Broadcast Rights Agreement Template (Canada)
Updated on August 22, 2026
A broadcast rights agreement licenses the right to show an event. Everything of value sits in four definitions: what is licensed, where, on which platforms and for how long, and whether anyone else can do the same thing at the same time. Get them right and the rest is administration; leave them vague and you have sold something nobody can measure.
Canada layers a regulatory system on top of the contract. Broadcasting undertakings are licensed or registered under the Broadcasting Act and regulated by the CRTC, and since the Online Streaming Act the framework expressly reaches online undertakings as well. Two practical consequences follow for a rights deal: distribution obligations and conditions of service belong to the broadcaster and cannot be assumed away by contract, and the Canadian simultaneous substitution regime affects what a signal is actually worth in a market where a US station carries the same event.
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Broadcast Rights Agreement
This Agreement is made on between of (the “Licensor”) and of (the “Licensee”). The Licensor grants the Licensee the rights described below in relation to the Event.
1. The Event
The Event means:
The Licensor confirms that it holds the rights it grants, including any consents from participants, venues and governing bodies needed for the Licensee to exercise them, and that exercising them as permitted here will not infringe a third party's rights.
2. Grant of Rights
- Media and platforms:
- Territory:
- Language rights:
- Exclusivity:
- Term:
- to
All rights not expressly granted above are reserved to the Licensor. No right is granted in any medium, platform, territory, language or window that is not listed, and the grant does not extend to betting or data feeds, immersive formats, or archive exploitation unless stated.
Notwithstanding any exclusivity, the Licensor may continue to do the following:
3. Windows and Holdbacks
- Live window:
- Delayed and repeat rights:
- Catch-up availability:
- days after the Event
- Holdbacks:
4. Regulatory Responsibility
Each party is responsible for its own regulatory obligations. The Licensee's obligations as a broadcasting or online undertaking, including any conditions of licence or of service, remain its own and are not transferred or limited by this Agreement, and the Licensee will not represent that the Licensor is responsible for them. Nothing in this Agreement requires either party to act inconsistently with a regulatory obligation.
5. Production and Delivery of the Feed
Where the Licensor supplies the feed it will do so at the agreed technical standard and at the scheduled start time and will notify schedule changes as soon as possible. Where the Licensee produces the coverage it will have the access the Licensor has agreed and will comply with venue accreditation and safety rules.
6. News Access
Notwithstanding any exclusivity, other broadcasters and news services may use extracts of the Event for news reporting on these terms: extracts of no more than seconds, no more than times in any single newscast, not before hours after the Event has ended, with an on-screen credit to the Licensee, and only within news programming rather than a programme built substantially from Event footage.
This is a contractual permission given by the parties. It does not create, limit or replace fair dealing for the purpose of news reporting or any other statutory exception, and it does not determine whether an unlicensed use is lawful.
7. Sub-licensing and Onward Carriage
The Licensee will not sub-license, assign or authorise any third party to transmit or redistribute the Event, in whole or in part, without the Licensor's prior written consent. Ordinary carriage by distribution undertakings that carry the Licensee's signal is permitted, and the Licensee will tell the Licensor which distributors carry it.
8. Advertising and Sponsorship
Inventory is allocated as follows: Neither party will accept an advertiser or sponsor in a category conflicting with the other's contracted title or category sponsor without first discussing it. Each party remains responsible for compliance with the advertising rules and codes applying to its own transmissions.
9. Rights Fee, Taxes and Payment
- Rights fee:
- Instalments:
- Payment terms:
- days from a valid invoice
- Taxes:
If an instalment is unpaid 14 days after a written reminder the Licensor may suspend the rights until it is paid. If the Licensor fails to deliver the feed or the access it agreed, the Licensee may withhold the proportion of the fee attributable to the affected events until it is remedied.
10. Reporting and Audit
The Licensee will provide: The Licensor may audit the supporting records once in any twelve-month period on days' notice, during business hours, using an auditor bound by confidentiality. The Licensor bears the cost unless the audit reveals an underpayment of more than five per cent, in which case the Licensee bears it and pays the shortfall.
11. Anti-piracy and Territorial Protection
The Licensee will apply the following measures and will not knowingly make the Event available outside the Territory: Each party will promptly notify the other of unauthorised distribution it becomes aware of and give reasonable cooperation with takedowns and enforcement. Enforcement decisions about the Licensor's rights remain the Licensor's.
12. Cancellation, Curtailment and Force Majeure
- If the Event does not take place at all, the fee attributable to it is not payable and any advance paid for it is refunded.
- If a season or series is only partly delivered, the fee is reduced pro rata by reference to the events actually delivered.
