Figure Skating Returns to CTV On Ten-Year Deal

TORONTO -- Bell Media has taken another marquee Canadian TV sport property from the hands of a competitor.

This time the top-rated Canadian broadcaster has signed a ten-year deal with Skate Canada to air the country’s top figure skating competitions on the main CTV network, TSN, the cable sports channel, and RDS, its French language counterpart.

The Skate Canada events, which include Skate Canada International and The Canadian Figure Skating Championships, aired on the rival CBC network since 2008.

Before that, CTV had hosted major Canadian figure skating competitions since the 1970s.

The CBC, Canada’s public broadcaster, in recent years has lost several key TV sport properties to TSN and CTV, including the Canadian rights to the Olympics.

And earlier, TSN and TSN2 grabbed the Canadian rights to the NCAA March Madness tournament from The Score, a rival cable sports channel, and the rights to the Tour de France pro cycling race in July from Canada’s Outdoor Life Network.

Other exclusive local TV sport rights now held by TSN include the EURO 2012 and 2016 European football championships from the Union of European Football Associations, and a package of Major League Soccer games involving pro teams in Toronto and Montreal.