Canadian Football Network

Last updated

The Canadian Football Network (CFN) was the official television syndication service of the Canadian Football League from 1987 to 1990.

Contents

History

Background

CFN broadcasts mainly aired on stations via the Atlantic Satellite Network and future Global Television Network affiliates, in addition to at least one station in the United States (ABC affiliate WVNY-TV in Burlington, Vermont, which serves the larger, nearby Montreal English-language television market, which did not have a Global station at that time). As CFN was formed by the CFL itself, the league provided much of the network's funding. It was created directly in response to CTV completely dropping their CFL coverage following the 1986 season. CFN was conceptualized by then CFL Commissioner Douglas Mitchell.

Hamilton and Toronto

In its first year on the air, the CFL experimented with the TV blackout policy as four games (two in Hamilton and two in Toronto) were televised in the Hamilton-Toronto market.

CFN in the United States

In addition to being shown on the above-mentioned Burlington, Vermont station, from 1987-1989, a weekly CFN game telecast, including playoffs and the Grey Cup championship, aired in the United States nationally on a tape-delay basis on ESPN.

Grey Cup coverage

CFN's Grey Cup [1] coverage was completely separate from CBC's coverage (whereas from 1971-1986, CBC and CTV fully pooled their commentary teams for the game; CBC's commentators called the first half of the game while CTV's crew called the rest of the game or vice versa).

During its broadcast of the 1988 Grey Cup game, CFN reported that its telecasts that season were seen in 14 countries, including the U.S., Great Britain, France, Italy, Spain, West Germany, Norway, Sweden and Finland.

The 1988 Grey Cup was the last game for veteran Winnipeg Blue Bombers offensive lineman Nick Bastaja. The next season, he joined the CFN crew as a colour commentator. Former Edmonton Eskimos fullback Neil Lumsden was CFN's primary colour man, while Dave Hodge and Bob Irving, a long-time voice of the Blue Bombers, provided play-by-play.

The end of CFN

CFN was critically acclaimed. The production quality of CFL telecasts had noticeably fallen behind the standards of the other North American major professional sports leagues by the mid- to late-1980s. CFN was widely credited with raising CFL production values to a calibre comparable to contemporary National Football League broadcasts.

However, CFN did not do well financially. CFN was supposed to operate like a normal television network, which meant that it was to earn revenue solely from advertising and other such sponsorship. Unfortunately for CFN, the aforementioned effort to improve production quality was a costly endeavour, and most of the rights fees the CFL earned from CBC and TSN were diverted to cover CFN expenses. [2] The league discontinued the network after the 1990 season. After CFN shut down, all playoff and Grey Cup games would be exclusively broadcast on CBC Television from 1991 to 2007 and TSN since 2008.

Commentators

Play-by-play/pregame hosts

Colour commentators/Pregame analysts

The theme music package for CFN was provided by Donald Quan.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Football League</span> Professional Canadian football league

The Canadian Football League is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a city in Canada. They are divided into two divisions: four teams in the East Division and five teams in the West Division. As of 2024, it features a 21-week regular season in which each team plays 18 games with three bye weeks. This season traditionally runs from mid-June to early November. Following the regular season, six teams compete in the league's three-week playoffs, which culminate in the Grey Cup championship game in late November. The Grey Cup is one of Canada's largest annual sports and television events. The CFL was officially named on January 19, 1958, upon the merger between the Interprovincial Rugby Football Union or "Big Four" and the Western Interprovincial Football Union.

The Sports Network (TSN) is a Canadian English language discretionary sports specialty channel owned by CTV Specialty Television, owned jointly by Bell Media (70%) and ESPN Inc. (30%), itself a subsidiary of The Walt Disney Company. TSN was established by the Labatt Brewing Company in 1984 as part of the first group of Canadian specialty cable channels. In 2013, TSN was the largest specialty channel in Canada in terms of gross revenue, with a total of CA$400.4 million in revenue.

Réseau des sports (RDS) is a Canadian French language discretionary specialty channel oriented towards sports and sport-related shows. It is available in 2.5 million homes, and is owned by CTV Specialty Television Inc.. Its full name translates as "The Sports Network", the name of its Anglophone counterpart, TSN.

