Réseau des sports

Réseau des sports (RDS) is a Canadian French language channel that focuses on sports and shows about sports. It reaches 2.5 million homes across the country. The channel is owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc., which is mostly controlled by Bell Media and partly by ESPN. Its full name, usually said with the French word "le," means "The Sports Network." This is the same name as its English-speaking counterpart, TSN.

History

September 1, 1989–1990s

RDS started on September 1, 1989, as a sister network to Labatt’s popular English sports network TSN. At first, RDS had a small budget and struggled to show big sports events. But it became well-known for a weekly miniature golf show called Défi Mini-Putt, thanks to its energetic commentator Serge Vleminckx and his excited shouts of "Birdie!" when players scored a hole in one.

By the early 1990s, RDS grew stronger. It got the rights to show games from the Montreal Expos, the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League, and some Montreal Canadiens games. Rodger Brulotte became another popular commentator with his lively commentary during Expos games. RDS also covered other Montreal teams like the Montreal Machine WLAF football team, the Montreal Impact soccer team, the Montreal Roadrunners roller hockey team, the Montreal Express lacrosse team, and the Montreal Alouettes Canadian football team. Even though some teams like the Machine, Roadrunners, and Express stopped playing, RDS helped make the Impact and Alouettes popular. RDS also helped grow the popularity of Canadian football in Quebec by showing Canadian Football League and university games. Because its audience was mostly in Quebec, RDS had limited money and could only pay small amounts for broadcasting rights.

In 1995, Labatt had to sell RDS and TSN after being bought by Interbrew. The selling was handled by a private group named NetStar Communications, which included several Canadian companies and ESPN Inc., which owned about 30 percent. CRTC rules prevented ESPN from starting its own Canadian sports networks, so getting a part of RDS and TSN was ESPN’s way to enter the Canadian market.

2000s

In 2000, Bell Globemedia bought most of RDS and TSN’s parent company NetStar. ESPN kept a smaller part, and soon both RDS and TSN started using ESPN-style logos.

Also in 2000, the Montreal Expos stopped working with RDS, saying the network wasn’t giving enough to show their games. But RDS started showing Expos games again from 2001 until the team moved to Washington, D.C. after the 2004 season. During this time, RDS showed about 50 games each season.

In 2002, the Montreal Canadiens agreed to let RDS show all its French-language games, which worried many people because it could end a long-running Quebec TV show, Radio-Canada’s La Soirée du hockey. But soon, RDS and Radio-Canada made a deal to show Canadiens games together on Saturday nights, keeping the show alive. After the 2003–04 NHL season, French-language Canadiens games were only on RDS in Quebec, but in other parts of Canada, they were still shown on Radio-Canada until the 2006–07 NHL season. In 2008, RDS’s parent company, CTV Inc., got the rights to The Hockey Theme, the famous tune used since 1968 for La Soirée du hockey and Hockey Night in Canada. RDS and TSN started using a new version of this theme for their hockey games from fall 2008.

2010s

In 2010, Bell Canada planned to buy back full control of CTVglobemedia’s broadcasting, including TSN. The deal finished on April 1, 2011, and the new company was called Bell Media.

In 2012, Bell asked for permission to change Montreal’s TSN Radio station CKGM to a French-language sports talk station called RDS Radio. This was to fill a gap left when CKAC stopped being a French sports talk station. But Bell’s plan to buy Astral Media was rejected, so the change didn’t happen.

In 2013, Rogers got the rights to be the only national broadcaster for the National Hockey League and gave French-language rights to TVA Sports. Before this, RDS was the national French broadcaster, so the Montreal Canadiens let their games be part of the national package. Now, RDS still shows 60 Canadiens games each season, but games outside the Canadiens’ home area might not be shown. In 2014, RDS also got the rights to show UEFA Champions League and UFC mixed martial arts games in French, starting in 2015.

2020s

In May 2022, a small TV company called Hay Communications planned to stop showing RDS because the cost to carry the channel went up a lot.

Noted RDS programming

Sports 30 is a sports news show that gives updates about big sports events in North America and around the world.

Conadien Express is a shorter version of the last Montreal Canadiens hockey game, shown in one hour. There is also F1 Express, which follows a similar idea.

Montreal Canadiens hockey games used to have different names depending on the day. Saturday games were called Le Hockey du Samedi Soir Coors Light, Tuesday games were Les Méchants Mardis Molson-Ex, and other games were Le Hockey Subway des Canadiens. For games not featuring the Canadiens, the name was simply LNH à RDS. Since 2014, all Canadiens games are called "Le hockey des Canadiens (Bell/Coca-Cola/McDonald's)." Sponsors can change over time.

In January 2013, RDS and TSN started a documentary series called 24CH, which follows the team.

Dubbed programming

RDS often shows sports events that few other French-language channels broadcast. When another French-language channel is showing an event like the French Open or soccer matches from France, RDS usually uses its own commentators. For most events not in Quebec or not involving Quebec teams, RDS uses the video from an English-language broadcaster, either from Canada or the U.S., or from another international source.

