Canadiens: I think I know who will broadcast next year’s Saturday games

Maxime Truman
Canadiens: I think I know who will broadcast next year’s Saturday games
Credit: Sportsnet

I've been saying this for several months now in various forums. On the radio, in podcasts, here in my articles…

Those who expect TVA Sports to shut down next year because it will lose the French-language national rights to the NHL are in for a big surprise.

From what I've heard, the most likely scenario for French-language broadcasts of the Canadiens' national games, the playoffs, the NHL draft, and several near-daily games involving other teams in the Bettman circuit still involves TVA Sports.

Let's think about this together for a moment…

The current deal between TVA Sports and the NHL (via Rogers) will expire at the end of June. That's normal, you might say, since the agreement between the NHL and Rogers will end at that time…

However, Rogers and the NHL announced last April—almost a year ago—that national rights will remain Rogers' priority for another 12 seasons. In return, Rogers has committed to paying the NHL $11 billion over that 12-year period. This is approximately twice the amount of the previous agreement ($5.2 billion).

Since April, the NHL—not Rogers—has been looking for a partner for French-language rights. It's important to understand that it is the NHL that is making the approaches and negotiating; in the end, the amount obtained will simply be subtracted from the $11 billion owed by Rogers.

At the time of writing, there is still no agreement regarding these French-language rights.

Last October, RDS announced on a Friday afternoon that it had extended its long-term agreement – and in what appears to be a historic move – the rights to the Montreal Canadiens. Reading the press release, we understood that RDS would go from 60 to 45 regional games per season, without obtaining any additional playoff games or special events.

According to what I have been told, RDS will pay the Canadiens just under $2 million per game, which is about double what the channel has been paying for the past ten years. Why did we agree to go from 60 to 45 games on RDS? Simply because 60 was too expensive. And 30 wasn't enough!

With just over 50% of the CH's games, Bell Media's decision-makers believe that Quebecers will remain subscribers to the channel. They were looking for a balance to strike.

Since the next seasons will consist of 84 games, two more than currently, there are still 39 games “up for sale” since October. It was (and still is) premature, based on what I have been able to learn, to say that 15 CH games will be shown exclusively on Crave.

The president of Bell Media recently mentioned that he would like to acquire the French-language national rights to the NHL, but that he will only do so if he considers the price “right.” Let me be clear: if Bell Media had intended to broadcast more than 45 CH games per season, the company would have “bought” 60 regional games, not just 45. So where will the other 39 regular season games—and the playoffs—end up? of the Canadiens? Where will the other 39 regular season games—and playoff games—end up?

Amazon recorded good ratings last year at the start of its agreement, but I'm told that recent ratings for Monday's games on Prime Video have been very disappointing. Yes, the visual quality is top-notch, but averaging only 200,000 English-speaking viewers coast-to-coast per minute is not what the folks at Amazon would call a total success.
Amazon wanted to test the market for about 20 months to see if it made sense to get more involved in the next deal; clearly, the test was not conclusive. Especially since it would be surprising to see a company that has left its Quebec warehouses spend millions, or even billions, to broadcast NHL games in French.
Apple is already struggling to make money with its MLS deal, so I can't see the company saying, “Yeah, let's bet on North American hockey.” Maybe Netflix? It's possible, but I can't really imagine it…
Radio-Canada? I don't see how the (weak) Liberal government could justify subsidizing French-language broadcasts of NHL games to all Canadian taxpayers, but not English-language broadcasts. If you do the math like I did, there's only one likely partner left to dance with the NHL: Quebecor.

My friend and colleague Jeremy Filosa was right two weeks ago: it looks more and more like the Nordiques are coming back to CH hockey on TVA Sports.

Will TVA Sports pick up the remaining 39 games? I would be surprised. It would most likely be too expensive in the eyes of the station's financial directors.

But somewhere between 22 and 34 games seems realistic, even probable, to me.

It's important to understand that the NHL usually starts working on its schedule for the next season after the trade deadline. That's three weeks from now this year…

Since you have to involve your national broadcasters when designing your schedule, I don't see how the NHL will be able to put together its schedule without finding a French-language TV partner.

The NHL is stuck; it would have liked to have finalized a deal beforehand.

Time is running out.

Much like what happened with the Thrashers and the City of Winnipeg, there are sometimes good deals to be made at the eleventh hour, when Gary Bettman and Bill Daly are feeling pressed for time.

That's why, on February 16, 2026, I'm putting TVA Sports way ahead of the others to get the French-language rights to the NHL. It should be noted that I tried to get comments from several decision-makers at RDS, TVA Sports, Amazon, and the NHL offices, but everyone is currently in mute mode. This is usually a sign that negotiations are underway and progressing…


Overtime

A fellow journalist told me over the weekend that he expects TVA Sports to post a profit for the first time in its history in its next income statement. If that's not the case, he says it will be a very small deficit.

It's important to understand that the CH series, the Blue Jays' playoff run, Victoria Mboko's victory at the National Bank Open… all of this has brought in a lot of advertising money.

In addition, several positions deemed unnecessary have been cut over the past two years, the TVA Sports studios have been moved to the Journal de Montréal building, and the entire TVA Sports editorial team is now employed by Quebecor NumeriQ.

And that's not counting Bell Media, which may soon have to pay retroactive royalties of several million dollars to Quebecor, if the CRTC rules in its favor…

Meanwhile, RDS continues to accumulate significant losses, mainly due to its news department, which is expensive to operate and does not bring in enough money to be profitable. RDS Info lost $7.5 million in 2024 and RDS lost $20.3 million.

Who would have thought a few years ago that TVA Sports would be doing (much) better than RDS?

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