The Montreal Canadiens are currently battling for playoff positioning as they attempt to return to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2021 and potentially win their first Cup since 1993.
All signs point to the franchise being on the rise for the foreseeable future, and no matter what happens this season, Canadiens games will be must-see TV next season.
However, as it currently stands, French-language TV rights to 39 of their games are still available for next season, potentially leaving many Montreal fans in the lurch.
Per Brenden Kelly at The Montreal Gazette, the situation stems from Bell Media, which owns French-language sports network RDS. They announced last October that they would only broadcast 45 Canadiens games a year starting next season, down from 60.
With the season expanding to 84 games next season, that leaves 39 games, plus any potential playoff games, without a French-language home for a team that plays in a province where around 94% of the population speaks French.
Kelly notes that Rogers, which is in the midst of an $11 billion Canadian media rights deal with the NHL that runs through 2038, previously sold the French-language national rights in a split between TVA Sports (22 games) and RDS (60 games), though the deals ended up being financial quagmires for everyone involved.
Quebecor, which owns TVA, is currently in talks with the NHL and Rogers to renew its French-language broadcast deal. Quebecor CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau admitted they paid “a bit too much” in the last deal, and there are concerns about what it will take to sign on this time.
The NHL has said that all Canadiens games will be available in French next season, but how that happens remains unclear. Perhaps TVA takes some of those available games, or perhaps a streaming service swoops in and gets them, potentially at a discount given the lack of available options. Until then, Habs fans will have more to sweat about than just their team’s chances in the playoffs this year.