Montreal 690: Dave Naylor breaks down a brand new CFL deal with Bell Media

[00:00:00]One week ahead of the Thursday night kickoff of the CFL, the Alouettes and the Tiger-Cats on TSN, we got news this morning that we'll be watching CFL games on TSN for years and years to come.

[00:00:12]Dave Naylor with the report this morning at TSN.ca that the CFL's announced a series of new broadcast agreements extending their long-time partnership with Bell Media while adding a subscription-based streaming partner in DAZN that will carry one game per week to the league's domestic audience starting with next year's 2017 season.

[00:00:30]Dave is on the line with us right now to talk a little bit more about this. Good morning, Dave. Good morning.

[00:00:36]Good news for a league that needs needed a boost, isn't it?

[00:00:42]>> Yeah, look, I I think historically, you know, economic headlines about the Canadian Football League have not always been positive. And I'm just going to, you know, I'm somebody who's been around the league for a long time. I've I've lived through a few of those, but this is not one of those days. I think this is a very good news day for the Canadian Football League and certainly for TSN, which is, you know, Bell Media is going to remain the host broadcaster for 60 regular season games, all but two playoff games exclusive on the Grey Cup.

[00:01:11]Of course, TSN, RDS, CTV, and Crave. So, you know, this is this is a relationship between the with for TSN and RDS goes back to the 1980s. Yeah, and of course, Bell Media had been exclusive broadcaster for the CFL since 2008. And you know, in adding a a global streaming partner, the CFL not only you know, diversifies its its contracts with a for its domestic audience with DAZN is going to do a game a week, but they're going to carry all CFL games beyond the United States and Canada to more than 200 countries. They have a network of, you know, roughly 300 million viewers. So, it's a it's the reach of the Canadian Football League both within Canada and beyond Canada gets a real boost in in in this deal. And you know, I I think this is something that other leagues have done. CFL's not the first to go down this path. It certainly following the lead of what's happening in the industry. And you know, this is a big big important part of of CFL's business. When I think back to the Grey Cup in Vancouver a year and a half ago and Randy Ambrosie had announced he was leaving and I was asking people the stakeholders of the league, what are you looking for in your next commissioner?

[00:02:22]And the thing I kept being told was somebody who understands the current and future media landscape in Canada and beyond.

[00:02:30]And that turned out to be my the guy who at my time at that time was my boss.

[00:02:34]>> [laughter] >> That was Orry Johnston. And and so he'd been on the other side of the negotiating table with the CFL.

[00:02:40]Certainly understood the value of this property and and the media landscape in Canada. And I think you know, this is a six-year deal that's going to serve the league very very well.

[00:02:48]>> You know, we've seen it before Dave where, you know, every now and again, you know, American eyeballs would catch a CFL game whether, you know, it was presented by Chris Berman of ESPN when, you know, he was on the football desk or, you know, they'd catch highlights of a of a crazy rouge to end the game or, you know, the fact how different the end of the final two minutes of a CFL game is is versus the National Football League. The the appeal of, you know, to your point about streaming services and having a broader view, the modernization of this game in terms of a broadcasting, I think it's so huge for a league that I have this feeling Dave and you like you mentioned, you've been covering it for a long time that more eyeballs on this product. I got a feeling somewhere in me that more people watch this, more people can latch on to it.

[00:03:31]>> Well, I think those of us who love this league within Canada have always felt like, you know, it's under appreciated as as just as a property as an entertainment property.

