TVA Sports Lands 12 Years of French NHL Rights
Rogers and Quebecor struck a sub-licensing deal that puts up to 350 games a season on TVA Sports, including 32 Canadiens games.
Rogers and Quebecor have agreed to a 12-year French-language sub-licensing deal that keeps NHL hockey on TVA Sports, the league announced Thursday.
Under the arrangement, TVA Sports and TVA Sports Direct will carry up to 350 regular-season games per season. That includes 32 Montreal Canadiens games, up from 22 last season, and TVA Sports retains exclusive French-language rights to Canadiens playoff games.
Bell Media's RDS will air the remaining 45 Canadiens regular-season contests, down from 60 a year ago, as the NHL moves to an 84-game calendar.
Amazon is in the mix too. Prime Video will stream seven Canadiens regular-season games in French next season, a plan Amazon and the league announced Wednesday.
The sub-license flows out of the 12-year, $11-billion extension Rogers signed for the NHL's national Canadian rights, a package that gave the company room to sub-license portions of the deal, including national French-language broadcasts.
The announcement lands less than a month before the regular season opens, which settles the question of where French-speaking fans will find the bulk of the schedule for the next dozen years.
