OneSoccer clears Rogers carriage pricing hurdle
OneSoccer has cleared a significant hurdle in its four-year distribution dispute with Rogers after Canada’s broadcasting regulator established a wholesale carriage rate, although packaging and launch arrangements remain unresolved.
Canada’s broadcasting regulator has settled the wholesale rate Rogers will pay to carry OneSoccer, moving the football channel closer to joining the company’s television service after more than four years of dispute.The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) selected Rogers’ offer in full after both the distributor and OneSoccer operator Timeless agreed that it should be adopted.The decision concludes a final offer arbitration process covering the channel’s wholesale linear television rate, but does not establish when Rogers subscribers will gain access or how much they will pay.A separate dispute over packaging remains before the regulator, with Timeless challenging Rogers’ proposed arrangements for including OneSoccer in its television offering.The distinction is important for distribution: the wholesale rate determines what Rogers pays for the service, while packaging will help determine how customers can subscribe.The arbitration began in February 2026 after mediation failed to resolve the pricing disagreement and was subsequently narrowed to the wholesale linear rate alone.Under the process, each party submits a complete proposal and the CRTC selects one rather than devising a compromise between the two.Because both companies ultimately supported Rogers’ offer, the commission did not need to assess competing proposals against its fair market value criteria.The resulting rate is confidential, with the regulator accepting that publication could disclose commercially sensitive information to competitors.The latest ruling follows a dispute that began in 2022, when Rogers refused to carry OneSoccer and the channel’s owner complained that the decision unfairly favoured Rogers’ own sports services.In 2023, the CRTC found that Rogers had given itself and Sportsnet an undue preference by denying OneSoccer distribution on its television platforms.Further proceedings concerned whether OneSoccer met Canadian ownership and control requirements, with the regulator subsequently confirming that it did.Rogers also challenged the regulatory decision through the courts but lost its Federal Court of Appeal case earlier this year, clearing another obstacle to carriage.OneSoccer’s programming includes the Canadian Premier League, Canadian Championship and selected national-team matches, making the distribution dispute significant for the domestic game’s television reach.Access through Rogers would provide another route to audiences beyond OneSoccer’s existing distribution, but the rate decision alone does not make the channel available to subscribers.The CRTC declined to address Rogers’ packaging request within the arbitration, pointing instead to the separate application already filed by Timeless.That leaves the companies with an established wholesale price but further work to complete before viewers know which package will carry OneSoccer and when the service will launch.