By Linda Stuart
With this year’s Canadian Football League (CFL) season set to kick off Thursday, the league last week announced it has signed new six-year agreements beginning in 2027 with Bell Media as its majority Canadian broadcast partner and sports streaming service DAZN as a new domestic and global partner.
Bell Media’s TSN and RDS have been the CFL’s exclusive Canadian broadcasters since 2008, with CFL games first airing on TSN in 1986 and on RDS in 1989. Under Bell Media’s new agreement with the CFL, in 2027, TSN will broadcast up to three regular-season CFL games per week for a total of 60 games, including those played on Thursday and Friday nights. In addition, TSN will air six of the eight playoff games as part of the CFL’s newly announced postseason format, plus the Grey Cup, which will also be simulcast on CTV and Crave.
RDS will continue to serve French-language audiences in Canada by broadcasting all Montreal Alouettes games, 25 marquee matchups throughout the regular season, all playoff games and the Grey Cup.
With the introduction of DAZN as a new broadcaster partner of the CFL, the sports streamer will become the exclusive Canadian home for all 21 Saturday night regular season games and two of the eight playoff games each season, starting in 2027. In addition, outside of Canada and the United States, DAZN will become the official global broadcaster of the CFL, making every CFL regular season game, all eight playoff games and the Grey Cup available to stream live and on demand in more than 200 countries.
DAZN will assemble its own team of analysts, play-by-play announcers, commentators and sideline reporters to produce its exclusive Canadian broadcasts. The streamer said in a press release fans around the world will also benefit from DAZN’s enhanced platform features, including FanZone live chat, dedicated fan spaces, highlights, breaking news, real-time scores and original programming.
Also last week, the CFL named YouTube as a CFL Premier Platform Partner starting next year. Through this agreement, the CFL plans to significantly expand the volume and variety of content on its official YouTube channel, including live streams of preseason games not otherwise available on Bell Media or DAZN, plus enhanced CFL Combine coverage, an All-Access unscripted series, a slate of on-demand content, highlights, interviews, analysis, behind-the-scenes storytelling, creator collaborations and original programming produced exclusively for YouTube.
“These record-setting agreements mark a transformative moment for the CFL,” said CFL Commissioner Stewart Johnston, in a statement last week. “They reflect the deep passion of our powerful fanbase and the accelerating momentum of our league. We are thrilled to be aligning ourselves with Bell Media, Canada’s leading media entertainment company, DAZN, the world’s leading sports entertainment platform, and YouTube, the world’s largest video platform. Together, they will unlock new CFL audiences, deliver worldclass entertainment and put the CFL in prime position for its next era of growth.”
The CFL said in its press release these domestic and global partnerships collectively represent the largest media rights deal in league history. No financial details of the agreements were released by any of the parties.
A report from The Canadian Press on May 28 citing an unnamed source suggested the combined agreements are worth approximately $500 million.
In an emailed response to questions from Cartt, a Bell Media spokesperson said the company does not comment on its rights deals. When asked whether the new agreement with the CFL includes TSN Radio platforms, the spokesperson clarified that radio broadcast rights are controlled by the various CFL teams.
“TSN Radio stations deliver live radio coverage of the Toronto Argonauts on TSN 1050 Toronto, the Montreal Alouettes on TSN 690 Montreal, and the Ottawa Redblacks on TSN 1200 Ottawa, as well as the Grey Cup, Canada’s largest annual single-day sporting event,” the spokesperson wrote.
Emails regarding various aspects of the agreements sent to the CFL and DAZN were unanswered before publication time.
