Fight world’s watching Montrealer Stiverne
But there’s no Canadian TV for title bout vs. Wilder even though TSN has rights
Next Saturday night, Montreal’s Bermane Stiverne challenges for American Deontay Wilder’s title, and TSN owns the broadcast rights to a rare heavyweight championship bout involving a Canadian boxer.
But Canadian fans hoping to watch it live might have to stream it illegally.
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Nov. 4 fight card, which will air live on Showtime in the U.S., wasn’t scheduled to air on any of TSN’s five TV channels, nor had the network made an executive available to clarify its boxing broadcast plans. TSN owns Canadian rights to most Showtime bouts, but has declined to air the last several championship fights.
Stiverne’s title fight is scheduled to appear on the TMN Go app, and on TMN on demand by the following Tuesday, but Canadian fans hoping to watch live are bracing for a subpar viewing experience.
“It’s terrible to be treated like criminal,” said Robert Zabot, a Wabasca, Alta. resident who says TSN hasn’t responded to his queries about Showtime boxing. “You’re illegally streaming. It’s poor quality. A thousand pop-up (ads). Mid-punch, you’re waiting for it to stop buffering.”
Between 2009 and 2013, premium cable network Super Channel broadcast Showtime bouts in Canada. Currently, an agreement between Showtime and Bell gives the Canadian cable provider and its networks ownership of Showtime’s original programming, including boxing events taking place in the U.S.
That deal gives TSN (owned by Bell) unprecedented boxing inventory. Its partnership with ESPN gives it access to the U.S. network’s fights; they’re often broadcast on a delay, but last Sunday’s middleweight title fight from Japan aired live. TSN also shows HBO boxing events several weeks after they happen, and the Bell-Showtime agreement means TSN has access to boxing content from cable networks that are bitter rivals in the U.S.
Bell-owned Crave TV features sports content from both HBO and Showtime in its on-demand offerings, but Showtime fights are absent.
On March 10, TSN issued a news release announcing it would air Showtime fights on TV and online, and later that night broadcast a card headlined by two-time U.S. Olympic gold medallist Claressa Shields.
But since then Showtime boxing has all but vanished from TSN. The network didn’t air a high-profile fight in July featuring Mikey Garcia, nor did it air a world championship triple-header from New York in midOctober.
TSN media relations reps say programming executives are unavailable to discuss the issue, citing busy travel schedules. But boxing viewers remain curious about why TSN hasn’t found room for Showtime bouts on live TV.
“They have five channels and show curling on, like, four of them,” says Calgary resident and boxing fan Rian Scalia. “It’s frustrating. It gets annoying trying to navigate the internet every week (to find Showtime fights). In the U.S., you can just flick on the TV.”
Bell’s deal with Showtime doesn’t cover fights taking place outside the U.S., allowing other providers to acquire Canadian rights. This Saturday’s heavyweight title fight between England’s Anthony Joshua and Cameroon’s Carlos Takam will stream on DAZN, the over-the-top service whose lacklustre NFL streams have rankled Canadian fans.
A May welterweight showdown be- tween American Errol Spence and Briton Kell Brook landed on Super Channel, kicking off that network’s renewed campaign to win boxing market share from incumbents such as TSN. The network has aired 13 live events since May, including the World Boxing Super Series tournaments. Super Channel president Don McDonald says the network aims to air at least one live card monthly next year.
“As much as we tried to get Showtime boxing back, it didn’t work out,” McDonald said. “Boxing is an important part of our program offering and it will continue to grow.”
As of Wednesday afternoon, TSN’s listings for next Saturday night included undercard bouts from UFC 217, a card that culminates in a middleweight title shot for Montreal’s Georges St-Pierre. That main event is only available on pay-per-view, but even at $60 it’s a reliable, legal option for UFC aficionados.
But for fans of boxing and Stiverne the outlook remains murky, with no indication whether TSN will exercise its right to air the fight.
“It’s almost like they’re teasing us,” Zabot said. “It’s crazy that in an era when everybody’s cutting their cord, they’d do that. Don’t come at us about piracy if you’re not delivering the product.”