TORONTO — A new multi-year media rights extension will see TSN and RDS continuing to provide exclusive Canadian coverage of FIA Formula One (F1) Grand Prix events through the 2024 season, Bell Media announced Monday.
TSN and RDS will broadcast all F1 World Championship races, as well as qualifying and practice sessions and encore presentations. The 2020 Canadian Grand Prix takes place at the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve in Montreal on the weekend of June 12-14.
In addition, with the new agreement, F1 fans who subscribe to TSN or RDS will now have access to a multitude of all-new F1 live feeds, including select onboard cameras, driver tracker, pit lane channel and timing channel, according to the news release. TSN and RDS subscribers can access the new F1 feeds through the networks’ digital platforms, including the Multiplex player on TSN.ca and RDS.ca, and through the TSN and RDS apps.
RDS’s F1 coverage includes the pre-race program Sur la ligne de départ. The network’s coverage is led by the award-winning broadcast team of play-by-play commentator Pierre Houde and analyst Bertrand Houle. RDS also produces additional F1 programming, including:
- F1 Express, a 30-minute program recapping each race
- F1 Magazine, comprising four original episodes chronicling the 2020 season, beginning prior to the first race of the season, the Australian Grand Prix, on Sunday March 15
“We are delighted to continue our partnership with Bell Media and believe that both their French and English language broadcast capabilities through RDS and TSN bring Formula 1 to a wider audience within Canada,” said Ian Holmes, director of media rights for Formula 1, in the news release. “Our partnership continues to deliver impressive results with 2019 showing strong audience growth which is a very important part of our strategy to bring the excitement of F1 direct to fans.”
According to the news release, the 2019 Formula One season was the most-watched F1 season ever on TSN. Audiences across TSN and RDS for the 2019 F1 season grew 21% compared to 2018, and F1 coverage across the two networks reached nearly 5.3 million Canadian viewers in 2019, the release says.
“We’re thrilled to extend this long-standing, successful partnership, and expand our coverage of Formula One across all platforms for years to come,” said Shawn Redmond, vice-president of TSN and Discovery, in the release. “With two Canadian drivers in the series and a newly expanded slate of in-race live feeds on our leading digital platforms, TSN subscribers can enjoy an even more immersive experience during every race of the season.”
