The Mystery Behind the Delay in the Announcement of Broadcasting Rights

It's now official: TVA Sports will broadcast 32 Canadiens games per season for the next 12 seasons.

We know that Amazon will air seven Canadiens games (here's this year's list, by the way) and that the other 45 games will be on RDS, which will therefore broadcast the majority of the games.

As for the rest, it'll be business as usual for Canadiens fans: the playoffs will be on TVA Sports, and events like the draft will also be on Quebecor.

The news from TVA Sports (which is good for Quebec's media landscape) was announced yesterday, just a few weeks before the start of the season.

We can all agree that this is later than expected. If you'd told me that the deal with Rogers was going to be announced on September 3, I would have thought September 2025, not 2026.

But why did it take so long?

According to a post by Réjean Tremblay on his Facebook page, which revisits yesterday's news, the year 2030 was the sticking point.

Why? Because the collective bargaining agreement between the players and the NHL will expire, and a work stoppage could occur.

Do the folks at TVA know something about this, or is it just a precautionary measure (anything can happen) that caused these snags in the negotiations?

That's the question.

After all, recently, the Players' Association and the league don't seem to have any major issues when it comes to discussing the collective bargaining agreement—from what we can see, at least.

Will the players want to secure gains in a few years? Will the owners want to curb the power the players have been seeking in recent months?

Who knows.

Overtime

Speaking of TV rights: we can't wait to see—in both French and English—which commentators will be on the air for Amazon's Wednesday night game broadcasts. Who will be calling the Habs' games?

More and more, in English, the name Elliotte Friedman is being mentioned as a potential addition to the team (not as a play-by-play analyst, obviously) and as the face of Wednesday nights. Stay tuned…

BREAKING: I'm hearing, repeatedly, that Elliotte Friedman is all but gone from #Sportsnet. That #Prime has offered money Ed the Conqueror won't match. #Amazon wants Elliotte for its season-long package of Wednesday night games. Maybe THAT becomes the new #Hockey Night In… pic.twitter.com/cGAgb0F0g9

— Howard Berger (@Berger_BYTES) September 3, 2026