CH games in French on Sportsnet: Jeremy Filosa floats the idea

Marc-Olivier Cook
CH games in French on Sportsnet: Jeremy Filosa floats the idea
Credit: John Lamparski/Getty Images

The NHL's broadcasting rights deal with Rogers is set to expire at the end of June.

And for now… it's unclear what to expect for the upcoming season.

In fact, we know that some games will be shown on RDS (we're looking at around 45 games) and that TVA Sports will remain in the picture as well. But as for the rest, it's more of a mystery than anything else…

Jeremy Filosa was a guest on Tony Marinaro's Sick Podcast this morning, and while discussing the situation, he mentioned the possibility of Sportsnet (which will retain NHL rights) picking up Canadiens games to broadcast them in French.

That could be done with on-site play-by-play announcers and analysts for the games… but it could also be done with play-by-play announcers and analysts in the studio. It would make for a less-than-ideal show—everyone agrees on that—and it certainly wouldn't please everyone either…

That would upset some people because it would mean yet another subscription for some Habs fans.

TVA Sports, RDS, Sportsnet…

Having to subscribe to so many channels just to watch a professional team's games wouldn't be well-received by most fans. And there's NO doubt about that in my mind.

That said, according to Jeremy Filosa, there is a possibility that some Canadiens games could be streamed… but the organization isn't 100% confident about that idea right now.

Amazon, Netflix, Apple… these platforms are incredibly popular in the media world, but we still have to ask ourselves if this could work as a project. Again, that means additional subscriptions for fans… 

Currently, RDS and TVA Sports have been sharing broadcast rights since the start of the 2014-2015 season. Sixty games are shown on RDS, and the national broadcast rights (22 games) are allocated to TVA Sports for Canadiens games.

But now, it will be interesting to see how all of this changes heading into next season. And it's about time we got some answers to our questions…


In a nutshell

– Wow.

– Oh yeah?

– I agree.

– I can't wait to see him go.

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