TORONTO, ON – U SPORTS National Championships will be available to watch for every Canadian beginning in the fall of 2021

On Monday, U SPORTS and CBC Sports announced a four-year agreement to see Canada’s public broadcaster become the exclusive English language digital broadcaster for every U SPORTS National Championship through the 2024-25 season. 

The deal will see the return of the Vanier Cup to CBC’s digital platform after the network showcased six U SPORTS National Championships in 2019-20. With the new agreement, any time a U SPORTS title is on the line, sports fans can see it on the CBC. 

“CBC Sports is Canada’s Olympic Network and has an impressive repertoire of high performance sport coverage on its digital platforms,” said John Bower, U SPORTS Director, Marketing and Communications. “U SPORTS look forward to growing our audience with CBC so that the performances and stories of our student-athletes reach the widest possible audience.”

The first national championship of the pack of 16 will be the women’s rugby championship from Nov. 10-14, hosted by Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario. The men’s and women’s soccer championships return to the CBC the week of Nov. 18.

“These U SPORTS championship events offer the opportunity for audiences to see some of the top high-performance athletes in the country in action on a national stage,” said Chris Wilson, Executive Director, Sports & Olympics, CBC. “We’re proud to further enhance our commitment to gender-balanced sports coverage with this equal slate of men’s and women’s championship events, and we look forward to sharing the athletes’ stories across our digital platforms over the next four years.”

In 2019, CBC Sports committed to showcasing 50/50 of women’s and men’s sports on their platforms, striving for gender-balanced coverage. With the U SPORTS deal, they continue towards their goal.

Fans will be able to tune into the U SPORTS National Championships on cbcsports.ca, the CBC Gem streaming service and CBC Sports Apps.