By Steve Faguy
MONTREAL — A week after Canada’s all-sports channels said they hoped to continue with news and analysis programming through the Covid-19 outbreak, Montreal-based RDS and TVA Sports said Monday they had to suspend all original programming to meet the Quebec government’s new requirement to shut down all non-essential businesses until April 13.
Bell Media’s RDS said it would suspend, after Tuesday, its talk shows 5 à 7, L’Antichambre, Max et Bruno, Blitz and D’un autre angle, plus its news show Sports 30.
Quebecor’s TVA Sports, meanwhile, has shut down daily talk shows Dave Morissette en direct and JiC and its nightly news show.
Both networks continue to run archival programs from their libraries as they and their viewers weather the crisis.
At Sportsnet and TSN, based in Toronto, all original programming has also been pulled from the schedule. TSN, which has only a skeleton crew in its offices according to host James Duthie, is running mainly documentaries, movies, ESPN programming and top-10 shows, while Sportsnet, which cancelled live programming last week, has poker and classic Blue Jays and NHL games, and both are continuing to share their rerun of the Raptors 2019 postseason.
