Survival of TVA Sports: Pierre-Karl Péladeau is confident (and smiling)

TVA Group, whose shares are trading at just 64 cents this morning, announced a further 87 job cuts across Quebec yesterday. This brings the total to nearly 1,000 jobs eliminated in the last two or three years..

Pierre-Karl Péladeau went on the set of La Joute late yesterday afternoon to discuss these new job losses.

At the end of the interview, Paul Larocque took the opportunity to ask his big boss about the future of TVA Sports. And PKP's answer seemed to speak for itself..

“The future of TVA Sports is still unclear. There's still one part of the television rights to go, and the national French-language rights have not yet been awarded. Are there still discussions going on?” – Paul Larocque

“Yes, there are discussions, there are discussions… and obviously, as you can imagine, I won't begin to tell you what they are.” – Pierre-Karl Péladeau

“Is Pierre-Karl Péladeau rather optimistic about that (the future of TVA Sports)?” – Paul Larocque

“Yes […] I know we'll find solutions – Pierre-Karl Péladeau

It's Pierre-Karl Péladeau's smile during this segment on the future of TVA Sports that speaks for itself, in my opinion.

According to my information, it should not be concluded that TVA Sports will NOT be able to pay the sum demanded by the NHL and Rogers for French-language national rights. With the Canadiens having completed their playoff-free streak in the spring, and the CRTC finally able to rule on Quebecor's request for an increase in royalties (TVA Sports on Bell Télé Fibe), I'm told that TVA Sports' financial health is in better shape than that of RDS.

If you'd told me that a few years ago, I wouldn't have believed you..

Where do we stand for next year?
We learned this morning that 45 of the Habs' 84 games next year will be broadcast in French on RDS. We're talking about regional games which, from what I hear, have been sold for 10 years.

According to Max Lalonde (BPM Sports), 15 other (regional) games could be broadcast in French on Crave, with the RDS team describing and analyzing those games. However, some people have been critical of this possibility, indicating that these 15 games could be part of the 45 initially announced on RDS. We'll see.

What I do know, however, is that if Bell Media ever decides to broadcast games on Crave, it wouldn't be surprising to see Quebecor Media send a few games to its digital media Club Illico +. Canadiens fans would have to subscribe to four channels/services to be able to watch all their team's games (TVA Sports, RDS, Crave and Club Illico +).

Extension

MLS is expected to announce in the next few hours that it will switch to a winter calendar as of the 2027-28 season. Please note! There's no need to panic about the long-term survival of Montreal CF, even if many like to surf on this topic of anxiety..

There's a bit of panic and anxiety right now about MLS voting – and agreeing – today to move to a winter schedule.

I've made a lot of calls and talked to a lot of people in the last 48 hours. Here's what I've learned:

1. The MLS calendar..

– Maxime Truman (@MaximeTruman) November 13, 2025