What is TVA Sports?
TVA Sports is a French-language sports television service operated within Quebecor. Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2019-427, issued on 19 December 2019, describes it as "a national, French-language discretionary service devoted to sports, with an emphasis on professional Canadian sports" and names TVA Group Inc. as its licensee.[1] Quebecor's president and chief executive, Pierre Karl Péladeau, spoke for the group in the September 2026 NHL announcement described below, which places the service inside the Quebecor structure as at that date.[2]
Its significance on a Canadian media list is that it is not a second-language version of an English service. It competes with RDS inside the French-language market, and the two have divided the country's largest sports property between them rather than sharing it: from 2026–27 the national French-language NHL package sits with TVA Sports and the Canadiens regional package with RDS.[2][5]
What does TVA Sports cover?
The defining agreement is dated 3 September 2026. Rogers and Quebecor announced a 12-year sub-licence of the National Hockey League's national French-language rights in Canada, running from the 2026–27 season through 2037–38, carried on TVA Sports, TVA Sports Direct and the illico+ platform. The package covers up to 350 regular-season games a season, including 32 Montréal Canadiens regular-season games — ten more than under the previous agreement — all Canadiens Stanley Cup playoff games, six of the eight first-round series, three of the four second-round series, the Conference Finals, the Stanley Cup Final and all NHL tentpole events.[2][3] Péladeau said that "premium sports content, such as NHL hockey and Montréal Canadiens games, remains a unique driver for rallying audiences in real time"; Rogers' chief executive Tony Staffieri said that "ensuring hockey fans have comprehensive French-language coverage of NHL games is a top priority".[2]
That package sits inside, and is limited by, two other agreements. The underlying rights belong to Rogers under the 12-year, $11 billion national agreement announced on 2 April 2025, which expressly contemplated "strategic sub-licensing for a subset of these rights, including national French-language and a single-night exclusive national package".[4] The single-night package went to Prime Video on 28 July 2026, which took Wednesday-night national regular-season games in English and in French from 2026–27 — so Wednesday nights are carved out of what TVA Sports carries.[6]
See the NHL, ice hockey and broadcast rights.
How large is TVA Sports's audience?
No current Numeris figure, and no current Comscore digital figure, for TVA Sports could be retrieved, and no audience figure is asserted here.
The measured evidence available is at the level of the category. The CRTC reported on 18 August 2026, for the 2024–2025 broadcast year, that the French-language services within the mainstream sports and national news discretionary group returned a PBIT margin of −3.2 per cent in 2025 against 9.4 per cent for the English-language services in the same group, and that the group's margin overall fell from 14.3 per cent in 2021 to 7.3 per cent in 2025. The same report found that approximately 40 per cent of Canadians said they had consumed sports content on traditional television in the past month.[7]
The 2019 Commission decision provides a further, dated indication of the service's distribution position rather than of its audience: the Commission found that Bell's packaging had placed TVA Sports at a disadvantage relative to RDS.[1]
Since when has TVA Sports existed?
Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2019-427 records that the service launched in September 2011.[1] That is the launch of the service, not the founding of TVA Group Inc. or of Quebecor, which are earlier and separate dates not established on this page.
The service's rights position has changed twice in a way that can be dated. It held a French-language NHL package before 2026–27 under an agreement the September 2026 release refers to only as "the previous agreement", against which the new deal adds ten Canadiens games a season.[2] The new sub-licence runs to the end of 2037–38.[3]
Why does TVA Sports matter in Canada's sport?
From the 2026–27 season, national NHL hockey reaches French-speaking Canada through TVA Sports. That is the largest single sports property in the country and the arrangement is fixed for twelve years, to the end of 2037–38.[2][3] Because the national package and the Canadiens regional package are held by different companies — Quebecor and Bell respectively — a French-language viewer follows the country's most-watched club across two services rather than one.[2][5]
The service is also the subject of the clearest regulatory statement about competition between Canada's French-language sports broadcasters. In Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2019-427 the Commission found that Bell "has subjected TVA Sports to an undue disadvantage and has conferred an undue preference upon RDS", and required Bell to report back on a new packaging structure by 5 February 2020.[1] See sports in Canada.
References
- Broadcasting Decision CRTC 2019-427, 19 December 2019. Accessed 2026-09-18.
- Rogers and Quebecor — 12-year sublicensing deal for national NHL games in French, 3 September 2026. Accessed 2026-09-18.
- NHL.com — Rogers, Quebecor agree to 12-year sublicensing deal for NHL games in French, 3 September 2026. Accessed 2026-09-18.
- Rogers — The NHL and Rogers announce 12-year national media rights deal, 2 April 2025. Accessed 2026-09-18.
- TSN — Montreal Canadiens, TSN and RDS announce rights extension, 10 October 2025. Accessed 2026-09-18.
- Rogers and Prime Video — 12-year sublicensing agreement for NHL rights in Canada, 28 July 2026. Accessed 2026-09-18.
- CRTC — Annual highlights of the broadcasting sector 2024–2025, published 18 August 2026. Accessed 2026-09-18.