Sports broadcast contracts in Canada

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

Baseball

Major League Baseball

Rogers Sportsnet holds the national contract with MLB to broadcast Sunday Night Baseball, the MLB All-Star Game, and the playoffs.

Toronto Blue Jays games are split between Rogers Sportsnet (some games on Sportsnet Ontario only), TSN, and CBC Television, with the vast majority on Sportsnet. The remaining games not covered under these contracts are available via Rogers Cable (and potentially other service providers) as a "free preview" of MLB Extra Innings.

Most Sportsnet channels also carry a variety of non-Blue Jays games of regional interest that are not part of the U.S. national packages, albeit never at the same time as a Jays game. For example, Sportsnet Pacific carries many Seattle Mariners games, while Sportsnet East carries several Boston Red Sox games, simulcasting the applicable local broadcaster. It is not clear if this coverage is part of the MLB package, or the result of separate deals with the individual teams.

The MLB Extra Innings pay-per-view package is available through Canadian PPV services.

Basketball

National Basketball Association

Raptors NBA TV, RSN, The Score, and TSN broadcast Toronto Raptors games, plus select NBA games not involving the Raptors

NBA Playoffs air on all three networks; the NBA Finals are televised by TSN (although virtually every viewer who gets TSN also gets ABC on their TV package)

NCAA

The Score airs most of the NCAA Men's Division I Basketball Tournament. CBS coverage of the tournament is also available in Canada.

Some regular-season and conference-tournament games air on The Score. Some cable systems offer packages of college games that air on ESPN or syndication in the U.S.

Canadian Interuniversity Sport

The Score usually broadcasts the CIS men's and women's basketball tournaments.

Cricket

*CBN - is a channel from Asian Television Network that shows all live cricket matches. Available with selected satellite and cable providers.
*ATN Cricket Plus - is a back-up live cricket broadcaster to CBN and also a 24x7 cricket channel in Canada. Available with selected satellite and cable providers.
*Indian Premier League- will be telecasted live on CBN, replay and highlights on ATN Cricket Plus
*Stanford 20/20 - will be shown on CBN.

Curling

*CBC shows the semi-finals and finals of major tournaments (the Brier, Tournament of Hearts and the World Curling Championships), plus coverage of the Continental Cup of Curling, Canada Cup of Curling and Grand Slam events. They also show the men's and women's final of the Canadian Junior Curling Championships.
*TSN shows round-robin coverage of the major tournaments, but doesn't show morning draws or World championships held outside of Canada. Beginning in December 2007, TSN will re-start the TSN Skins Game.

Football

Canadian Football League

*TSN - all games including playoffs and Grey Cup
*RDS - all Montreal games in French, plus other selected regular season games, playoffs, and Grey Cup.

National Football League

*CTV - Sunday "early" (1:00 p.m. ET) games, all playoff games, and the Super Bowl. Games can also theoretically air on TSN, and on least one occasion a playoff game has been aired on TSN rather than CTV.
*TSN - all primetime regular-season games (from NBC, ESPN, NFLN).
*Rogers Sportsnet - Sunday "late" (4:05 / 4:15 p.m. ET) games, plus Thanksgiving afternoon games and the Pro Bowl.
**Where available, Citytv (also owned by Rogers) also carries Sunday late games, under sublicence from Sportsnet. The game carried by a given Citytv station is usually a reverse mirror of the one carried by the local Sportsnet feed.
*RDS / RIS - exclusive French-language rights. Presently RDS carries selected Sunday afternoon games (mainly towards the end of the season) and the playoffs, and RIS carries Monday night games.

NBC, CBS, and Fox are available in Canada, as is NFL Sunday Ticket. NFL Network is also available, but its games are blacked out in Canada in deference to TSN.

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 market on any Sunday afternoon (up to four games in week 17).

Canadian college football

The Score and RDS broadcast the national CIS playoff games, namely the Mitchell Bowl, the Uteck Bowl, and the Vanier Cup. The Score also carries some OUA games while RDS carries many QSSF games.

Games not covered by these contracts are often carried by local cable community channels.

U.S. college football

Some NCAA games air on The Score. Bowl games are split between TSN and The Score. Some cable systems offer packages of college games that air on ESPN or syndication in the U.S.

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. E! airs the weekend rounds of most PGA Tour events carried by U.S. network television. (In markets where E! is not widely available, some local Global stations carry 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):
* 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 ("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 will also be aired.
**Playoffs:
***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)
*TSN2: Selected regular season games with two U.S. teams
*NHL Network: Selected regular season games with two U.S. teams, plus live look-ins of regional games
*RDS / RIS: Exclusive French-language rights to NHL games (normally airing all Montreal games, selected Ottawa contests, and several playoff 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.

New contracts in effect as of 2008–09 will allow for additional weeknight games on CBC and limits on the number of CBC regular-season broadcasts featuring a single team. TSN will also be permitted to carry first and second round playoff games involving Canadian teams for the first time.

Canadian teams also contract with local or regional broadcasters for selected regular season games not covered by the national contracts:
*Vancouver Canucks: Rogers Sportsnet, Breakaway PPV
*Edmonton Oilers: Rogers Sportsnet, Breakaway PPV
*Calgary Flames: Rogers Sportsnet, Breakaway PPV
*Toronto Maple Leafs: Rogers Sportsnet, Leafs TV
*Ottawa Senators: Rogers Sportsnet, "Sens TV" (pay per view via Viewers Choice, Shaw PPV, Vu!)
*Montreal Canadiens: Presently no regional carrier (RDS's national package includes French-language coverage of all Canadiens games)

Canadian Hockey League

Rogers 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

*TSN - National championships and most international events sanctioned by Hockey Canada (including but not limited to IIHF world championships, Telus Cup, Royal Bank Cup, Esso Women's Nationals, and the Allan Cup)
*Rogers Sportsnet - Spengler Cup

Motor Racing

*Formula 1: RDS, TSN

occer

Major League Soccer

*CBC, Rogers Sportsnet, and The Score broadcast Toronto FC games. :"Note: Some games on Rogers Sportsnet are aired nationally, while others are only shown on Rogers Sportsnet Ontario."
*bold broadcasts the MLS All-Star Game and MLS Cup.

International soccer

*UEFA events, including Champions League and European Football Championship: TSN/RDS
**TSN currently resells partial rights to the Euro tournament to Rogers Sportsnet
*Premier League : Setanta Sports, Fox Sports World Canada, The Score, Rogers Sportsnet
*FIFA events, including the World Cup: CBC

Tennis

*Australian Open : TSN
*French Open : TSN
*The Championships, Wimbledon : TSN
*U.S. Open : TSN
*Rogers Cup : TSN, CBC Sports
*ATP Masters Series : TSN
*Masters Cup : TSN

kiing

*Alpine Skiing World Cup: CBC until 2010
*Alpine Skiing World Championships: CBC

Olympics

* 2008 Summer Olympics: CBC, TSN and RDS
* 2008 Paralympic Games: CBC
* 2010 Winter Olympics: CTV, TSN and Rogers Sportsnet [http://www.cbc.ca/sports/story/2005/02/07/ctv050207.html]
* 2012 Summer Olympics: CTV, TSN and Rogers Sportsnet