The Canadian Football League announced a six-year media-rights package beginning in 2027 that adds DAZN as a major broadcast partner while keeping Bell Media as the league’s majority partner.
DAZN is in the headlines because the platform will carry a new, exclusive weekly window — DAZN Canada’s Saturday Night Football at 7:00 p.m. ET throughout the regular season — and extend that window into the first two playoff rounds, marking the first time since 2008 that meaningful Canadian inventory has moved off Bell’s exclusive hold.
The league called the combined domestic and global partnerships its largest media-rights deal in CFL history. Under the agreements, TSN will air up to three regular-season games per week for a total of 60 games beginning in 2027, and will carry six of the eight playoff games and the Grey Cup. TSN, CTV and Crave will simulcast the Grey Cup and select games. RDS will broadcast every Montreal Alouettes game, 25 marquee matchups, all playoff games and the Grey Cup. DAZN will assemble a new team of analysts, play-by-play announcers, commentators and sideline reporters to provide exclusive coverage in its windows.
Stewart Johnston, the league’s chief executive, portrayed the agreements as a turning point, saying they reflect the strength of the CFL’s fanbase and the league’s momentum and calling the deals record-setting. He added that the CFL is aligning with Bell Media, DAZN and other global platforms to deepen distribution at home and abroad.
There is a clear imbalance running through the announcement: Bell Media remains the majority partner even as the rights map shifts. Industry chatter suggests DAZN is taking a meaningful slice of Canadian rights for the first time since Bell assumed exclusive broadcast and digital control in 2008, handing DAZN the regular Saturday primetime window and playoff inventory that historically sat inside Bell’s package.
That handoff is concrete: DAZN’s exclusive Saturday night slot at 7:00 p.m. ET will be a weekly tentpole, and the platform’s playoff window carries into the first two rounds. At the same time, TSN keeps a heavy schedule — three games a week potential, 60 regular-season games and most of the postseason — and remains the carrier of the Grey Cup, preserving Bell’s central promotional role and national reach.
The commercial curtain remains partly closed. The CFL has not disclosed financial terms for the six-year agreements, and early industry chatter puts the total package somewhere in the neighbourhood of half a billion dollars over six years, compared with a previous baseline around $300 million for a similar span. The league has not confirmed those figures.
What happens next is simple and consequential: the new structure takes effect in 2027, and DAZN must build out its production and on-air team for the weekly primetime window while Bell’s TSN continues to deliver the bulk of regular-season and playoff coverage. The unanswered, most consequential detail is the price tag — without transparent financial terms, observers and clubs will judge the deal’s long-term impact on revenue sharing, team budgets and how accessible CFL football will be to Canadian viewers.
