Apparently all sports on all Shaw local channels are done. Jim Mullins (USports football announcer) retweeted the WHL's tweet regarding the final score between Regina and Seattle and added and with that so ends Shaw TV's coverage of sports.
I doubt the WHL will get any new TV coverage considering the National Lacrosse League cannot. In Saskatchewan, you may see SaskTel picking up a few WHL games if the streaming quality is good. That is what they have been doing for Saskatchewan Rush road lacrosse games. Perhaps something could be arranged for the Dub between MTS in Manitoba, SaskTel in Saskatchewan and Telus in Alberta/BC. But it would not be original broadcasts, but rather just a retransmission of the streaming broadcasts I would think. But there would no longer be a leaguewide game of the week. I also think Access would retain the Pats' rights, so SaskTel would be shut out of that.
People on a NLL board were saying (as the NLL has gone to a strictly paywall streaming model, but allowing the individual teams to find TV deals. I believe Saskatchewan, Georgia and Colorado have them.) that at least in the US, this is the way sports is moving. Outside of the big four leagues and the NCAA, less and less leagues are opting for TV coverage and moving to streaming only. I think that is a step backward, but that seems to be the trend.
One option that the WHL could explore is streaming a game of the week for free via the CBC Sports App. The Toronto Wolfpack, rugby league team, streams all their games on this (as well as has a national TV deal with Game TV Canada). However, their broadcasts are originated from a British sports channel (as the Wolfpack play in a league based in England). So the WHL would still have to give CBC a backend feed of one of their streams. My assumption based on potential quality of feeds would be that CBC would only bother with Edmonton, Calgary, Saskatoon, Vancouver and maybe some of the US teams. I have never watched the WHL streams (too rich for my blood), but based on the fact that I have seen NLL broadcasts from Calgary, Saskatoon and Langley and the fact that I would gather Rogers Place has good quality broadcasts, those would appeal to CBC. As far as I know the CHL deal with Sportsnet does not cover OTT streaming, it is simply a broadcast deal, so streaming on the CBC app wouldn't be an issue.
You have to think with the NHL deal that Sportsnet has, they would be willing to sublicense games to another network. I mean I know they would want to hang on to the Memorial Cup and probably the Subway Series, but for a price I am sure TSN would buy the rights to show a CHL game of the week through the regular season and playoffs. With their NHL coverage, I am sure it is a pain for Sportsnet to fulfill the bare minimum of their CHL deal anyway. I have already seen how barebones their USports coverage is, after promising the then CIS how Sportsnet 360 was basically going to turn into Sportsnet U etc. and now they show the bare minimum just the national finals and hockey and football semi-finals.
So I am sure if TSN begrudgingly came to Sportsnet and said we will take a certain number of CHL (and USports) broadcasts off your hands and will pay you x amount of money or perhaps even in exchange for TSN doing the heavy lifting as in running the whole broadcast and inserting in 6 Rogers ads per game or something, I could see Sportsnet agreeing to do so. I know in the past TSN used to sublicense a handful of Blue Jays games from Sportsnet. Sportsnet had exclusive rights to MLB in Canada, but not the capacity to carry every Jays game. So when they did get the capacity, they traded TSN the rights to the ESPN national MLB games for the Jays games. So it is possible that this could be done.
The problem for TSN is are WHL and QMJHL games going to bring in much of an audience? I notice the vast majority of Sportsnet games are OHL games, partially because of the population which should equal ratings, but also because of the relative location of the games to Toronto where their production equipment is. So TSN would likely do the same thing, which doesn't help WHL fans.
CBC TV could be an option, but I remember when they used to do CFL games, they only owned one HD production truck and it lived out East. CBC tried to have TSN do all the West Division CFL games, but the few that CBC was stuck with, I believe they rented a HD production truck. So it might be difficult to show WHL games.
What would be nice is if the NHL and CHL could coordinate schedules. What I mean is (assuming CBC still does HNIC production and I am not sure they do) ensure that if the late game on CBC is an Oilers game, that the Oil Kings play on Sunday at home. With the production truck and everyone already in Edmonton, showing an Oil Kings game would be easy. This would mean that the only WHL games they would show are Oil Kings and Hitmen games for this to work out. Come to think of it, those are the only two CHL teams that share a rink with their NHL parent. So it would mean moving production trucks anyway to show a Senators game and then a 67s/Olympiques game or a Leafs and then a Generals or Bulldogs game. I don't know what time frame it takes to set up a TV production, but I suspect not something that couldn't be done for a 7:30 PM game.
So you could have the Jets --> Wheat Kings, Oilers --> Rebels (possibly even Blades), Flames --> Tigers/Hurricanes (possibly Broncos), Canucks --> Giants (possibly Royals), Senators --> 67s/Olympiques, Leafs --> Generals/Bulldogs, Canadiens --> Armada (maybe Voltigeurs).
Many ideas, but it takes a TV network willing to do it. I suspect that if TSN gets into broadcasting hockey, it will be AHL and either be strictly Marlies games or might feature some Moose and Rocket games. Only because they directly tie into NHL team loyalties, whereas CHL does not.
Of course any national TV deal means getting the rights from Sportsnet, who might want to sit on them. I know TSN basically does that with NCAA rights. They aren't wanting to show tons of NCAA basketball games, but they want to sit on them instead of letting Sportsnet show games. I believe TSN and Sportsnet actually have rights to some leagues that they don't show at all, but own only because they don't want the other guy to have them.
The CHL in their infinite wisdom also signed a 12 year deal with Sportsnet in 2014. So the chances of someone else being able to bid on them doesn't even exist until after the 2025-26 season. But the article does mention they did sublicense QMJHL to TVA Sports (which is in French), so it does open the door for the WHL to be sublicensed. But I can't see any network wanting to do that since no network is based out West (outside of Game TV Canada which I believe is based in Winnipeg, but I am not sure the CRTC lets them broadcast traditional North American sports which is why they show rugby league, pro wrestling and MMA for sports, as well as some non-sports reality shows. But on most cable systems they aren't carried in HD, so I am guessing WHL streams are better quality than SD television.)
http://www.sportsnet.ca/sportsnet-a...ts-extension-with-the-canadian-hockey-league/