New TV Deal Could Leave Canadiens Fans Blacked Out

by Chris G, Digital Radio Producer, All Habs Hockey Magazine

MONTREAL, QC. — Last November, the NHL reached a 12 year deal with Rogers Communications for the Canadian broadcast rights of the NHL. The new deal has caused confusion and many unknowns among Montreal Canadiens fans across the country. Since the announcement, more details have been made available as we head into the 2014-15 NHL season.

National vs Regional

There is a difference between national broadcasts and regional broadcasts. National broadcasts are available to everyone across Canada, while regional games are only available to viewers in the team’s local viewing region. To find out if you are in the Montreal Canadiens viewing region, enter your postal/zip code here. The code lookup will advise you of blackouts in your area.

What does the deal mean to Habs fans in the Canadiens region?

For fans in the Montreal Canadiens region, there will be a number of changes. What won’t change is the fact that all 82 regular season games of the team will be available on TV.

The French broadcasts will now be split between TVA Sports and RDS. TVA Sports will broadcast 22 Saturday games and all Canadiens playoff games. RDS will broadcast the remaining 60 regular season games.

Based on the information we have, only 32 of the Canadiens games will be available in English. English speaking fans will have more difficulty in finding a broadcast as the games will be split between Sportsnet,  City-TV, CBC and Sportsnet360. The complete schedule can be found below. It is not known if TSN-Habs will broadcast Montreal Canadiens regional games as it has the last couple of season, but it seems very unlikely at this point. “Nobody I’ve speaking to through the summer about the Habs regionals has definitive info,” said a TSN employee when contacted by AllHabs.net. “I am expecting the worst.”

What does the deal mean to Habs fans outside of the Canadiens region?

For fans outside the Montreal Canadiens region, they will be severely impacted by the new TV deal as only 32 of the Habs games will be available on television. That is quite the decrease from the 82 that has been available for the last couple of seasons via RDS. As RDS’ new contract is to broadcast games regionally only, their 60 games in 2014-15 will not be available outside of the Canadiens viewing region. To watch the rest of the games, fans will have to spend around $200 to order NHL Centre Ice or NHL Gamecenter Live.

There is still hope 

The new TV deal could make two type of Habs fans come out as losers: English speaking Habs fans and fans living outside the Canadiens region. For English speaking fans, there is still the possibility that TSN or Sportsnet picks up some Canadiens games to be broadcasted regionally. Sportsnet East lost the Ottawa Senators regional deal to TSN, therefore they may be interested in picking up a couple of Habs games.

There is a petition that is circulating on social media threatening to boycott Rogers unless they remove the blackouts on the RDS games to viewers outside the Canadiens region. If any of our readers signed the petition, I am sorry to tell you that Rogers has nothing to do with the blackouts. The blame should be directed towards the NHL for their method of distributing TV broadcast rights.

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AllHabs.net and the @Habs360 podcast will keep you updated of any new developments  on this topic. If you have any questions on the new TV deal, leave them in the comment section below and I will gladly answer them.

Follow me on Twitter @chrisg1980

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