The video is shown with live commentary from RDS studios. The commentators usually watch the game on monitors instead of being at the event. The commentary is not a direct translation of the English audio, though the background audio stays the same. Important information from the English commentary might be shared by the RDS announcers. Interviews during the broadcast are not dubbed, but RDS announcers will summarize them after they happen.

Except for special "international" feeds from event organizers, the video is usually delayed by a few seconds. This delay allows RDS to remove unwanted content, like U.S. network promos, and replace it with images of the venue, extra game statistics, or RDS promotions.

Sister channels

RDS2

RDS2 is a Canadian French language sports channel. It started on October 7, 2011, and shows sports events that cannot be shown on the main channel. It shares the same rules as its main channel.

RDS Info

RDS Info is a Canadian French language channel that gives sports news all day. It began on October 21, 2004, and got a high definition version in 2012.

High-definition feed

RDS started a high-definition version of the channel on October 3, 2007, just in time for the 2007–08 NHL season. This made it the only channel to show all games of the NHL's Montreal Canadiens in high definition. Since then, most big sports events have been shown in HD, such as Formula One, NASCAR, Montreal Alouettes CFL Football, NFL, MLB, PGA Golf, and the Euro 2008 soccer tournament. RDS now broadcasts its HD signal in 1080i format.

Notable personalities

Current

• David Arsenault – CFL and NFL play-by-play / Ottawa Senators studio host
• Andrée-Anne Barbeau – Montreal Canadiens studio host (starting this fall)
• Patrice Bernier – Soccer analyst
• Yanick Bouchard – Host of Le 5à7 / Hockey studio host
• Guy Boucher – Hockey analyst
• Olivier Brett – Soccer play-by-play
• Benoit Brunet – Montreal Canadiens analyst
• Guy Carbonneau – Montreal Canadiens analyst
• Patrick Carpentier – NASCAR and Formula 1 analyst
• François-Etienne Corbin – studio host
• Patrick Coté – UFC analyst
• Alain Crête – Montreal Canadiens studio host (will retire at the end of May 2026)
• Vincent Damphousse – Hockey analyst
• Mathieu Darche – Hockey analyst
• Danny Desriveaux – CFL/NFL analyst
• Gilbert Delorme – Hockey analyst
• Marc Denis – Montreal Canadiens colour commentator
• Claudine Douville – Soccer/rugby/women's hockey play-by-play
• Norman Flynn – Ottawa Senators colour commentator / Hockey analyst
• François Gagnon – Hockey columnist and analyst
• Denis Gauthier – Hockey analyst
• Bruno Gervais – Hockey analyst
• Jean Gounelle – Soccer analyst
• Guy Hemmings – Curling colour commentator
• Bruno Heppell – CFL/NFL analyst
• Bertrand Houle – Formula 1 analyst
• Pierre Houde – Montreal Canadiens play-by-play / Formula 1 lap-by-lap
• Wandrille Lefèvre – Soccer analyst
• Jocelyn Lemieux – Hockey analyst
• Jasmin Leroux – Ottawa Senators play-by-play (starting this fall)
• Yvon Michel – Boxing analyst
• Yvan Ponton – Tennis play-by-play and 30 Images / Seconde host
• Matthieu Proulx – CFL/NFL host and analyst
• Maxime Talbot – Hockey analyst
• Gaston Therrien – Hockey analyst
• Alexandre Tourigny – NBA analyst
• Mario Tremblay – Montreal Canadiens analyst
• PJ Stock – Hockey analyst
• Alain Usereau – MLB Baseball play-by-play / Curling play-by-play
• Pierre Vercheval – CFL/NFL colour commentator and analyst

Former

• Michel Bergeron – Montreal Canadiens analyst
• Joel Bouchard – Montreal Canadiens analyst
• Rodger Brulotte – Baseball analyst
• Jacques Demers – Hockey analyst
• Robert Dawson – First President of RDS
• Michel Y. Lacroix – Ottawa Senators play-by-play / Curling play-by-play
• Guillaume Latendresse – Montreal Canadiens analyst
• Patrick Leduc – Soccer analyst
• Dominique Perras – Cycling analyst
• Chantal Machabé – Hockey commentator

Broadcasting contracts

In 2007, RDS and the Montreal Canadiens agreed to show all of the team's games until 2013. This included every regular season game and any playoff games. RDS also had the right to show the NHL All-Star Game and one NHL game each week that didn't include the Canadiens, along with many playoff games.

Later, in 2013, RDS lost some rights to show big games like the All-Star Game to another company. But RDS still gets to show 60 games featuring the Montreal Canadiens each season. Most of RDS's other sports deals come from TSN and ESPN.

Main article: CBC Sports

Main articles: Hockey Night in Canada

International distribution

RDS can also be watched in Saint Pierre and Miquelon, a group of French islands. It is available through the local service provider, SPM Telecom, which is part of Orange S.A..