- If the Event is curtailed after transmission has begun, the parties will agree a proportionate reduction reflecting what was delivered.
- If the Event moves to a different date or venue, the rights apply to it as moved provided the Licensee can still exercise them; if it cannot, the fee is treated as for a cancelled event.
- If the Event takes place without spectators or in a materially altered format, that alone does not reduce the fee unless the parties have agreed otherwise.
- Neither party is liable for a failure caused by something genuinely outside its control, but this does not excuse a failure to pay sums already due.
13. Term, Termination and Archive
This Agreement runs for the term above. Either party may terminate immediately if the other commits a material breach and fails to remedy it within days of written notice, or becomes insolvent. Archive position after the term: . On termination the Licensee will stop transmitting the Event, may complete a transmission already in progress, and will deal with recordings as the archive position requires.
14. General and Governing Law
- This Agreement is the entire agreement on its subject matter and supersedes earlier term sheets.
- Variations must be in writing and signed by both parties.
- Neither party may assign without the other's written consent, except to a successor of its business able to perform.
- Nothing in this Agreement creates a partnership, joint venture or agency.
- Notices go to the addresses above or to an email address confirmed in writing.
This Agreement is governed by the laws of and the federal laws of Canada applicable there, and the parties submit to the jurisdiction of its courts.
For the Licensor
Date signed:
For the Licensee
Date signed:
Define five dimensions, and reserve the rest
A modern grant needs medium and platform, territory, window, language and exclusivity level, each stated separately. Language is not decorative in Canada: English, French and other-language rights are frequently sold to different licensees, and a grant that fails to say which languages are included creates an immediate conflict.
The most valuable sentence in the document is the reservation — anything not expressly granted stays with the licensor. That is what decides ownership of the distribution routes nobody contemplated at signature.
Simultaneous substitution and carriage
Canadian rights value is affected by simultaneous substitution, the mechanism under which a distributor may replace a non-Canadian signal with the Canadian one carrying the same programme at the same time. Whether it applies, and how a licensee intends to request it, is worth stating rather than assuming, because it changes the audience the licensee can promise advertisers.
Downstream carriage matters too. A rights agreement that ignores how the signal reaches distributors leaves the licensor with no visibility of where its event appears or of the value generated further along the chain. This template asks whether sub-licensing and onward carriage are permitted, whether the licensor shares in the consideration, and what reporting it receives.
News access is a contractual carve-out
Other news services will use something, so the contract should say what is permitted: a maximum clip length, uses per bulletin, a delay before first use, credit, and a restriction to news programming rather than programmes built out of somebody else's footage.
What the contract must not do is present that as the source of the other broadcaster's rights. Canadian copyright law includes fair dealing for the purpose of news reporting, subject to attribution requirements, and whether a use qualifies is fact-specific. This template states the carve-out as a permission the parties give and says expressly that it neither creates nor limits any statutory exception — the error the source template made when it invented a two-minute rule.
Money, reporting and the things that leak
Live rights leak. A licence silent on geo-blocking, technical protection and takedown cooperation leaves enforcement with the party that has the least information. This template puts those obligations on the licensee and pairs them with reporting — audience data, and inventory revenue where the licensor shares in it — plus an audit right with notice and a cost-shifting threshold.
It also fixes the one-sided suspension clause most templates carry: non-payment can suspend the rights, but a licensor that fails to deliver the feed should expect the licensee to withhold the fee attributable to the affected events. Cancellation is handled scenario by scenario rather than left to force majeure, and taxes — including withholding on cross-border rights payments — are dealt with expressly.
Clause-by-clause guide
- Parties and the event
- Defined licensor and licensee and a precise description of the event, season or fixtures licensed.
- Grant of rights
- Media and platforms, territory, languages, windows and exclusivity, with everything else reserved.
- Language rights
- Which language feeds and commentary are included, since these are often sold separately in Canada.
- Windows and holdbacks
- Live, delayed, catch-up and archive, plus any holdback before another licensee's window.
- Regulatory responsibility
- Confirms each party carries its own regulatory obligations and that the licensee's conditions of service are its own.
- Simultaneous substitution
- Optional. Records whether substitution is contemplated and who will request it.
- Feed production and delivery
- Who produces the coverage, who bears the cost and how the feed reaches the licensee.
- News access
- Clip length, uses per bulletin, delay and credit, expressed as a permission with the statutory position noted.
- Sub-licensing and carriage
- Whether onward distribution is permitted and whether the licensor shares in that consideration.
- Advertising and sponsorship
- Who sells what, category conflicts with event sponsors, and any revenue share.