[00:03:41]And you know, and part of that is because it's a nine-team domestic league within Canada. But I think, you know, expanding that reach is is is important. You know, and whether that's international audiences or Canadians who are outside of the country that can follow the Canadian Football League now, all those kinds of things. And you know, I think momentum is an important thing in football games. We can all feel the momentum shift, you know, when there's an interception or a fumble recovery or a big touchdown. Well, I think momentum matters in the business of football as well, you know, and I I think that's something that that the league has, you know, struggled with at times. And I I you know, one of the things I you go back to the leadership of Stuart Johnson when he was hired. You know, he was hired with a mandate unlike any I think I've covered nine commissioners and a couple interim commissioners in there as well. I'm not going to date myself. So, I have seen CFL leadership up close, you know, over a long time. And Stuart Johnson was hired with a mandate unlike any other commissioner. And the mandate was basically status quo is not an option. You know, that that this that this league needs to be modernized and to try things that maybe it's never tried before. And you know, he's been on the job what, 13 months and you've had three really substantial announcements. You know, one being the rule changes last September were announced which are going to be phased in over this season and next. The big changes coming next year when the field dimensions change, the field goes to 100 yards, the end zones to 15, the goal posts to the back of the end zone.

[00:05:05]Uh the second one was the one in April this year about the playoff format which is using sort of the play-in playoff with eight teams involved and I think that's really tied to the media deal.

[00:05:15]One of the things you I think you learned about Stuart Johnson's leadership is there's an interconnectedness of ideas. The value of that playoff format to host broadcasters obviously is it created the went the league went from five to nine playoff games. TSN is not going to broadcast two of of the playoff games, but we're still coming away with more playoff games than we ever had. So, you know, all of that was I think engineered for a purpose and you know, the the other part of this is look, this is business and while the league did not announce a dollar figure on this package of of agreements.

[00:05:50]I'm led to believe it is it's going to be very meaningful. And so by the time we get to 2027 and these new broadcast revenues arrive through the league's through the league in 2028, we're all we're already anticipating you know, some meaningful adjustment to the Canadian Football League salary cap in 28, which is great for the players, which is great for the league, which is great for perception, all those things.

[00:06:14]It's funny Kenny Lawler with Hamilton inked a three-year deal this week where I saw the third year of that contract and I went $370,000.

[00:06:22]Man, that's a lot for a receiver. Well, that number in 2028 all of a sudden doesn't seem so ridiculous. [laughter] You know, 48 hours later. So, you know, again, it's a it's a lot of very positive meaningful momentum for the league on the business side and and that's a great story to tell and as I at TSN, I think everybody's just ecstatic that this agreement is standing for six more years our long, you know, and very very stout relationship with the Canadian Football League will continue and we're all we could be more excited about it.

[00:06:53]>> Dave, thanks for your time this morning.

[00:06:54]We appreciate it.

[00:06:56]>> Thank you.

[00:06:57]>> That's Dave Naylor who's got the story this morning. A new broadcast a series of new broadcast agreements announced by the Canadian Football League this morning extending their long-standing partnership with Bell Media while adding a subscription-based streaming partner in DAZN that will carry a game every week to the league's domestic audience.

[00:07:14]In addition to YouTube getting into the mix as well. You can read more about all of this at TSN.ca.

[00:07:21]Stewart Johnston, the CFL's well, not really new commissioner, but he certainly made a splash over the last couple of months.

[00:07:29]This is the third significant announcement of his leadership. In September, the league announced a series of rule changes that are being introduced to this season and next. And last month they brought forward the new playoff format that's going to go into effect in 2027. Yep. Same time that this new series of broadcast deals goes into effect.

[00:07:46]>> I wonder, you know, with the long view being a part of this with the new broadcast agreement, you talk about the rule changes, the field dimension changes coming next season. Um more modernization of the game and revenues being generated. I wonder about overall league growth and whether or not, you know, all of this will eventually add up to more teams being um included and the CFL expanding uh its reach in this country to add more markets to it.

[00:08:12]>> Like Laval?

[00:08:15]>> Sure.

[00:08:16]>> Halifax?

[00:08:17]>> Mhm.

[00:08:18]>> That'd be cool to have a CFL team out east, wouldn't it?

[00:08:20]>> Yeah, that takes in all Atlantic Canada.

[00:08:23]Yeah.

[00:08:45]>> Yeah.