Initially, the USA Network provided Thursday and Friday coverage for 2 hours live each day along with a prime time replay. Beginning in July 1982, USA Network broadcast professional ten-pin bowling matches from the PBA Tour every Thursday night. During the April 7, 2019 Montreal Canadiens game on TVA Sports (the final game of their season), and La Voix on TVA the following night, the channels ran on-screen snipes announcing that Quebecor would pull TVA Sports from Bell on April 10, 2019-the opening night of the playoffs, and that Bell was henceforth “punishing” its subscribers by not meeting its demands. At the heart of the revamp was the removal of the famous image of the Big Ben clock tower from the opening sequence of ITV News programmes including News at Ten; ITV executives felt, after “months of deliberation”, that the imagery of the landmark promoted London-centricity to viewers outside the capital. Quebecor argued that RDS was receiving higher wholesale rates and better carriage because it is an older and established service, dating back to analog cable, and objected to the CRTC’s arbitration process including “historic rates” as a factor in its decisions (which they felt perpetuated said bias).
Bell also noted that much of TVA Sports’ carriage was in bilingual or Anglophone markets, where the value of its programming is diluted by audience preferences towards English-language broadcasts (due to the smaller Francophone audience, French-language specialty channels are usually sold with lower per-subscriber rates outside of Quebec). On August 18, 2011, Rogers Media, owners of the English-language sports channel Sportsnet, announced that it would partner with TVA Sports to provide production resources, and sub-licensing of French-language rights to some of Sportsnet’s event programming. The same day, TSN (the national English-language rightsholder of Major League Soccer) announced that it would add two additional Montreal Impact matches to its broadcast schedule in April, accompanied by a free preview of TSN, once again as an alternative to the French-language broadcasts on TVA Sports. 2019, its schedule has become more varied, and is less tied to a certain sport than in the past.
Stations that use a “wheel” format tend to keep to a set schedule of certain programming at certain specific minutes on the hour, and one of these segments is frequently a news bulletin. NHL games occupy a significant portion of TVA Sports’ programming during the season, with a particular emphasis on the Canadiens and other teams popular in Quebec, such as the Boston Bruins, Colorado Avalanche, Ottawa Senators, Pittsburgh Penguins, and Toronto Maple Leafs. Bell argued that TVA Sports’ ratings depended on “big ticket sports programming with high ratings volatility”, while RDS had a stronger market share and larger rights portfolio (including regional French-language rights to the Canadiens and Senators). Concurrently with the announcement that TVA would obtain French-language rights to the NHL through Rogers’ 12-year deal with the league, a multiplex channel known as TVA Sports 2 was announced. On April 11, as Bell sought an injunction, Quebecor made an offer to restore the channel until April 23, amidst continued negotiations. From April 2002, Sky Sports News had another face-lift. On February 4, 2022, News Corp suffered a cyberattack from hackers believed to be linked to China. On 1 February 2012 the high-definition version of the channel began broadcasting in Italy.
The carriage agreement with DirecTV led NBCUniversal and InterMedia to announce on September 12, 2011, that it would transition Universal Sports into a cable- and satellite-exclusive service (effectively dropping its over-the-air affiliates) by January 2012. On January 1, 2012, Universal Sports was dropped by most cable providers as a result of a protracted battle to get them to offer the service as a premium channel. IN paid $500 million to broadcast Serie A from 2018-2021, an agreement that has been beset by snags. ABC Sports broadcast some games in both seasons, mostly on Sunday afternoons. Through television carriage and internet streaming, viewers were provided an in-depth look at how Olympic athletes compete between the games. The contract called for ESPN to air up to 33 regular season games each season as well as the NHL All-Star game and the Stanley Cup playoffs. By this time (as previously alluded to), the channel was officially called the “Madison Square Garden Network” or MSG Network. On June 15, 2011, DirecTV added Universal Sports as a national basic channel. Boston, MA: National Hockey League.