Bidders beware: TSN isn’t for sale, according to an unnamed spokesperson.
Sports media insider Jonah Sigel has reported Bell Media “could be actively exploring” selling TSN and its affiliated properties, citing unnamed sources. Though the Toronto native acknowledged that no potential buyers had been publicly identified, he pointed to recent market shifts and layoffs as reasons that a TSN sale could occur.
Bell Media agreed to sell its Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment (MLSE) share earlier this year for a reported $4.7 billion, two months prior to its Ziply Fiber acquisition, an internet provider in the U.S. Pacific Northwest, for a reported $5 billion. Sigel considers this a clear sign the company is pivoting away from sports media, with its ever-increasing rights fees and shrinking television revenues, and toward telecommunications.
A Bell Media spokesperson denied this in a statement to Daily Hive on Monday, stating there is “no truth to the report that TSN is being considered for sale.”
TSN has held the CFL’s exclusive broadcasting rights since 2008 and made a major change to its schedule this past year, moving some games to CTV. The results were mixed during the regular season, falling by six percent year-over-year, but strong during the playoffs, when games were shown simultaneously on both networks, as ratings exploded for the East and West Semi-Finals and East and West Finals.
Grey Cup ratings held flat from 2023 to 2024, though this included a 19.9 percent spike in English and a 79.2 percent drop in French. This likely occurred because the Montreal Alouettes didn’t qualify for the Grey Cup after winning the 2023 championship game.
TSN also has the rights to all four men’s major golf championships, Canada’s major curling events, regional NHL games, select NBA and CEBL games, the NCAA Division I men’s basketball tournament, major horse racing events, domestic and international soccer, and simulcasts many NFL and college football games from ESPN.
