Refer to the CFL's 2023 Broadcast Schedule page.
In Canada, all regular season and playoff games are televised on TSN through the 2026 season. Check the schedules page for complete league and team schedules with the knowledge that all games are televised on the TSN network in Canada subject to local blackouts. The 2019 schedule included all but two regular season games on the full TSN network. In 2018, the reality was two games were not carried on the main TSN1 channel.
The CFL made a major announcement about changes to pre-season game availabilty and streaming on May 19, 2023. Starting in 2023, Canadian audiences will be able to see every pre-season game through broadcasts and streaming on CFL Preseason Live. US audiences will also be able to see every CFL game not available on broadcast networks in the US via streaming on CFL+. No downloads, subscription or payment is required.
TSN will broadcast two pre-season games for the 2023 season. The remainder of the pre-season games will be available for streaming on CFL Preseason Live.
For French language coverage, RDS carries all Montreal Alouette games and RDS/RDS2 carries select Ottawa RedBlack games as well as other CFL games each season. TSN/RDS have extended their agreement to be the exclusive broadcaster of the CFL through the 2026 season. (Note: The CFL/TSN announced an extension of their broadcast agreement partnership at Grey Cup 2019, but no details on length or other parameters have been made available).
Starting in 2023, US broadcasts will move to CBS Sports Network, carrying 34 games. The remainder of the schedule will be available to be streamed on CFL+ for US and International markets.
Determining whether a game will be available either by broadcast or streaming is fairly simple. If TSN is broadcasting the game, it is available on TSN broadcast channels in Canada and streamed on TSN and CFL+ for US and International markets. For French language broadcasts, all Montreal Alouette and select Ottawa RedBlack and other CFL contests are available on RDS/RDS2 and streamed on RDS . Select regular season, playoff and the Grey Cup game are broadcast on CBS Sports Network (TBD). For other non-TSN broadcast pre-season games, other parties may decide to stream the game. If this does not occur, the game is not available to view or stream anywhere.
This handy chart summarizes the availability of CFL game broadcasts each year. For information on streaming around the world, see the streaming question.
| Season | TSN 1 | TSN+ 2 | RDS3 | RDS24 | Other streaming |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Season | Select games | Select games | Select Montréal Alouette games | None | CFL Preseason Live |
| Regular Season | All games | All games | All Montréal Alouette games | Select non-Montréal games | N/A |
| Playoffs | All games | All games | All games | None | N/A |
| Grey Cup | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | N/A |
| Season | CBS Sports Network5 | US Streaming6 | International7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-Season | None | CFL Preseason Live | CFL+ |
| Regular Season | 34 Select games | CFL+ | CFL+ |
| Playoffs | All games | CFL+ | CFL+ |
| Grey Cup | Yes | CFL+ | CFL+ |
1 — TSN is the Canadian broadcast rights holder for the CFL. They broadcast all regular season, playoff and the Grey Cup championship game, along with select pre-season games.
2 — TSN is the Canadian Internet streaming rights holder for the CFL. All games broadcast on TSN networks are available for streaming on TSN+.
3 — RDS is the French Canadian broadcast rights holder for for the CFL. They carry all Montréal Alouette regular season games, as well as select non-Montréal Alouette CFL games plus the complete playoffs and Grey Cup game. RDS (French sister network to TSN underneath same parent company BellMedia) is also the Canadian Internet streaming rights holder for the CFL French language broadcasts. All games broadcast on RDS networks are available for streaming on En direct à RDS.
4 — RDS2 carries select non-Montréal Alouette CFL games for French audiences. Check local listings.
5 — CBS Sports Network is the US broadcast rights holder for the CFL. They broadcast select games (34 scheduled for 2023).
6 — US Internet Streaming for the CFL provided by CFL+ for games not carried by the US broadcast rights holder
7 — International (outside Canada and US) access available through streaming on CFL+
Streaming a game that is not broadcast is expensive and requires a substantial amount of skilled persons. Camera operators, producers, ors, and other technical personnel are required along with the on-air broadcast team. Absence of any of these will be noticeable. Streaming pre-season contests currently does not draw large enough audiences to make this a break-even proposition, and draws away from in-stadium attendance which is lacking in the pre-season (10 year average pre-season -17% over regular season and -10% difference in percentage of capacity).
