Réseau des sports Réseau des sports (RDS), is a Canadian French language specialty channel oriented towards sports and sport-related shows. It is available in 2.5 million homes, and is owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc. (Bell Media 80% and ESPN 20%). Its full ...

(RDS)'' is a French Canadian cable

specialty channel A specialty channel (also known in the United States as a cable channel or cable network) can be a commercial broadcasting or non-commercial television channel which consists of television programming focused on a single genre, subject or target ...

that broadcasts

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey sports league, league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranke ...

games.

Background

In 2003, the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

announced a deal to license its French-language broadcast rights for all of its preseason, season, and playoff games to RDS. This was controversial as it threatened the longest-running television show in Quebec,

Radio-Canada The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...

's ''

La Soirée du hockey ''La Soirée du hockey'' (literally translated to ''The Night of Hockey'') was a Canadian ice hockey television show. It was the French language Radio-Canada equivalent of the English Canadian CBC show ''Hockey Night in Canada''. The show used "T ...

''. Days later, an agreement was reached whereby RDS and Radio-Canada would simultaneously broadcast Canadiens games on Saturday nights, saving the show. Within the province of Quebec, this arrangement stopped after the

2003–04 NHL season The 2003–04 NHL season was the 87th regular season of the National Hockey League. The Stanley Cup champions were the Tampa Bay Lightning, who won the best of seven series four games to three against the Calgary Flames. For the fourth time in ...

, and French-language Canadiens broadcasts now air only on RDS. Simulcasted coverage continued in regions that do not receive RDS on analog TV (all of Canada south/west of the

Ottawa Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...

Region) on Radio-Canada until the 2006–07 NHL season. In addition to Canadiens games, RDS also televised a smaller package of

Ottawa Senators The Ottawa Senators (french: Sénateurs d'Ottawa), officially the Ottawa Senators Hockey Club and colloquially known as the Sens, are a professional ice hockey team based in Ottawa. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member ...

games, which appear on either RDS or RDS Info as well as other games. RDS also had the French-language rights to the Stanley Cup playoffs and Finals through 2014, regardless of which teams participated. The NHL game broadcasts formerly varied in name depending on the day of the week. Saturday games were known as ''Le Hockey du Samedi Soir

Coors Light Coors Light is a 4.2% (US) ABV light beer brewed in Golden, Colorado; Albany, Georgia; Elkton, Virginia; Fort Worth, Texas; Irwindale, California; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It was first produced in 1978 by the Coors Brewing Company. The Canad ...

'' (''Coors Light Saturday Night Hockey''). Tuesday games were known as ''Les Méchants Mardis Molson-Ex'' while all of the other day or night games were known as ''Le Hockey Subway des Canadiens'' (''Subway Canadiens Hockey''). NHL telecasts not involving the Canadiens were simply titled ''Le hockey Bud Light de la LNH'' (''Bud Light NHL Hockey''). Since 2014, games have been known as ''Le hockey des Canadiens (

Bell A bell is a directly struck idiophone percussion instrument. Most bells have the shape of a hollow cup that when struck vibrates in a single strong strike tone, with its sides forming an efficient resonator. The strike may be made by an inte ...

Coca-Cola Coca-Cola, or Coke, is a carbonated soft drink manufactured by the Coca-Cola Company. Originally marketed as a temperance drink and intended as a patent medicine, it was invented in the late 19th century by John Stith Pemberton in Atla ...

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food Fast food is a type of mass-produced food designed for commercial resale, with a strong priority placed on speed of service. It is a commercial term, limited to food sold ...

)''. (''Bell/Coca-Cola/McDonald's Canadiens Hockey''). The sponsor affiliations change from time to time.

