Canadian TV Network RDS Drops AEW Dynamite Over Budget Cuts Issues

Canadian-based television network RDS recently announced (English translation via PostWrestling.com) that they will no longer be airing AEW’s weekly Dynamite series on their network starting next week. It was also announced that the official reason was due to budget-related issues currently affecting the network.

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for joining us tonight and the past few weeks.

Sadly, Dynamite tonight was our last broadcast of AEW in French on RDS.

Due to budget constraints, we unfortunately won’t be back in 2023.

Thanks again to everyone who has joined our fall dates, see you next time… let’s hope so.

The wrestling team in RDS.

In regards to the budget cut issues, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that this will mostly affect AEW’s French language market in Quebec.

Meltzer reported that AEW’s deal with RDS was part of their larger deal with Bell Media, who is the parent company of AEW’s Canadian home networks TSN and RDS. RDS pulling AEW content reportedly will not affect AEW’s current television deal with Bell Media in regards to the money they were earning from it.

Bell Media reportedly had ordered RDS officials to make budget cuts to save money for the network with AEW’s Dynamite among the shows affected. Meltzer reported that one main reason for Dynamite being dropped was due to the French feed for their shows in Canada did not have any sponsorships on RDS and had higher associated costs than TSN’s English feed for their shows. Meltzer also reported that WWE currently is dealing with a similar issue in regards to lack of sponsors for their French language version of their shows on rival TVA Sports network in Canada.

In regards to AEW’s deal with RDS, Meltzer reported that it was originally set to expire at the end of this year with RDS holding a one year option for 2023 that they decided against picking up. Those spoken to reportedly stated that AEW’s ratings for their Dynamite shows on the network did not play a role in RDS’ decision to drop Dynamite.