MONTREAL – Vivent les Habs, at least for another five years, on RDS. The French-language sports network inked a deal to carry the Montreal Canadiens through the 2012-3 season.
The existing deal was set to expire at the end of this past season.
The new agreement with the Canadiens and the NHL will see RDS air all 82 Habs’ regular-season games and at least 40 playoff games (if they make it that far), as well as league events such as the NHL All-Star Game and All-Star Skills Competition.
RDS, owned by CTVglobemedia, becomes the exclusive French-language Webcaster of Canadiens and NHL games on RDS.ca in Canada, as well as having rights to distribute NHL video content on new media platforms.
“This agreement is the logical step of a partnership that has been highly successful for the last four years,” said RDS President and General Manager Gerry Frappier. “The steady and outstanding growth we have experienced in viewership over the last few years has clearly shown our ability to meet and even exceed the expectations of hockey fans. With the addition of multimedia rights and the broad range of possibilities that it generates, RDS is now in a unique position to offer Quebec’s most popular sports product to hockey fans in Canada no matter where they are and how they want to have access to it.”
“This-long term agreement is particularly exciting in the light of the high-definition and new multimedia technologies that will enable RDS to further enhance the broadcast of Canadiens games through a wider spectrum of media,” said Montreal Canadiens President Pierre Boivin. “Furthermore, as we get closer to our 100th anniversary in 2009, RDS will play an increasingly important role in several of the initiatives surrounding the Canadiens’ centennial in bringing these historic events to our fans from coast to coast.”
