CFL extends Broadcast agreement with TSN(3 years)

Kirk Penton ?@PentonKirk 4m4 minutes ago
The #CFL has extended its broadcast agreement with TSN and RDS until 2021. Big news for league's financial stability.

Drew Edwards ?@scratchingpost 3m3 minutes ago
TSN also launching Thursday Night Football. #CFL

Kirk Penton
?@PentonKirk
The #CFL is getting ready to launch a new website as well and modernizing its stats system.

[url=http://www.tsn.ca/cfl-tsn-and-rds-extend-broadcast-agreement-through-2021-1.294294]http://www.tsn.ca/cfl-tsn-and-rds-exten ... 1-1.294294[/url]

The Canadian Football League (CFL) and Bell Media's TSN and RDS announced today they have extended their long-term, successful partnership through to 2021.
As part of the extension, TSN and RDS continue to hold exclusive media rights to all CFL games, including pre-season, regular season, playoffs, and the iconic celebration of Canadian sports that is the Grey Cup. In addition to broadcast and digital rights, the deal features exclusive radio rights to the Grey Cup for Bell Media's Grey Cup Radio Network.
"The CFL's partnership with TSN and RDS has been central to our growth and momentum and we look forward to working together to reach new and even bigger audiences," said Jeffrey L. Orridge, Commissioner of the Canadian Football League.
"The CFL continues to rank as one of Canada's leading sports properties," said Phil King, President - CTV, Sports, and Entertainment Programming. "With many new stadiums opening across the league and a new era beginning in Toronto, this is truly an exciting time for the CFL. We are thrilled to extend our partnership and to continue to shine the spotlight on this beloved Canadian sports institution for years to come."
TSN has been broadcasting CFL games since 1986 and RDS has been a CFL broadcaster since 1989. In 2008, TSN and RDS became the exclusive broadcasters of the CFL and the Grey Cup. Since that time, the networks have established new audience records for CFL broadcasts.
TSN and RDS's current agreement with the CFL was scheduled to expire at the end of the 2018 season.

It's interesting that they extended so far from expiry. It provides revenue certainty and (hopefully) some upside while limiting downside. I get the sense that with Bell taking over the Argos they really had to give them some level of certainty around investing media assets in the CFL in return for that stability.

When you combine this with the TSN Hamilton announcement it's pretty clear that the CFL/TSN partnership is a key partnership for both sides.

I'm sure it's good for both sides. TSN has invested a lot of money into the CFL broadcasts and they want to ensure that they aren't getting into negotiations again in 2017. For the CFL it's a gamble, Sportsnet has no interest in the CFL and come 2017 there won't be a lot of competition to air CFL games, there was that risk that a new contract would be worth less.
This maintains their TV contact income and gives them 6 more years of TV ratings and team stability before negotiating again.

The extension is for "north of $35M/yr for 3 extra years" :thup:
It also has the TV rights expire 3 yrs after the 5 yr CFL CBA expires, which I am sure the League is happy with

BY TOM MAYENKNECHT, SPECIAL TO THE VANCOUVER SUN MAY 29, 2015
VANCOUVER — Sorting out the major winners and losers of this week — with a bottom-line twist — in the world of sports:

[b]BULLS OF THE WEEK

It has been a great week for the Canadian Football League in general and the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in particular. First and foremost, there’s nothing in the business of sport — or in the business of business and the business of life — than long-term security. That’s why it was a big deal for new CFL commissioner Jeffrey Orridge to announce a three-year extension to the league’s huge broadcasting partnership with TSN/RDS and TSN Radio. After the first exclusive deal for CFL TV rights was struck in 2008, the two sides renewed in 2013 for five years. It’s that deal, due to end in 2018, that was extended this week. It gives the CFL further long-term security on the revenue front — to the tune north of $35 million per year — and the kind of planning horizons that allow for it to focus on other priorities, including the vitality of the league in Toronto and Hamilton. Last week, the Argonauts found new ownership under Bell and Larry Tannenbaum, giving them the kind of telecom backing that each of the other major Toronto pro sport franchises enjoy.

This week, the Tiger-Cats were the biggest beneficiary of news that all-sports radio would arrive in Steeltown this fall in the form of TSN 1150, making it the seventh link in the chain that is TSN Radio. With a new stadium — Tim Hortons Field — and now the key platform of sports radio to help engage current and new fans, the Tiger-Cats are on an upward trajectory. The positive fortnight for the Argos and Ticats gives the CFL something to build upon in the Golden Horseshoe market in southern Ontario.

http://www.vancouversun.com/touch/story.html

Tom Mayenknecht is host of The Sport Market on TSN 1040 and TSN Radio, where he regularly rates and debates the Bulls & Bears of sports business. He reviews the major winners and losers of the past week every Saturday in The Vancouver Sun.

Why does Hamilton never get any pre-season games televised? This is ridiculous! I can understand the last two seasons there may have been issues, but what is the reason this year?

This year I suspect it is because all of TSN's eastern remote production facilities are tied up with World Cup broadcasts. Each venue will be a huge broadcast for TSN/CTV because they are also producing the world feed too. So there are likely two sets of mobile production trucks at each venue - so they've probably got the trucks that they normally use to produce broadcasts from here out in Moncton or in Ottawa or Montreal.

The only three pre-season games they are two out of Alberta. The special game in Fort McMurray and one in Calgary and then one in Montreal. In Montreal undoubtedly they can easily shift one production truck from the Olympic Stadium to McGill for that night and move it back to Olympic Stadium for a soccer game two days later.

Hopefully next season.

The extension is worth $35M per year? Correct me if I'm wrong but is that not LESS than what the current deal is? I thought each club was receiving $4M+ under the current deal. $35M per year is $3.8M per club if all of it is transferred to the clubs.

the current deal is actually worth $42 million a year so it is quite surprising the league would sign for anything less than that.

I figured this new deal would include at least a small/modest increase but…

But it’s not transferred to all the clubs. If you want to see how much each club gets you only have to look at the “Edmonotn Eskimos report to shareholders 2014”, because they are community owned they have to how much they received from the league. Other clubs don’t make that public.
In 2013 the transfer from the league to the Eskimos was $2.1 million in 2014 under the new TV deal it jumped to $4.2 million.
It was widely reported that the league got $200 million over 5 year or $40 million a year, therefore the league keeps $3 million a year to run their head office, pay the commish, all the staff, marketing, command centre etc

Some good reasons listed in this article as to why they went after the extension and why it’s not about more money:

[url=Ihttps://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/cfl-55-yard-line/cfl-extends-tv-radio-digital-contract-with-tsn-rds-through-2021--a-good-move-231945456.html]Ihttps://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/cfl- ... 45456.html[/url]