Sportsnet - Programming

Programming

Much like its American counterparts, Sportsnet carries both regional and national programming. Sportsnet is a major regional broadcaster of National Hockey League games. The network's four regional feeds carry selected games of the NHL teams based in their respective regions: the Ottawa Senators on Sportsnet East, the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sportsnet Ontario, the Calgary Flames and Edmonton Oilers on Sportsnet West, and the Vancouver Canucks on Sportsnet Pacific. The Montreal Canadiens and Winnipeg Jets are the only Canadian NHL teams not broadcast by Sportsnet, as both teams have broadcasting deals with TSN (regional coverage for both teams) and sister channel RDS (national coverage in French for the Canadiens). In addition to the NHL, Sportsnet is the national carrier of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL), broadcasting a package of national and regional games, culminating in the Memorial Cup.

Sportsnet is the main television outlet for Major League Baseball in Canada, holding Canadian rights to the All-Star Game and the postseason. Additionally, Sportsnet is also the main television outlet for the Toronto Blue Jays, airing the team's games on both the Sportsnet channels and Sportsnet One, and providing additional coverage of the team. Sportsnet also carries other regional MLB games from regional networks as well.

For the 2005 season, Rogers Sportsnet also began airing National Football League (NFL) games, splitting late games across the Pacific and West feeds, and the East and Ontario feeds. The games not shown in the opposite regions are also carried by the now Rogers-owned Citytv stations in Toronto, Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton.

Sportsnet additionally covers live Barclays Premier League matches on weekends, and alongside TSN and GolTV carries select Toronto FC games broadcast on select feeds, with limited ones available nationally. Sportsnet has also been awarded the media rights in Canada for the 2009–12 UEFA Champions League and for the UEFA Super Cup. As of 2010, Sportsnet will be airing the Amway Canadian Championship, an annual competition featuring Canada's four professional soccer teams – Toronto FC, Montreal Impact, Vancouver Whitecaps FC, and FC Edmonton.

In early 2005, Rogers Media and CTVglobemedia jointly acquired broadcast rights to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, as well as the London 2012 Summer Olympics. This was considered a serious coup, as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) had consistently won Olympic broadcast rights from the 1996 Summer Olympics through to the 2008 Summer Olympics. CTV and V were the primary broadcasters; Rogers Sportsnet, TSN, and RDS provided supplementary coverage. However, Rogers announced in 2011 that it would not bid with CTVglobemedia's predecessor Bell Media for the rights to the 2014 and 2016 games, citing scheduling and financial issues for its widthdrawl. Bell Media will instead partner with the CBC to bid for coverage.

Since the acquisition of the Citytv stations by Rogers, Sportsnet began providing sports updates for those channels in some cases, although certain stations retain their own sports departments. In the event of programming conflicts, Sportsnet has occasionally moved Calgary Flames, Edmonton Oilers, or Vancouver Canucks games to the local Citytv station, although the network's current preference is to use Sportsnet One's companion channels for this purpose instead.

On February 8, 2011, Sportsnet announced that it had signed a multi-year deal with Tennis Canada to acquire the exclusive rights to the Rogers Cup as well as the ATP World Tour Masters 1000 & ATP World Tour 500 series events.