Bellator MMA will no longer be free for Canadian viewers.
Starting with Friday’s Bellator 296, the promotion’s events will be available to stream live (and for a seven-day window) on a Pay-Per-View basis via the promotion’s official website. News of the change was first reported by TSN’s Aaron Bronsteter.
Friday’s Paris card is available for $19.50 Canadian, featuring all fights live, and seven days worth of full card replays.
The shift to PPV comes after Bellator, which previously aired on Paramount Network (and briefly CBS Sports) in Canada, moved to a free model for Canadian fans. That saw both preliminary and main card portions of Bellator events stream live on Youtube, via the promotion’s official channel.
That has been the case since April of 2021, when Bellator 256 was the first of many shows to stream free north of the border. The situation arose after Bellator moved from Paramount to CBS Sports to Showtime, all of which fall under the Viacom (parent company of Bellator MMA) umbrella. While Paramount Network and CBS Sports Network are both available in Canada, Showtime does not have a Canadian counterpart, with much of its content carried by other specialty cable channels in the country.
At the time, Bellator President Scott Coker suggested that the company would “have a broadcast partner soon.” That has not come to pass to date, however. Currently, TSN carries both UFC and PFL broadcasts in Canada, while Fight Network covers Invicta FC and various other promotions. ONE Championship, like Bellator previously, offers their events for free in the country via Youtube.
