{"id":410293,"date":"2026-01-15T06:05:09","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:05:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/410293\/"},"modified":"2026-01-15T06:05:09","modified_gmt":"2026-01-15T06:05:09","slug":"cfl-sets-start-of-2026-season-as-self-imposed-deadline-for-new-broadcast-deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/410293\/","title":{"rendered":"CFL sets start of 2026 season as self-imposed deadline for new broadcast deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Photo courtesy: Paul Yates\/B.C. Lions<\/p>\n

If it has its way, the Canadian Football League will reach its next broadcast agreement before the 2026 season gets underway.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think most leagues, and we would count ourselves among them, would love your next broadcast deal settled before your final season begins, so a self-imposed deadline on the league office I would put as the start of this season,\u201d CFL commissioner Stewart Johnston said on Wednesday from the league\u2019s offseason winter meetings in Calgary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it drifts past that, it drifts past that, but that would be ideal \u2014 everyone understands kind of when we get to next season where we\u2019re going to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CFL\u2019s exclusive partnership with TSN is set to expire following the 2026 season. The network has owned the CFL\u2019s exclusive television broadcast rights since 2008 with the most recent agreement being announced following the 2019 season.<\/p>\n

The existing deal is reportedly worth $50 million per year, though this figure has never been confirmed by TSN or parent company Bell Media. The network\u2019s initial deal from 2008 to 2013 was worth a reported $15 million per season, which grew to a reported $43 million per season from 2014 to 2018.<\/p>\n

In 2025, the ratings for the Grey Cup increased by 12 percent to 4.02 million<\/a>, thanks in part to the ideal matchup of the Saskatchewan Roughriders and Montreal Alouettes. In 2024, regular-season broadcasts averaged audiences of around 450,000. No data was reported from regular-season broadcasts in 2025.<\/p>\n

Johnston is no stranger to media rights negotiations, having served as the president of TSN when the current agreement was struck. He held the position for 15 years until he was introduced as the CFL\u2019s new commissioner in April.<\/p>\n

When asked how many parties have expressed interest in purchasing the CFL\u2019s broadcast rights beyond 2026, Johnston indicated the league isn\u2019t currently entertaining outside offers, focusing solely on TSN.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in an exclusive negotiation window with our incumbents right now, so I can\u2019t answer any question about number of partners and things like that,\u201d said the Toronto native, who was raised primarily in Ottawa. \u201cWe want to see where those conversations go and then we\u2019ll see about the best path forward from there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy: Paul Yates\/B.C. Lions If it has its way, the Canadian Football League will reach its next…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":410294,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[437],"tags":[166835,166836,10327,49,48,7028,521,522,520,62411,527,129703,7607,3427,82,84996,38284],"class_list":["post-410293","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cfl","tag-3down","tag-3downnation","tag-bell","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-canadian-football-league","tag-canadianfootballleague","tag-cfl","tag-commissioner","tag-football","tag-johnston","tag-media","tag-rights","tag-sports","tag-stewart-johnston","tag-tsn"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410293","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=410293"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/410293\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/410294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=410293"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=410293"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=410293"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}