jmkcool2002 7 Posted December 22, 2014 Share Posted December 22, 2014 TSN and RDS have won English/French rights to UFC coverage in Canada. The Fight Network will also produce all pre- and post- game shows for TSN and will air Fox Sports 1 Fight Nights. This is a big move for the UFC to align themselves with the #1 sports network in the country (even though they lost Jay/Dan + NHL). It's also very clutch of TSN to go after a sport which typically does well in the younger demo. But the biggest winner is definitely The Fight Network. For years, TFN has been producing programming about UFC but never had any rights to fights or archives. Now, they'll have enough leverage to get on more cable carriers with UFC rights. It's been a big year for TFN's parent company which launched TFN and Fantasy Sports Network on Cablevision, signed with CineSport to get their shows distributed across the internet and signed Dr. J as an endorser of the network. This move just puts the icing on the cake. If the relationship goes well between TFN and UFC in Canada, maybe that relationship expands to the United States after the Fox contract runs out in some capacity. I wouldn't be surprised to see the UFC grab an ownership stake in the U.S. version of the network in exchange for moving some of FS1's Fight Nights onto TFN as FS1 continues to grab rights to other leagues and sports conferences. TSN has also made some interesting moves lately by bringing in networks with niches to help them telecast events. Just last week, TSN signed a deal to become Canada's new home for Champions League soccer. They brought BeIN Sport alongside to televise the bulk of the matchups which won't air on TSN. I wonder what the reasoning is behind BeIN Sport and TFN being added into the fray with both of their respective deals. Did both entities contribute money to the rights? That's the only thing which makes sense when TSN has five different networks to disburse programming. Weigh in guys, what do you think? Here's a link to the press release. http://www.ufc.com/news/TSN-RDS-and-Fight-Network-UFC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viper550 268 Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 One thing you forgot to mention: both the UFC and UEFA Champions League were among Sportsnet's biggest non-major league (i.e. NHL/MLB/NBA) properties. Yeah, you spent big money on the NHL. Now you're losing what everyone else actually watches to what always will be Canada's Sports Leader. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nickp 294 Posted December 23, 2014 Share Posted December 23, 2014 Big tv deal for ufc and tsn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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