With just one year to go until the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Canadian soccer fans are still being shut out from watching their own teams on cable TV—despite a clear ruling from the CRTC.
At the heart of the issue is OneSoccer, the subscription-based streaming service that holds broadcasting rights to Canadian national team games, the Canadian Premier League, and the Canadian Championship. But Rogers still refuses to carry the channel on its TV platforms.
The CRTC sided with OneSoccer back in March 2023, saying Rogers gave “undue preference to itself” and “subjected OneSoccer to a disadvantage” by not distributing the channel. Both parties were directed to propose remedies by April 11, 2023.
Now more than a year later, the standoff continues. CityNews, which is owned by Rogers, reported on the matter in a recent follow up story.
“Clearly Rogers has being doing what they can to delay that…It’s been with the CRTC for several years now and clearly it’s taken far too long,” said Scott Mitchell, owner of OneSoccer’s parent company Timeless Inc. and chairman of both the Canadian Premier League and Canadian Soccer Business. “We have a home World Cup on the horizon and we clearly have a growing soccer audience and ecosystem. And this issue should be dealt with quickly.”
Mitchell said he’s “perplexed” at the inaction, especially with the 2026 World Cup approaching and interest in soccer rising. “We have a home World Cup on the horizon and we clearly have a growing soccer audience and ecosystem. And this issue should be dealt with quickly.”
Rogers gave a written statement to CityNews, saying, “We offer our customers a wide variety of popular and premium sports programming from multiple leading content providers. For those who want even more soccer content, they have the option to subscribe to OneSoccer as a stand-alone streaming service.”
That means games like Sunday’s CONCACAF Champions Cup final between the Vancouver Whitecaps and Mexico’s Cruz Azul were only viewable by OneSoccer and Fubo TV subscribers.
“It’s disappointing that not as many Canadians are going to be able to watch the match as there should be,” said Mitchell. “Because clearly there is an audience for it.”
Rogers and its recently acquired Shaw, argues OneSoccer doesn’t have broad appeal outside of national team matches. It says there are “valid commercial reasons” for not carrying the channel and notes that other major providers—including Bell, Cogeco, Videotron, Eastlink, and Sasktel—also do not offer OneSoccer’s linear feed.
Despite that, Mitchell insists the demand is there. Subscriptions are reportedly up 40 per cent in 2024. But without wide distribution, the service struggles to reach the audience it believes it deserves.
The CRTC has yet to take further action, and OneSoccer remains on the sidelines of Canada’s major TV lineups—despite holding some of the country’s most important soccer rights.
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