The release schedule of the early 2019 season games has six games on ESPN broadcast networks with a commitment for an additional 14 with the remaining games available on the ESPN+ streaming service. For 2018, ESPN announced an initial schedule of 22 games on ESPN2/ESPNNews, while the remaining regular season and four pre-season games were available on the $5/month ESPN+ subscription streaming service.
In 2017, ESPN broadcast 23 games on ESPN2/ESPNNews, including all playoff games and the Grey Cup Championship. The remaining games in the regular season were available on ESPN3. ESPN announced it would carry 20 games on ESPN broadcast networks in 2016, starting with the first game of the season June 23rd and ending with the 104th Grey Cup Championship in November. ESPN signed a 5-year broadcast deal to carry CFL games for 5 years starting in 2014. All CFL games are carried by ESPN, with select games (minimum 17 games/season) on ESPN/ESPN2/ESPNNews and the remainder on ESPN+. For the CFL broadcast schedule in the US and other International locations, please see the CFL's website with the scheduled broadcasts usually announced in a weeks before the first broadcast or check the ESPN TV listings.
Starting in 2016, select games became available on TSN4K, available on select carriers.
TSN announced four 2019 pre-season games on their broadcast schedule. TSN broadcast five pre-season games in 2018 and RDS carries one or two pre-season games. In 2017, TSN carried four and RDS one pre-season games, while 2016 saw four by TSN and two by RDS broadcast. TSN/TSN2 broadcast three of nine pre-season games in 2015. TSN/TSN2 broadcast six of nine pre-season games in 2014. In 2013, TSN/TSN2 broadcast two pre-season games after initially indicating they would broadcast six games. In 2012, TSN/TSN2 broadcast four pre-season games. In 2011, TSN televised 7 of 8 pre-season games on TSN or TSN2. Prior to 2011 CFL pre-season games have not been televised nationally since the early 1980's with two exceptions: a game in Portland, Oregon in 1992 and a game in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2005, both by TSN. There was the opportunity for televised coverage of a team's home games in local and regional markets, as in Hamilton and Saskatchewan in 2010. Regional broadcasts were common until the mid-1980's.
CBS Sports Network is the new broadcast rights holder for the CFL and will carry 34 games in 2023 on their network. A full release of all 34 games to be carried for the 2023 season is expected prior to the season based on the rights announcement, which is different than the previous rights holder who would release games to be broadcast only about a month in advance. Streaming of CFL games for US residents will be provided by CFL+, and will carry all games not carried by CBSSN.
In the past, ESPN released its initial schedule of CFL broadcasts a few weeks prior to the start of the CFL season for games up to the end of August. Further games to be broadcast later in the season were announced closer to their broadcast date.
The release schedule of the early 2019 season games has six games on ESPN broadcast networks with the remaining games available on the ESPN+ streaming service.
All CFL games not available on ESPN traditional networks were available on ESPN+ on U.S. domestic Internet and wireless services. ESPN+ is a Internet video streaming subscription service, allowing you to watch broadcasts on a computer or mobile device. ESPN+ is the replacement for the previous cable subscriber limited ESPN3 streaming service and is available to persons with the ESPNPlayer app for $5/month.
CFL blackouts are largely a thing of the past with the current television contract. There are reports of some executives in the league who wish to bring back blackouts in future TV deals (current expires after 2021 season). I haven't been made aware of a blackout of a game since 2015 in any market, and fans in larger centres have taken advantage of following their team at home rather than in person.
The simple solution to avoiding blackouts is for tickets to be sold. If every team was playing to 90%+ capacity crowds, the league members would all be stable and blackouts certainly would be a tool not as necessary to use. Until those tickets are sold to ensure a healthy franchise, there is no right for someone sitting at home to watch the game, good weather or bad. The active ticket paying fans power the team, not the passive watch-at-home fans. The alternative is the team does not exist.