The 1987 CFL season is considered to be the 34th season in modern-day Canadian football, although it is officially the 30th Canadian Football League season.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rod Black</span> Canadian sportscaster

Rod Black is a Canadian sports announcer best known for his work with CTV Sports and TSN from 1990 to 2021. He is now a host and brand ambassador for NorthStar Bets, a brand of NorthStar Gaming.

<i>CFL on CBC</i> Canadian TV series or program

CFL on CBC was a presentation of Canadian Football League football aired on CBC Television. CBC held broadcast rights for the CFL from 1952 to 2007. The exclusive broadcasting rights for the league moved to TSN starting from the 2008 CFL season.

NHL on CTV is the name of a former television program that broadcast National Hockey League games on the CTV Television Network.

<i>CFL on TSN</i> Telecasts of the Canadian Football League

The CFL on TSN is TSN's presentation of the Canadian Football League. The Sports Network (TSN) has broadcast CFL games since the 1987 season and has been the exclusive broadcaster of all CFL games since 2008. While the CFL on TSN shows all CFL games, a more entertainment-focused Thursday Night Football telecast was added in 2015.

<i>CFL on CTV</i> Telecasts of the Canadian Football League

CFL on CTV is a presentation of Canadian Football League football airing on the CTV Television Network produced by Bell Media's The Sports Network. It was previously a standalone independently produced program on CTV from 1961 to 1986. CTV dropped coverage of the CFL after the 1986 season; and this coverage was replaced by TSN and the newly created Canadian Football Network.

John Wells is a Canadian sportscaster. His most recent show, which ended in April 2008, was Wells And Company on CJOB radio in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. He broadcast Canadian Football League games for over 30 years. He is the son of "Cactus" Jack Wells. He was inducted into the Canadian Football Hall of Fame in 1995.

Dave Randorf is a Canadian sportscaster who serves as the play-by-play announcer for the television broadcasts of the National Hockey League's Tampa Bay Lightning. He is best known for his work at TSN hosting the network's Canadian Football League studio show as well as TSN's and CTV's coverage of figure skating. He also did play-by-play for the NHL on TSN, World Hockey Championship, and the National Lacrosse League on TSN.

Duane Taquan Forde is a Canadian television broadcaster for TSN and a former player in the Canadian Football League (CFL).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Cuthbert</span> Canadian play-by-play sportscaster

Chris Cuthbert is a Canadian sportscaster. He currently serves as the lead play-by-play commentator with CBC Sports/Sportsnet for Hockey Night in Canada, and calls most national and regional games for the Toronto Maple Leafs on the network. Formerly, he worked for TSN, NBC, and CBC Sports in a multitude of roles. He and Glen Suitor were the lead broadcast team for the CFL on TSN from 2008 to 2019 before Cuthbert gave that lead play-by-play role to Rod Smith.

NHL on Global was the de facto name of a television program that broadcast National Hockey League games on the Global Television Network. The program aired during the 1987 and 1988 Stanley Cup playoffs under the titles Stanley Cup '87 and Stanley Cup '88 respectively.

The following is a list of commentators to be featured in CBC Television's Olympic Games coverage.

CFL on NBC is a de facto branding for the Canadian Football League (CFL) games that have been carried on American broadcaster NBC or its sports network, NBCSN.

NBC made history in the 1980s with an announcerless telecast, which was a one-shot experiment credited to Don Ohlmeyer, between the Jets and Dolphins in Miami on December 20, 1980), as well as a single-announcer telecast, coverage of the Canadian Football League during the 1982 players' strike, and even the first female play-by-play football announcer, Gayle Sierens.

The following is a list of labor-management disputes that caused disruptions in television coverage in sports events. This doesn't include work stoppages of the sports themselves but coverage disruptions which caused interruption/cancellation of the telecast itself or substitute on-air talent. This can be on a network level or local level.

References

  1. Anderson, Bill (1990-11-24), "Grey Cup still has some shine: Large TV audience expected", Kitchener-Waterloo Record, p. E10, archived from the original on January 11, 2013, retrieved 2012-07-12
  2. Hickey, Pat (November 11, 1987). "CFL May Be Beyond Rescuing". Montreal Gazette. Retrieved January 2, 2014 via Chicago Tribune.