RDS lost more money than TVA Sports in 2024

Dose
Crédit:

Sports broadcasting is not doing well in Quebec. While RDS and TVA Sports try to establish themselves as Quebec’s leading sports broadcasters, the numbers are slipping.

According to information gathered by Richard Dufour of La Presse, RDS would have lost more money in 2024 than TVA Sports.

We’re talking about a loss of $20.3 million for RDS, compared with $15.4 million for TVA Sports. The verdict is not a happy one for either side.

However, this is a first. This is the first time that RDS has lost more money than TVA Sports since the creation of Quebecor’s sports channel.

RDS revenues are always higher than those of TVA Sports ($140 million for RDS and $89 million for TVA Sports), but it’s the final loss that is greater in the case of the Bell channel.

Éric Brunelle, professor in the management department and director of the sports division at HEC Montréal, told Richard Dufour that RDS was profitable when TVA Sports didn’t exist.

Times have changed, but if TVA Sports were to disappear, RDS would certainly recover.

Back in May, Pierre-Karl Péladeau explained that we shouldn’t be surprised if TVA Sports was forced to cease operations. In fact, we even understood that without TVA Sports, the TVA group would not lose money.

Right now, RDS looks bad with La Presse’s figures. However, we’ll have to do the exercise again in a few years’ time, when we find out who will get the NHL rights back, which are due to be reallocated by the 2026-27 season.

Even if TVA Sports were to disappear, people are subscribing less and less to cable, which generates losses, regardless of the competition. This doesn’t mean that RDS would become as powerful as it was in the event of the disappearance of TVA Sports.

Prices for NHL broadcasting rights are extremely high. This could force a complete change in the format of the new NHL contract.

Maxime Truman wrote about this in March, explaining that RDS could go from 60 to 50 Canadiens games, while Amazon Prime could enter the picture for a few French-language games.

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