Edmonton Oilers forward Connor McDavid controls the puck during Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final against the Florida Panthers, in Sunrise, Fla., on June 24.For most of his life, Adam Holmes never had to worry about where to find his beloved Toronto Maple Leafs on television.
As more Canadians ditch cable and satellite TV subscriptions, streaming services have moved in to grab a piece of the action on sports, where viewers have shown they are willing to pay for live coverage. He said Canadian sports fans had a “streaming wake-up call” in 2017 when U.K.-based DAZN purchased the exclusive digital broadcasting rights in the country to all NFL games, followed by English Premier League soccer rights in Canada the next year.
“When you think of Canada and you think of sports, it’s like, ‘Well, is CBC going to air it, is Sportsnet going to air it or is TSN going to air it?”’ he said. But it also comes with drawbacks for many consumers, such as the inability to watch all the sports they crave at an affordable price. He said that leaves sports fans with some tough decisions “in terms of what they can watch and what they might have to give up.”