(commonly known as '''TSN''') is a
Canadian English Language Cable Television Specialty Channel and is
Canada 's leading
English Language Sports Television Channel . TSN premiered in
1984 , in the second group of
Canadian specialty cable channels. Essentially designed as a Canadian version of
ESPN , the extremely successful American all-sports cable channel, TSN remains the top-rated service on Canadian
Cable and
Satellite Television owned by
CTV Speciality Television Inc . (managed by
CTVglobemedia .)
Licensed by the
Canadian Radio-television And Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) on
April 2 ,
1984 as ''Action Canada Sports Network'', the channel was launched on September 1
st of the same year as "The Sports Network", or "TSN". TSN was originally the property of
Labatt Brewing Company , partly to help market the company's
Flagship Products but also to act as a vehicle for the
Toronto Blue Jays baseball team, also a Labatt property at that time. Labatt was forced to spin off TSN once it was acquired by
Interbrew to satisfy foreign ownership rules. As of
2005 most Blue Jays games were again on a service affiliated with the owner of the team, but that service is now TSN's chief rival,
Sportsnet .
Labatt's broadcasting assets were sold to a privately held consortium named NetStar Communications, the investors of which included a number of Canadian firms as well as ESPN, which held about 30%. In
2000 , after ESPN blocked two attempts by the Canadian partners to sell NetStar to
CanWest Global ,
CTV acquired the Canadian partners' shares thanks in part to ESPN's disapproval of CanWest Global.
Today the majority owner of TSN is
CTVglobemedia , which became CTV's parent in early
2001 . ESPN retains a minority share, and as part of that restructuring in 2001, got CTV to agree to change the name to ESPN Canada. That change never went through, partly due to the popularity of the TSN brand in Canada but primarily because the CRTC, Canada's broadcasting regulator, refused to allow the name change. ESPN also firmly denied occasional rumours that it would consider outsourcing production of their flagship sports news show,
SportsCenter or other studio shows to TSN, the way
Fox Soccer Channel 's
Fox Soccer Report is produced by
CKND-TV (a
Global Television station) in Winnipeg. The CRTC did permit ESPN to retain some input on the direction and look of TSN. That decision resulted in ESPN redesigning TSN's logo to look somewhat like its own.
As a result of occasional
Blackouts for TSN programming, as well as its regional coverage for
Toronto Maple Leafs games which is restricted to Ontario, TSN operates two feeds – a main feed and an occasionally-used alternate feed, unofficially known as "TSN2". This should not be confused with the separate "
TSN2 " channel approved by the CRTC in 2000, but never implemented due to restrictions on live programming. Regionalized programming can make up a maximum of 10% of the TSN schedule - an average of 2.4 hours a day. In fall 2006, the channel was
allowed by the CRTC to air multiple feeds nationally, with the alternate feed only available on digital platforms, as had previously been permitted for SportsNet. The restriction of only 10% alternate programming remains in place; TSN2's use is expected to be limited to regional games and coverage of additional live events when the main feed is otherwise obligated.
''
The Globe And Mail '' recently reported that
CTVglobemedia is bidding $1.4 billion over 10 years for full Canadian broadcasting rights to the
National Hockey League , which would include cable and over-the-air rights in both English and French, i.e., coverage on
CTV , TSN and
RDS . This would not affect regional rights, which are controlled by the teams and held mainly by
Sportsnet . It is expected that CTV would not air playoff games as regularly as does
CBC Television , due to other programming commitments, but additional games could air on TSN2 and the
NHL Network , another CTVglobemedia outlet.
{Link without Title} However in March of 2007, CBC Television retained the rights to Saturday night games in a new contract with the NHL.
. The appearance of the "BottomLine" ticker and logo are identical on both networks, although during ''SportsCentre'', TSN uses a larger ticker resembling the one used on
ESPNEWS ]]
TSN's flagship program is a highlights and sports news show that airs several times a day. Prior to fall 2001, the show was called ''Sportsdesk''. As part of TSN's corporate restructuring in 2001, ESPN licensed the name ''SportsCenter'' and its SC logo to TSN (and permitted TSN to Canadianize the name by spelling it ''
SportsCentre ''). In the fall of 2001, TSN dropped the name Sportsdesk and replaced it with the ESPN-branded ''SportsCentre'' name and SC logo. TSN's news studio was then redesigned to look like ESPN's and even promo commercials were recorded that resembled
Those Used By ESPN To Promote Its ''SportsCenter'' . In 2006, TSN built a new studio to support high-definition broadcasts and on
September 25 , ''SportsCentre'' became the first daily newscast in Canada to be broadcast in
High Definition .
