TORONTO – Bell Media has scored the rights to a seven year FIFA World Cup soccer package that includes the exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to the 2018 FIFA World Cup Russia, 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar and the FIFA Women's World Cup 2015 in Canada.
The deal also includes other FIFA events between 2015 and 2022 such as the Women's World Cup in 2019, the FIFA Men's and Women's U-20 and U-17 World Cups, FIFA Confederations Cup, FIFA Beach Soccer World Cup and FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Bell Media pledged to pull out all the stops during its multi-platform coverage which will include broadcasts on CTV, TSN, TSN2, TSN Radio, TSN.ca and TSN Mobile TV in English, and in French on RDS, RDS2, RDS.ca, and RDS Mobile TV.
But in an unusual turn of events, CBC issued a statement shortly after Bell Media’s announcement, expressing their disappointment with FIFA’s decision and highlighting their slate of soccer programming which extends through 2014.
"We are obviously disappointed by FIFA's decision," said Louis Lalande, acting executive vice-president of French Services for Radio-Canada, in the statement. "We remain Canada's official broadcaster of FIFA events until 2014 and preparations are already underway for our coverage of upcoming events including the 2014 World Cup to be held in Brazil."
"Keeping in mind our responsibility to the stakeholders of CBC, we put forward a strong, highly competitive and financially responsible bid. Bell Media submitted a higher bid and was chosen for the 2015-2022 FIFA events", added Kirstine Stewart, executive vice-president, CBC English Services. "Our commitment to the beautiful game in Canada goes beyond just what you see or hear on our various platforms. Soccer is the #1 participatory sport in Canada and we will continue our longstanding commitment to fostering the growth of the game in this country through grassroots initiatives like, Soccer Day in Canada and Sports Day in Canada.”