- Rights fee, taxes and payment
- Fee, instalments, payment days, sales taxes and withholding, with suspension rights both ways.
- Reporting and audit
- Audience and revenue reporting with an audit right and a cost-shifting threshold.
- Anti-piracy and geo-restriction
- Applying territorial limits, technical measures and takedown cooperation.
- Cancellation and curtailment
- Scenario-by-scenario fee consequences instead of a bare force majeure clause.
Canadian points to check
Leave regulatory obligations with the regulated party
Broadcasting undertakings are licensed or registered under the Broadcasting Act and regulated by the CRTC, and since the Online Streaming Act the framework expressly reaches online undertakings. A rights contract cannot transfer those obligations.
CRTCDeal with language rights expressly
English, French and other-language rights are frequently licensed separately in Canada. State which language feeds, commentary and subtitling are included.
Address simultaneous substitution if it is relevant
Substitution affects the audience a licensee can deliver where a non-Canadian signal carries the same event. Say whether it is contemplated and who will request it rather than assuming.
Do not contract away fair dealing
Canadian copyright law includes fair dealing for news reporting, subject to attribution requirements, and whether a use qualifies is fact-specific. A contractual news carve-out is a commercial permission only.
Copyright Act — fair dealingFix ownership of the feed and archive
A licence to broadcast is not ownership of the recording, and any assignment of copyright must be in writing signed by the owner. State who owns the master and archive.
Reserve unlisted rights expressly
New distribution routes appear faster than contracts are renewed. Reserving everything not expressly granted keeps future platforms with the licensor by default.
Handle taxes and withholding
State whether the fee is exclusive of GST/HST and QST and how withholding on payments to a non-resident licensor is handled, rather than discovering it at the first invoice.
How to complete this agreement
- Name the parties and the event. Enter the licensor and licensee and describe precisely which event, season or fixtures are licensed.
- Build the grant. Set the media and platforms, the territory, the language rights and each window.
- Deal with regulation and substitution. Confirm who carries which regulatory obligations, and turn on the substitution clause if it is relevant.
- Set the news carve-out. Enter clip length, uses per bulletin, delay before first use and the credit requirement.
- Decide sub-licensing and inventory. State whether onward carriage is permitted and how advertising and sponsorship are split.
- Set fee, taxes, reporting and audit. Add the fee and instalments, the tax position, the reporting the licensor receives and the audit notice period.
- Review and sign. Check the grant, territory, languages, windows and exclusivity say what you intended, then download and sign.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between broadcast rights and a broadcast services contract?
A rights agreement licenses the right to exploit the event, and money usually flows from the broadcaster to the rights holder. A services agreement engages someone to produce and deliver the coverage, and money flows the other way. Many deals contain both, but they belong in separate documents because the obligations and remedies point in opposite directions.
Why do language rights need their own clause in Canada?
Because English, French and other-language rights are routinely licensed to different broadcasters here. A grant that says nothing about language creates an immediate conflict the first time another licensee produces a French feed of the same event. State which language feeds, commentary and subtitling are included and which are reserved.
What is simultaneous substitution and why does it matter?
It is the mechanism under which a distributor may substitute the Canadian signal for a non-Canadian one carrying the same programme at the same time. It affects the audience a licensee can promise advertisers, so whether substitution is contemplated, and who will request it, is worth recording in the contract rather than assuming.
Can other broadcasters show clips?
Some use may fall within fair dealing for news reporting, subject to attribution requirements, and that is a question of fact rather than something the licensor controls. This template sets a contractual carve-out — clip length, uses per bulletin, delay, credit, news programming only — and says expressly that it neither creates nor limits any statutory exception.
Is the two-minute limit in most templates a real rule?
No. It is a figure copied between templates. There is no Canadian statutory clip length, and the fair-dealing analysis does not work by fixed durations. Choose a number that suits your event and do not present it as law.
Can the licensee sub-license to another platform?
Only if the contract says so. This template makes sub-licensing and onward carriage an express decision, with an optional revenue share and reporting, because a rights holder that has not addressed it loses visibility of where its event is shown and of the value generated downstream.
What happens to the fee if the event is cancelled?
The template deals with it scenario by scenario — cancelled outright, a season only partly delivered, curtailed after transmission began, moved to a new date or venue, or played without spectators — rather than leaving everything to force majeure, with a pro-rata mechanism for a partly delivered season.
Related templates
Disclaimer
This template and guide are general information about Canadian practice, not legal, broadcasting-regulatory, competition or tax advice, and nobody has reviewed your deal. Regulatory obligations and rights structures are specialist; take advice before signing a significant rights agreement.