Contract details

At the end of July 2007, RDS and the Montreal Canadiens extended their exclusive broadcasting rights contract through 2013. The deal included all of the Canadiens' 82 regular season games and all of their playoff games, if need be (none of this precludes

CBC Sports CBC Sports is the division of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation responsible for English-language sports broadcasting. The CBC's sports programming primarily airs on CBC Television, CBCSports.ca, and CBC Radio One. (The CBC's French-languag ...

from televising games in English as part of ''

Hockey Night in Canada CBC Television has aired National Hockey League (NHL) broadcasts under the ''Hockey Night in Canada'' (often abbreviated ''Hockey Night'' or ''HNiC'') brand that is primarily associated with its Saturday night NHL broadcasts throughout its his ...

''). Also, RDS had exclusive rights to French television broadcasting rights for the NHL All-Star Game and Skills Competition, as well as one NHL game per week that did not involve the Canadiens and a minimum of 40 playoff games for either RDS or RDS Info. The Canadiens also granted RDS exclusive rights to 'new media' coverage for the team (i.e., cell-phone TV, podcast and others). Most other broadcast contracts were acquired through TSN and ESPN. On November 26, 2013,

Rogers Communications Rogers Communications Inc. is a Telecommunications in Canada, Canadian communications and media company operating primarily in the fields of mobile phone operator, wireless communications, cable television, telephony and Internet access, Intern ...

, the parent company of

Sportsnet Sportsnet is a Canadian English-language sports specialty channel owned by Rogers Sports & Media. It was established in 1998 as CTV Sportsnet, a joint venture between CTV, Liberty Media, and Rogers Media. CTV parent Bell Globemedia then was r ...

announced that it had reached a 12-year, $5.2 billion deal to become the exclusive national rightsholder for the National Hockey League, beginning in the 2014-15 season, and would sub-license exclusive French-language rights to TVA and

TVA Sports TVA Sports is a Canadian French-language sports specialty channel owned by the Groupe TVA, a publicly traded subsidiary of Quebecor Media. The channel is a general-interest sports network, and the first major competitor to RDS, the only other ...

, replacing RDS. Previously, due to RDS's position as national French rightsholder, the Canadiens forwent a separate regional rights deal and allowed its games to be part of the national French package. Under the new contract, RDS maintained its broadcast rights to 40 Canadiens games per season under a 12-year deal, but Canadiens games are now subject to blackout outside of the Canadiens home market region. In January 2014, as part of a wider media rights deal with Bell Media, RDS also obtained regional broadcast rights to the

, with 40 regional games in French per season. The contract also includes English-language television and radio rights for TSN and CFGO.

Theme music

In June 2008, RDS's parent, CTV Inc., acquired the rights to " The Hockey Theme" after the CBC decided not to renew its rights to the theme song. A re-orchestrated version of the tune, which has been the

theme song Theme music is a musical composition that is often written specifically for radio programming, television shows, video games, or films and is usually played during the title sequence, opening credits, closing credits, and in some instances at s ...

of ''La Soirée du hockey'' and ''Hockey Night in Canada'' since 1968, will be used for hockey broadcasts on RDS and TSN beginning in the fall of 2008.

Commentators

Our starting line for the coverage of games
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Current

* David Arsenault - Ottawa Senators host *

Andrée-Anne Barbeau Andrée-Anne is a French feminine given name. Notable people with this given name include: * Andrée-Anne Côté (born 1998), Canadian synchronized swimmer * Andrée-Anne Dupuis-Bourret, Canadian artist See also * Andréanne Andreanne () i ...

- Ottawa Senators host * Benoît Brunet - Montreal Canadiens studio analyst *

Guy Carbonneau Joseph Harry Guy Carbonneau (born March 18, 1960) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey player, coach and executive in the National Hockey League. He was also the president of the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League Chicoutimi Saguenéens. ...

- Montreal Canadiens studio analyst * Alain Crête - Montreal Canadiens host * Vincent Damphousse - Montreal Canadiens studio analyst *

Marc Denis Joseph Marc Denis (born August 1, 1977) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey goaltender, who last played with the Montreal Canadiens of the National Hockey League (NHL). For the 2009–10 season, he was hired as the goaltenders' coach of ...

- Montreal Canadiens colour commentator *

Norman Flynn Norman or Normans may refer to: Ethnic and cultural identity * The Normans, a people partly descended from Norse Vikings who settled in the territory of Normandy in France in the 10th and 11th centuries ** People or things connected with the No ...

