Game-changer
TSN’s long-term extension with CFL kicks in more than $30 million a season,
A significant television deal with TSN/RDS bodes well for the CFL’s future, commissioner Mark Cohon said Thursday.
The five-year deal is worth “significantly” more than $30 million a season, according to a source.
That’s chump change compared with the contracts held by the NFL, and other leagues. But the new CFL deal reportedly is worth more than double the existing $15-million broadcasting package that runs through the end of the 2013 season. Cohon wouldn’t confirm the amount, but said it was a “transformative deal” that would have a major impact on the economic stability of the league and its teams.
The league and the Bell Mediacontrolled networks had been talking for more than a year about renewing the existing pact.
“There wasn’t a bidding process because they (TSN/RDS) had an exclusive window that ended on Jan. 31,” Cohon said. “If it wasn’t a deal that we wanted we would have opened it to other bidders, but we are extremely happy with this deal. “We needed a deal that would dramatically change the economics of our league and its teams and that’s what this does. “This will allow losing teams to start making money and to make some investments in their future, whether it’s new stadiums or practice facilities. It’s definitely transformative from an economic standpoint.” Cohon wouldn’t divulge how much money each of the soon-to- be nine teams would receive once the new television package kicks in. Privately owned teams such as the Argonauts don’t have to reveal whether they’re makingmoney, but it’s no secret they are trying to find a way of building a smaller 25,000seat stadium and/or a practice facility, so any new funds can only help their financial bottom line. The new agreement runs until the end of the 2018 season and gives the networks exclusive broadcasting rights to all regular season and playoff games, the CFL draft, the CFL combine and the Grey Cup. It also gives exclusive Grey Cup radio rights to TSN and Team Radio stations across the country.
When the new Ottawa franchise begins play in 2014, the schedule will expand to 81 televised games.
TSN has been broadcasting CFL games since 1986; RDS since 1989. The two networks became the exclusive broadcasters of the CFL and the Grey Cup in 1989.
The Argonauts’ 35-22 Grey Cup win over the Calgary Stampeders in the 2012 Grey Cup game was watched by an average of 5.4 million viewers, making it the mostwatched CFL championship on English-language television.