FCC inquiry into sports streaming unlikely to be duplicated in Canada, says longtime sports journalist

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States has launched a proceeding investigating the migration of sports programming from over-the-air and cable television to streaming services — but a Canadian observer doubts a Canadian response is in the offing. “For decades, Americans have enjoyed turning on their television sets and quickly finding the games they wanted to watch for free on an over-the-air broadcast,” the American regulator wrote in its Feb. 25 notice. “Yet watching your favorite sports team play is not as easy these days.” Streaming services are increasingly snapping up more content, and the FCC wonders if consumers are being harmed by this development. Fragmentation may cause local stations to face challenges when it comes to fulfilling local broadcasting mandates. Comments are due by March 27, with replies due on April 13. Toronto freelance writer Chris Zelkovich was the Toronto Star’s sports media columnist from 1998 until 2012. Zelkovich, currently an instructor at the College of Sports Media, predicts the shift from broadcasting to streaming will accelerate. “It appears to be a trend. It’s happening more and more often,” he tells The Wire Report. “I guess as long as these guys keep coming up with the bucks, that’s all the leagues are really interested in.” Team owners once sought the largest viewership possible, he notes, but cash considerations have started to dominate. Zelkovich doubts the CRTC will follow suit, as it probably does not have the jurisdiction because many of the leagues involved are transnational. If the commission did have the power, he said, it would probably come to a different conclusion than what could be the American commission’s fate. “In Canada, you could see the CRTC saying this is not in the public’s interest,” he speculates. “But the U.S., it’s about free enterprise and if the leagues can make themselves a mint of this, more power to them I guess is the feeling.” The CRTC has not indicated if it will launch a similar action to its U.S. counterpart. “On the FCC’s proceeding, the CRTC has not launched a similar initiative,” the regulator said in a statement to The Wire Report. “As a quasi‑judicial tribunal, the commission cannot speculate on matters that could come before it.” As streaming services proliferate, the cost of watching your favourite programming has gone up. “In 2025, NFL games aired on 10 different services, which, according to some estimates, could cost a consumer over $1,500 to watch all games,” the FCC stated in its notice. Zelkovich thinks there could be a backlash if leagues shift too much of their content to streaming services. “Not everybody gets those services, not everybody can get those services and on top of that, not everybody wants to pay for those services,” he says. Last season, Rogers Communications Inc. reversed the trend with two of its properties. The Toronto Blue Jays were in the playoff hunt; a pivotal baseballl game on Sept. 19 against the Kansas City Royals was scheduled to be aired exclusively on Apple TV, but Rogers made an agreement to also carry the game on its Sportsnet channel. However, Zelkovich is skeptical of that becoming a trend. “It’s good to see in some ways they’re responding to the public uproar but I’m pretty sure that that will fade away,” he predicts. The noble gesture was all for naught, anyway, as the Jays got hammered 20-1 by Kansas City. ppark@thewirereport.ca

FCC inquiry into sports streaming unlikely to be duplicated in Canada, says longtime sports journalist

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By Paul Park
|March 23, 2026

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FCC inquiry into sports streaming unlikely to be duplicated in Canada, says longtime sports journalist

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