September 1, 1989–1990s RDS was launched on September 1, 1989, as a sister network to
Labatt's highly successful English-language sports network
TSN, but the new network initially was run on a low budget and struggled to obtain rights to major professional sporting events. Despite this, RDS became infamous in its early years for its program
Défi Mini-Putt, a weekly
miniature golf program best known for its energetic commentator Serge Vleminckx, and his enthusiastic cries of "
Birdie!" when a hole in one was scored. By the early 1990s, the network became more established, obtaining the rights to
Montreal Expos, the
Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and some
Montreal Canadiens games.
Rodger Brulotte became the network's second broadcasting star with his enthusiastic colour commentary of Expos games. RDS also covered some of
Montreal's other professional sports teams, such as the
Montreal Machine WLAF football team, the
Montreal Impact soccer team, the Montreal Roadrunners
roller hockey team, the
Montreal Express lacrosse team, and the
Montreal Alouettes Canadian football team. While the Machine, Roadrunners, and Express folded, the partnership between RDS and the Impact and Alouettes helped both the network and the teams to become popular. Much of the rise of popularity of Canadian football in
Quebec can be attributed to RDS coverage of
Canadian Football League and
university games. Its small market (mainly limited to Quebec), however, has meant that its revenues are modest. It has had to offer proportionately modest fees for broadcast rights. Due to
CRTC regulations on the foreign ownership of broadcasters, Labatt was forced to sell both RDS and TSN upon its acquisition by
Interbrew in 1995. Labatt's broadcasting assets were sold to a privately held consortium named
NetStar Communications, the investors of which included a number of Canadian firms as well as
ESPN Inc., which held an interest of about 30 percent. The same CRTC regulations had prevented ESPN from establishing its own separate Canadian sports networks outright, so acquiring a minority stake in RDS and TSN became ESPN's alternative plan to get into the Canadian market.
2000s In 2000, majority ownership of RDS and TSN's parent company NetStar was acquired by
Bell Globemedia. ESPN still kept minority ownership, and one year later both RDS and TSN adopted ESPN-style logos. Also in 2000, the Montreal Expos severed their relationship with the network, complaining that they were not offering enough to broadcast games. The network resumed coverage from 2001 until the team moved to
Washington, D.C. after the 2004 season, showing about 50 games a season. In 2002, the
Montreal Canadiens announced a deal to license its French-language broadcast rights for all of its preseason, season, and playoff games to RDS. This was controversial as it threatened the longest-running television show in Quebec,
Radio-Canada's
La Soirée du hockey. Days later, an agreement was reached whereby RDS and Radio-Canada would simultaneously broadcast Canadiens games on Saturday nights, saving the show. Within the province of Quebec, this arrangement stopped after the
2003–04 NHL season, and French-language Canadiens broadcasts now air exclusively on RDS. Simulcasted coverage continued in regions that do not receive RDS on analog TV (all of Canada south/west of the
Ottawa region) on Radio-Canada until the
2006–07 NHL season. In June 2008, RDS's parent, CTV Inc., acquired the rights to
The Hockey Theme after the CBC failed to renew its rights to the theme song. A re-orchestrated version of the tune, which has been the
theme song of
La Soirée du hockey and
Hockey Night in Canada since 1968, has been used for hockey broadcasts on RDS and TSN beginning in the fall of 2008.
2010s On September 10, 2010,
Bell Canada announced plans to re-acquire 100% of CTVglobemedia's broadcasting arm, including its majority control of TSN. Under the deal, Woodbridge Company Limited,
Torstar, and
Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan would together receive $1.3 billion in either cash or equity in BCE, while BCE will also assume $1.7 billion in debt (BCE's existing equity interest is $200 million, for a total transaction value of $3.2 billion). Woodbridge has since simultaneously regained majority control of
The Globe and Mail, with Bell retaining a 15% interest in December 2010. The deal closed on April 1, 2011, after the CRTC approved the sale on March 7, 2011—the new company became known as
Bell Media. In July 2012, Bell submitted a proposal to the CRTC, requesting permission to convert Montreal's
TSN Radio station
CKGM to a French-language station with an RDS-branded sports talk format, known as RDS Radio. The planned language and format change was intended to take advantage of
CKAC's recent switch from French sports talk to
traffic information, and to satisfy the
CRTC's ownership caps for Bell's planned acquisition of
Astral Media—since Astral already owned the maximum number of English-language stations that one company can own in the market. Bell's original proposal to acquire Astral, and in turn the CKGM proposal, were rejected by the CRTC; under a revised structure (which saw the company divest itself of certain Astral Media properties), Bell would be granted a waiver to maintain ownership of CKGM as an English-language station. On November 26, 2013, Rogers announced that it had reached a 12-year, $5.2 billion deal to become the exclusive national rightsholder for the National Hockey League, beginning in the 2014–15 season, and would sub-license exclusive French-language rights to
TVA Sports (which Rogers has previously partnered with to hold French-language rights to
Sportsnet properties), replacing RDS. Previously, due to RDS's position as national French rightsholder, the Canadiens forwent a separate regional rights deal and allowed its games to be part of the national French package. Under the new contract, RDS maintained its broadcast rights to 60 Canadiens games per season under a 12-year deal, but Canadiens games are now subject to
blackout outside of the Canadiens' home market region. In January 2014, as part of a wider media rights deal with Bell Media (which included English-language regional television and radio rights for TSN and
CFGO), RDS obtained regional broadcast rights to the
Ottawa Senators, with 50 regional games in French per season.
2020s On May 1, 2022, minor television provider Hay Communications is expected to remove the channel from its channel line-up, due to a sharp increase in cost to deliver the channel. ==Noted RDS programming==