Saskatchewan-born Deidra Dionne, a 2002 Olympic medallist in aerial skiing, aspires to help the CFL ascend to once-unimaginable heights.
Dionne — Head of DAZN Canada — is a pivotal player in a landmark media deal that will include an exclusive streaming component for the first time in league history.
Effective next season, DAZN will offer a regular-season game every Saturday night and have a presence during the first two rounds of an expanded playoff schedule.
“From a business perspective, it was a pretty easy decision for us,” Dionne said. “We do look at things from a very strategic business perspective at DAZN. To be able to use that side of where we are at as a business to invest in a league that has so much Canadian heritage, I’m proud to be a part of that story.”
Dionne’s own story began in North Battleford, where she spent the first 18 months of her life before the family moved to Red Deer.
The Saskatchewan roots go back much further. Her parents, Stephen and Fay, grew up in Radville. Fay’s father, Charlie Shropshire, was the town’s mayor from 1969 to 1976.
Stephen Dionne, a University of Saskatchewan alumnus, coached high school football in North Battleford when future NFL star Rueben Mayes was the featured running back for his hometown team.
“The Roughriders were the only team that brought my dad joy last year,” noted Deidra Dionne, referencing the 2025 Grey Cup champions. “The Blue Jays broke his heart and the Oilers broke his heart, but the Roughriders pulled through for him.
“He wouldn’t have been able to watch any sports if it wasn’t for them last year.”
From a spectator’s standpoint, nothing will compare to the joy Stephen Dionne experienced watching Deidra excel at the 2002 Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, where she finished third in women’s freestyle aerials. She also won bronze medals at the 2001 and 2003 world championships.
Following a competitive career that included a second Olympic appearance — at Turin in 2006 — Dionne earned a law degree from the University of Ottawa.
As a law student, she interned with the NFL Players’ Association and spent a summer term with the NHL Players’ Association.
She joined Rogers Media in 2018, specializing in business and media, before joining DAZN in July of 2024.
“I’ve been fortunate to have sport all through my life,” Dionne said. “I can’t imagine working in an industry that I wasn’t passionate about.”
The passion extends to the CFL, which has become part of a DAZN sporting portfolio that serves more than 200 markets world-wide. DAZN’s properties include the NFL, international soccer, MMA, boxing, Formula 1 and, beginning in 2027, Canadian football.
As well, DAZN will become the official global broadcaster of all CFL games, offering every contest to audiences outside Canada and the United States.
Per the terms of a six-year deal, TSN and DAZN will combine to show all 81 regular-season games throughout Canada. Sixty of those contests will appear on TSN. DAZN will offer Saturday Night Football during all 21 weeks of the regular season.
There was a time when CFL games conventionally appeared on “free” TV, but the landscape changed in 2008 when TSN — long a staple of cable and satellite packages — became the league’s exclusive rights-holder.
Select games, such as the Grey Cup, have been simulcast on CTV in recent years. But, for the most part, CFL telecasts have been behind a paywall in some form for 18 years.
Affiliation with a streaming service is a new venture for the CFL as part of the largest media-rights deal in league history. DAZN and YouTube are the new partners.
“I’m really looking forward to working with the leadership team at the CFL, which is taking some bold moves,” Dionne said.
“Change is hard, and I fully acknowledge that. It isn’t always easy when our favourite league or product makes big moves but, at the same time, it is exciting to look at it and say that these moves might make the league bigger and stronger. That’s a good thing for everybody.”
Consider, for example, new audiences the CFL will be able to access via its premium partnership with DAZN. There will be adjustments, naturally, but those are inevitable as businesses and technology evolve at an ever-increasing pace.
“I deal with ‘change is hard’ by trying to first understand that my consumption habits are not the consumption habits of the generation that is my parents, nor is it the generation of my kids,” Dionne, 44, said from Waterloo, Ont.
“For ensuring that something is strong and growing, I think you have to be willing to understand that just because it isn’t the way that you watch doesn’t mean that somebody else won’t watch it that way.
“We saw that with the invention of these, right?”
Dionne punctuated that comment by holding up her mobile phone.
“Who was ever going to watch on this when they could watch on a big screen?” she continued. “Lo and behold, you’re watching on all the screens.
“I think we have to be a little open-minded to the inherent speed of change as content really does become such a leader for the health of any sports league.
“Sport consumption continues to be strong, but it has to stay that way by evolving with the pace of where fans are. Right now, fans are consuming anywhere and, also, everywhere.”
Preparations for the CFL’s debut on DAZN will soon become all-consuming. This summer, for example, Dionne hopes to attend a game at Mosaic Stadium, along with Vice-President of Marketing (Canada) Zak Usher.
“I’ve had a lot of fun explaining to my American colleagues why people wear watermelons,” Dionne said with a laugh. “I didn’t really have an answer, but it was a very interesting conversation.”
It was part of an interesting career that has already included numerous accomplishments in the fields of sport, media, law and business.
The success story, with so many more chapters to be written, began right here in Saskatchewan.
“I feel like I have a pretty solid understanding of who I am and what makes me happy,” Dionne said. “I have a pretty strong North Star compass on how to build my curiosity into an every-day function.
“This is the only life that I know. I can honestly tell you that it doesn’t feel like I’ve accomplished a lot, or done so quickly, through any of these life interests that I’ve had.
“But I do feel lucky that I’ve been able to do things in my professional career that I never would have thought possible as a kid. I’m also really proud of myself for having performed in the Olympics, winning a medal, and then being brave enough to start over — because sometimes you have to start over.
“I went back to school and I put myself through a law degree and I started working, understanding that I was going to be bad at something again. That’s not easy, at all, for high-performance athletes.”
Now, as a high-performance executive, she looks forward to using her skills and expertise to help the CFL, DAZN and, ultimately, the fans enjoy a mutually beneficial alliance.
“We’re coming at this by doing our diligence,” Dionne said. “We’re meeting with the teams and we’re talking with people and we’re getting an understanding of people’s perspectives.
“At the same time, we’re also really good at what we do, so we’re going to push some people into an uncomfortable zone — but it’s for a reason. It’s because of trying to engage new fans and (create) engagement where the CFL hasn’t been before.
“That is positive for everybody, because the bigger the league gets and the more it’s consumed globally, the stronger it will be. I think that should be looked at as a core partner toward growing this league and its healthiness for the next generation and the generation after that.”