TSN has signed a deal with Major League Soccer making it the league’s official Canadian broadcast partner through the 2016 season. The deal encompasses regular season games, the MLS Cup, MLS Cup playoff games, and the MLS All-Star Game.
This season, TSN and sister station TSN2 will combine to show 24 MLS games featuring Toronto FC and the league’s newest franchise, the Vancouver Whitecaps. Its coverage begins March 19, with the first all-Canadian match in MLS history between Toronto and the expansion Whitecaps.
In future seasons, it will broadcast a minimum of 30 games featuring three Canadian teams—including the 2012 expansion franchise the Montreal Impact. French-language rights for the Impact will belong to TSN’s sister network RDS.
“As seen with the success of Toronto FC and MLS’s expansion to Vancouver and Montreal, there is an incredible appetite for professional soccer in Canada,” said TSN president Stewart Johnston in a release. “This is a long-term partnership with MLS and we are looking forward to working with them not only to give fans best-in-class game coverage but also to help build the profile of the league and grow the game of soccer across the country.”
The MLS rights are the latest in a string of high-profile acquisitions for TSN, following rights acquisitions for the Euro 2012 and 2016 soccer championships and the Tour de France.
