- Rogers and Quebecor agreed to a 12-year sublicensing deal for national NHL games in French
- TVA Sports gets up to 350 regular-season games a year, including 32 Canadiens games
- Read below for the playoff package, the RDS fallout and the money behind it
The NHL’s French-language broadcast picture is locked in for the next 12 years.
Rogers and Quebecor announced Thursday a 12-year sublicensing agreement that keeps the national French rights with TVA Sports, starting this season. TVA Sports and TVA Sports Direct will carry every game in the package, and Quebecor’s illico+ platform joins the broadcast group.
Volume is up across the board. TVA picks up French rights to as many as 350 regular-season games per year, including 32 Canadiens games, which is 10 more Montreal dates than the old agreement carried.
The playoff share is the bigger get. TVA holds French rights to every Canadiens postseason game, six of the eight first-round series, three of the four second-round series, both Conference Finals and the Stanley Cup Final. All of the league’s tentpole events are in there too.
Gary Bettman framed the extension around the 12 seasons TVA has already put in:
“For the past 12 seasons, TVA Sports’ French-language broadcasts have connected our game with millions of passionate hockey fans across Quebec and Canada.”
Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau was asked about the value of holding onto the package, and he pointed at the audience it pulls in.
“Premium sports content, such as NHL hockey and Montréal Canadiens games, remains a unique driver for rallying audiences in real time,” Péladeau said.
Somebody had to give up those games. Bell Media’s RDS drops to 45 Canadiens regular-season broadcasts from 60, per The Canadian Press, even as the league moves to an 84-game calendar.
Prime Video takes another seven. Montreal media writer Steve Faguy listed the Wednesday dates that will only exist on the stream, in both English and French:
Amazon rolled out its full Wednesday Night Hockey schedule the same day, opening with Islanders-Maple Leafs on Sept. 30. Take a look at the French version of the announcement:
The money behind all of this is enormous. Rogers signed a 12-year, $11 billion national rights extension with the league last year, more than double the $5.2 billion original deal that expired after last season. Quebecor paid north of $700 million over 12 years to become the NHL’s French-language broadcaster back in 2014.
Neither side put a number on the new sublicense. What they did put a number on is the reach: 350 games a season in French, through 2038.
