
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Trinidad and Tobago
- United States
|
|
Dependencies and
other territories |
- Anguilla
- Aruba
- Bermuda
- Bonaire
- British Virgin Islands
- Cayman Islands
- Curaçao
- Greenland
- Guadeloupe
- Martinique
- Montserrat
- Puerto Rico
- Saint Barthélemy
- Saint Martin
- Saint Pierre and Miquelon
- Saba
- Sint Eustatius
- Sint Maarten
- Turks and Caicos Islands
- United States Virgin Islands
|
|
|
|
|
| Contract history |
|
|
| American network broadcasters |
|
|
| Canadian network broadcasters |
|
|
| American pay TV carriers |
|
|
| Canadian pay TV carriers |
|
|
| NHL owned and operated entities |
|
|
| News television series |
|
|
| Specialty programming |
|
|
| Broadcasters by event |
|
|
| Local broadcasters |
|
Individual networks
|
|
|
|
Individual series
|
|
|
|
| Ratings |
|
|
|
|
|
| Contract history |
|
|
| Broadcast partners |
|
|
| Pay television carriers |
|
|
| MLB owned and operated entities |
|
|
| General media |
|
|
| Local broadcasters |
|
American broadcasters
|
|
|
|
Canadian broadcasters
|
|
|
|
| News television series |
|
|
| Specialty programming |
|
|
| Ratings |
|
|
| Broadcasters by event |
|
|
| International coverage |
|
|
| Landmark events |
|
|
| Children's programming |
|
|
| Miscellaneous |
|
|