US satelitte cos. televising canadian football. Starts June 12, 2008?

Question

Dish claims they do through the Top 250 programs plus HD Worldsports Ultimate package. I need to know if anyone knows for sure? It's an eighteen month contract to get satelitte.

Answer 1

The US broadcast schedule hasn't been released.  Check this web page for updates.

http://www.cfl.ca/page/u-s-broadcast

Edit:

As of Jun 12, it still hasn't been set, I presume the pre-season games aren't being broadcast, the regular season starts June 26.

All CFL on TSN games will be available on CFL.ca Broadband outside of Canada.

Answer 2

dude, the question wasn't about expansion,  i gather the idea of the league expanding gives you a wet dream, but the nfl has 32 teams and lots of pointless games, in the cfl a team will play to its fullest in the last week with a 1-16 record just to win one more,

do you actually watch the sport?

Answer 3

I was in the states watching a CFL game on satelitte with some NFL fans... they were completely astonished at how different the game was... the couldn't grasp the concept of all the movement before the snap... it was kind of funny actually... but they did say it was exciting.

I know that's a bit off topic... but I hope the question is true... cuz then more Americans would maybe watch and get the CFL a better market. and maybe better players =)

Answer 4

There is good news and bad news for this question.  The good news is that the CFL is notorious for announcing their US/International package at the very last minute and rarely does that package include the pre-season games.  One season, the entire US broadcast package was not announced until two days before start of the regular season and some International outlets were announced after the season began.  Poor America One (the US distributor) had so little time to sell commercials because of the late announcement that for the first two weeks they had to fill missing commercial holes with a looped CFL highlight package.  These facts alone give the CFL up to two more additional weeks to get a deal done.  No news right now on a broadcast deal for the US doesn't mean it won't happen at all.    Based on that precedent, I'd give the CFL until June 24 to make an announcement.

Now the bad news.  It appears that the CFL's long time US syndicator, America One Network, will not be returning in 2008.  There is no mention of the CFL anywhere on their website anymore.  A1 Sports was the one who received either the TSN or CBC feed from Canada and made it available to all of the US sports regional channels, as well as their own network.  If the CFL had to go shopping for a new distributor, that might mean no CFL for the US this year.  It's possible that TSN may be milking their CFL monopoly and just expects too much from a US broadcaster.  We'll see soon enough.  All we can do down here is keep an eye on the CFL's website for an announcement.

FYI, according to a statement released today by CFL Commissioner Marc Cohon, any chance of a bigger involvement with the NFL is currently off the table.  Considering that several of the regional sports channels that previously broadcast the CFL also carry official shows for their local/regional NFL teams, I wonder if the NFL might forbid those stations from showing CFL content after such a negative public statement.  Perhaps these talks with the NFL stalled negotiations with any other US broadcaster partner.  If so, let's hope Cohon and the CFL had a backup plan to get these games across the border.

Answer 5

This kind of gets to the heart of how having only 8 teams hurts the CFL.  8 Teams = 4 games a week.  Usually 2 of the teams are garbage meaning most weeks only 2 games will be competitive.

The US Market of football fans already sees the CFL as a little squirrelly.  Seeing non-competitive games adds to that.

Lets say that the CFL wants to take a shot at the US TV Market by stealing the UFL's plan  --- friday Night football.  The NFL cannot play on friday night.  The CFL has a deal with canadian networks to provide football games from thursday to sunday.

Expansion to 10 could allow the CFL to put two games on Friday at the same time and market a friday night game to the US featuring the best matchup that week.  They can't do that now because their 4 games a week are already spoken for.

If they had say 14 teams they could offer US networks 4 games on friday -- two east coast matchups followed by two west coast matchups to chose from to create a competitive doubleheader.  That will get the CFL on a basic cable network rather than some specialty extended package.  That will expose the CFL to casual viewers and unfamiliar viewers which would create American fans, that would in turn drive up merchandising revenue accross the league.

As long as the CFL has only 8 teams, they have to be considered on the endangered list.  That is a real shame for a  Canadian born cultural instituion.

Hey defeatist Canadian who doesn't know how to spell "p**p" --- I have NEVER bad mouthed the CFL.  I have only badmouthed shortsighted pinheads who refuse to see what conditions staying at 8 creates --- like having so little content that CFL games are often only found on afterthought expanded cable networks in the US.

The reality is with 8 teams you have 4 games.  You cannot have 2 games playing at the same time on a friday and keep your Canadian broadcaster happy.

I will admit that technically I didn't so much answer the heart of this question, but I thought the previous respondent already did as much as I could on the subject, so  I chose to add complimentary information.

Rocker - It isn't a question of effort.  All things being equal, a casual football fan who isn't sold on the CFL would rather see a matchup of a front running team and a playoff bubble team than a playoff team and your 1-16 effort team.  That is what having two games to chose from in a friday time slot would offer a US broadcasting company.

Answer 6

Hey Expansion Man,

The CFL often does play two games on Friday.  Sometimes they have double or tripleheaders on Saturday or Sunday, too.  Please learn the facts before you start bad-mouthing our league.

Thanks.