Blackouts are not determined prior to the season and are not published with team schedules since they are unknown on a game by game basis until the required number of ticket sales occur or the deadline to lift the blackout is passed. Teams use blackouts as a tool to maintain ticket sales. The CFL is a gate-driven league and their television contract would need to increase by over four times for each team to generate the same amount of revenue from broadcasts as they do from ticket sales. If such an increase was to happen, the league would not be willing to forgo revenues from game attendance and play in front of empty stadiums. Rather, revenue growth would go to salary increases, new initiatives and capital improvements as in any business.
Blackout areas are defined in Section 6 of the CFL Constitution as 120 kilometres from the city limits of the city the game is being played in or the province of Saskatchewan for games played in that province for broadcast (over-the-air) signals and 56 kilometres from the city limits of the host city for cable signals. It is possible the blackout policy on the constitution has been rewritten in recent years. Blackouts are instituted by cable/satellite providers (or, in the past, over-the-air broadcasters) at the direction of the CFL and the broadcast rights holder. The CRTC is not involved in the decision to black out CFL games in the local market, it is purely an option negotiated by the league with the rights holder.
A report from 2006 (when the 2008-2013 contract was signed) indicates that blackouts were controlled at the league level and required the league to lift the blackout on a minimum number of games each year. Article VI of the CFL Constitution outlines the television and blackout policy (may be outdated). By its wording, it appears that a base price for lifting blackouts in each market was determined each year by the board along with the total number of home game blackouts to be permitted in a season. A portion of rights fees is then used to compensate teams for lifting blackouts (thus theoretically creating higher television ratings). Reinterpreting this article, the pool allowed teams to blackout two games in 2009, meaning the pool size was 56 games. Blackout decisions reverted to the league if 90% of tickets were sold 48 hours prior to the game start. It was the opinion of Eskimos CEO Rick LeLacheur that the 2008-2013 broadcast rights agreement would be the last to have blackout stipulations for the CFL, however it was reported the same blackout policy is in place for the new 5-year agreement beginning in 2014 (since extended an additional 3 years). Since TSN began broadcasting games in High Definition in 2007, HD broadcasts have not been affected by blackouts to my knowledge.
The Constitution does not hold the whole story it appears, as this mailbag question (see last question) to Drew Edwards from April 2010 (another article that also references these restrictions) indicates that each team could black out 5 games per season except for Toronto and Hamilton which could black out a maximum of 2 games. Yet Terry Jones says in Aug. 2010 the Eskimos could choose to black out one game per season. In 2011, the BC Lions instituted blackouts for their return to a renovated BC Place stadium, continued the practice in 2012 when games were not a sellout and still had the option at their disposal in 2015 as attendance plummeted.
The policy for the past 20 years at least has been that playoff games are not blacked out. I believe the Grey Cup has not been blacked out since it was first televised.
The previous agreement (2002 through 2007), if I remember correctly, required teams to lift at least two blackouts per season.
Blackouts are not a Canadian phenomenon; blackouts occur south of the border as well.
In 2023, TSN rebranded their streaming platform to TSN+. Currently in free preview (May 2023), subscription prices have not yet been released.
Pre-season streaming of games to Canadian audiences will be provided by CFL Preseason Live starting in 2023.
US streaming will be provided by CFL+ beggining with the 2023 season.
Persons outside the TSN and US service areas can stream CFL games online via CFL+.
In 2018, TSN announced TSN Direct, a $25 $20/month subscription service (24-hour pass and 6-month package also available) to stream TSN broadcasts with only an Internet connection (without a cable/satellite package).
TSN Go was announced in 2014 as the new streaming mobile service, including CFL games, available to all TSN subscribers on participating carriers for no additional charge.
Previously, TSN Mobile was available to Bell and Virgin Mobile subscribers. Subscribers of those services could watch live CFL games over mobile and Wi-Fi networks.