CBC Sports Will Broadcast The 2024 Canadian Premier League Final

This year’s Canadian Premier League Final just scored a home run regarding viewer accessibility: CBC Sports has picked up the broadcast for the finale, which will also be available on OneSoccer, fuboTV, and Telus Optik TV.

The league hasn’t had a CPL Final air on Canada’s public broadcast network since its second season, with the 2024 CPL Final now open to millions of domestic viewers from coast-to-coast through CBC’s traditional broadcast and digital offerings.

The battle for the North Star Cup will take place on Saturday, November 9 at 3:00PM EST (12:00PM PT) and will be available on CBC, CBC Gem, and CBC Sports, along with the usual sources. The two teams to feature in the final are yet to be determined.

Andi Petrillo will host an on-site panel that includes Kristian Jack, Gareth Wheeler, and Jordan Wilson, who will be familiar faces to fans who tune in to OneSoccer.

The league has partnered with CBC Sports in the past, with its first two seasons both seeing the network pick up regular season matches along with the respective finals. The viewership numbers were promising, with 2020 seeing a 2+ average minute audience of 48,000 and the championship game drawing similar numbers with 53,000 tuning in for an encore broadcast following OneSoccer’s exclusively live final. OneSoccer, in turn, does not disclose its streaming figures.

“The 2024 CPL Final is the marquee event on our annual calendar, and we are thrilled to partner with CBC Sports to ensure Canadian soccer fans from coast to coast to coast can tune in and see which club will lift the North Star Cup,” adds CPL commission Mark Noonan, who is also the Canadian Soccer Business CEO.

Noonan has steered the league through a particularly turbulent season of network turmoil: Canadian Soccer Business and Mediapro, which owned the league’s streaming service OneSoccer, became embroiled in a legal dispute that had fans concerned about whether the league would be streamed at all in 2024. In the end, there was no service interruption for Canada’s top flight.

When the dust settled, Mediapro transferred its OneSoccer online service, intellectual property, and associated rights to Timeless Inc, which is a Canadian company owned by Canadian Soccer Business chairman Scott Mitchell – who also happened to be involved in an CRTC dispute with Rogers that is still ongoing.

Suffice to say, this year’s playoff championship being granted a slot with CBC Sports will be seen as a big win for the growing league as it wraps up its sixth season of play and fights for more mainstream cable recognition.

The path to the 2024 CPL Final has four out of the five playoff teams decided: Forge has clinched the regular season championship, with Cavalry, Atletico Ottawa, and York United locking in their playoff spots, too. The fifth and final playoff spot is in a four-way sprint to the finish line between Vancouver FC, Pacific, Valour, and Halifax.

The Canadian Premier League’s regular season will close with all eight teams kicking off at the same time on October 19. The league has managed to bag a big viewership accessibility win there too, with OneSoccer set to stream all four matches simultaneously on its YouTube channel.

The location of the final is still to be determined: on Sunday, October 27, the top two teams from regular season play will duke it out to determine who will host the 2024 CPL Final. The winner gets direct placement and hosting honours, while the loser is set for a last-chance-saloon play-in against a lower-seeded playoff survivor.

The winner of the North Star Cup will be awarded the league’s second berth for the 2025 Concacaf Champions Cup, with Forge having already claimed the first berth by virtue of finishing top for the regular season. The Hamilton, Ontario based side is also the reigning playoff champion, having won the final an astounding four out of five times.

“As we build toward the 2026 FIFA World Cup, sharing our high-quality product, talented players, and historic matches with as wide an audience as possible is paramount,” adds Noonan. “We are grateful to our friends at CBC Sports, who not only recognize what we are building with the CPL but also see the opportunity to tap into the rapidly growing audience for soccer across the country.”

The CBC Sports coverage will continue beyond the 2024 CPL Final and will include digital airing of the 2024 CPL Awards. The ceremony will be held on Thursday, November 7 at 8:00PM EST (5:00PM PT), with Andi Petrillo hosting the show. Current and former CPL athletes and coaches will make appearances, along with as-yet-unannounced special guests from the Canadian soccer community.

Header Image Photo Credit: John Jacques