- Ottawa Senators colour commentator * Denis Gauthier - Ottawa / Montreal Studio analyst * Luc Gélinas - Montreal Canadiens beat reporter * Bruno Gervais - Ottawa / Montreal Studio analyst *

Pierre Houde Pierre Houde (born July 14, 1957) is a Canadian play-by-play sports announcer for RDS. He has announced broadcasts of Montreal Canadiens games since 1989. Over the years he was partnered with Pierre Bouchard and Yvon Pedneault. From 2007 to 20 ...

- Montreal Canadiens play-by-play *

Michel Y. Lacroix Michel may refer to: * Michel (name), a given name or surname of French origin (and list of people with the name) * Míchel (nickname), a nickname (a list of people with the nickname, mainly Spanish footballers) * Míchel (footballer, born 1963), ...

- Ottawa Senators play-by-play * Jocelyn Lemieux - Ottawa Senators studio Analyst * Chantal Machabée - Montreal Canadiens beat reporter *

Mario Tremblay Joseph Daniel Mario Tremblay (born September 2, 1956) is a former professional ice hockey player and former coach in the National Hockey League (NHL). As a player, he was a five-time Stanley Cup winner with the Montreal Canadiens. He was hono ...

- Montreal Canadiens studio analyst

Former

* Michel Bergeron - Montreal Canadiens analyst (2008–2010) * Jöel Bouchard - Montreal Canadiens studio analyst/rinkside reporter *

Yanick Bouchard Yanick is a given name. Notable people with the name include: * Yanick Dupré (1972–1997), Canadian professional ice hockey player * Yanick Lehoux (born 1982), Canadian hockey player * Yanick Paquette (born 1974), Canadian penciller in North Amer ...

- ''Le Hockey Bud Light de la LNH'' host * Denis Casavant - Play-by-Play * Jacques Demers - Montreal Canadiens analyst (2000–2010) *

Bob Hartley Robert "Bob" Hartley (born September 7, 1960) is a Canadian professional ice hockey coach. He most recently served as the head coach of Avangard Omsk of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). He has additionally coached the Latvia men's natio ...

- Ottawa Senators colour commentator/''Le Hockey Bud Light de la LNH'' analyst (2008–2010) *

Renaud Lavoie Renaud Pierre Manuel Séchan (), known as Renaud (), born 11 May 1952, is a French singer, songwriter and actor. His characteristically 'broken' voice makes for a very distinctive vocal style. Several of his songs are popular classics in F ...

- Montreal Canadiens interviewer *

Patrick Lalime Patrick Lalime (born July 7, 1974) is a Canadian ice hockey commentator and former professional ice hockey player who played twelve seasons in the National Hockey League (NHL) with the Pittsburgh Penguins, Ottawa Senators, St. Louis Blues, Chicago ...

- ''Le Hockey Bud Light de la LNH''/Ottawa Senators Analyst * Claude Mailhot - Ottawa Senators studio host * Dave Morissette - Ottawa Senators analyst *

Sylvain Pedneault Sylvain is the French form of Silvanus. It may refer to: People *Sylvain Archambault, Canadian director * Sylvain Bied (1965–2011), French footballer and manager *Sylvain Cappell (born 1946), American mathematician *Sylvain Chavanel (born 1979) ...

- Montreal Canadiens player profiler * Yvon Pedneault - Montreal Canadiens colour commentator (1998–2008) *

Félix Séguin Felix may refer to: * Felix (name), people and fictional characters with the name Places * Arabia Felix is the ancient Latin name of Yemen * Felix, Spain, a municipality of the province Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, ...

- ''Le Hockey Bud Light de la LNH'' play-by-play

References

External links

RDS - Hockey

RDS - Hockey
{{DEFAULTSORT:LNH a RDS National Hockey League on television Television shows filmed in Montreal 2003 Canadian television series debuts 2014 Canadian television series endings 2010s Canadian sports television series 2000s Canadian sports television series