TSN also airs ESPN original programming, including ''
Sunday NFL Countdown '', ''
Monday Night Football '' and ''
Pardon The Interruption '', as well as a number of events for which ESPN owns the worldwide or
North America n rights.
The major U.S.-based leagues sell Canadian broadcasting rights separately, hence ESPN-branded coverage is sometimes found on
Sportsnet or
The Score .
The network covers and broadcasts most major national and international sports, such as
National Hockey League ,
National Football League ,
UEFA Champions League and
Canadian Football League games, and
Formula One auto racing.
TSN is the master rights-holder for the CFL, but sublicenses selected games, including the playoffs, to CBC. But, on December 20, 2006, the rights to all CFL games were transferred to TSN and French sister station
RDS as of the 2008 season, playoff and
Grey Cup games included.
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In addition to Monday Night Football and the CFL, TSN broadcasts
NBC Sunday Night Football .
It also shares the Canadian broadcast rights to the
PGA Tour — for which it airs virtually all early-round coverage — as well as
NASCAR , the
Toronto Blue Jays , and the
National Basketball Association (most games featuring the
Toronto Raptors ). TSN is the exclusive Canadian broadcaster of the NBA Finals.
Coverage of many of these events, especially for the NFL, NBA games not involving the Raptors, UEFA Champions League, Indy Racing League, and NASCAR (starting in 2007), are simulcast with ESPN or
ABC . Any ESPN, ABC, or NBC programming available in high definition is usually also available on TSN's HD feed.
TSN often picks up American feeds of NHL games involving American teams if NBC is televising the game in the U.S. so they can sim-sub on Bell ExpressVu. TSN also features extensive Tennis coverage including Live coverage of all 4
Grand Slams as well as the
Tennis Masters Series . TSN almost always picks up the American feeds of tennis and golf events.
In almost a reverse fashion, TSN's coverage of the
NHL Entry Draft is simulcast on the United States'
Versus network, although ESPN did this for previous drafts; this is because TSN offers coverage similar to what ESPN does for the
NFL Draft and
NBA Draft .
TSN bills itself as the 'home for Hockey' in Canada. TSN holds the national rights to broadcast the
NHL in Canada except for Saturday nights and playoff games involving Canadian teams (those rights belong to
CBC for their ''
Hockey Night In Canada '' program). On Wednesday nights, they enjoy "exclusive" rights, meaning no regional NHL broadcast in Canada may compete with TSN's. Their broadcasts on this night are branded ''. Their entire NHL package is branded the '''''
NHL On TSN '''''. They also air regional games for the
Toronto Maple Leafs that are only available in
Ontario , except for the
Ottawa area. The remainder of the country receives alternate programming in those cases, usually a simulcast of the
NHL Network because Toronto accounts for so much of TSN's national audience.
Beginning in 2008-09, the NHL will change the determination of playoff television rights in Canada. TSN will now have the third, fifth, and seventh choices of the first-round playoff series, regardless of the teams involved. This means that, for the first time since the 80`s, Canadian-based teams may have their playoff games appear on cable, instead of over-the-air. http://slam.canoe.ca/Slam/Hockey/NHL/2007/03/27/3844918-sun.html
Hockey Canada and TSN are in the middle of a 7-year contract extension that gives TSN the rights to broadcast the
IIHF World Junior Championships ,
Men's and
Women's World Hockey Championship , Men's Under-18 World Championships,
Allan Cup ,
Royal Bank Cup ,
Spengler Cup ,
Telus Cup and ESSO Women's Nationals.
TSN has frequently produced its own coverage of events based in Canada, including NHL, CFL and
Curling games. The TSN Skins game was an invitational curling tournament sponsored and operated by the network. For major national and international events, including the Tim Horton's Brier, the Scott Tournament of Hearts and the Ford World Championships, it has historically had a curling broadcast deal where the round-robin and page-playoff quarter-finals have aired on the network, while the semi-final and final rounds air on
CBC .
However, as of June 15, 2006, the
Canadian Curling Association announced that TSN/
CTV will obtain exclusive rights to curling broadcasts in Canada as of the 2008-09 season
{Link without Title} , shutting the CBC out of the championship weekend for the first time in 40-plus years.
Canadian
University Sports events are also sometimes featured, as well as coverage of both women's international hockey and
NWHL games.
TSN featured live
Professional Wrestling in the form of
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE)'s flagship show, ''
RAW '' for over a decade. However, the ''WWE Raw'' program, which aired
Live , occasionally had been censored live for extremely violent scenes, or when female wrestlers or
Characters were assaulted by male wrestlers. These actions are supposed to be in order to meet Canadian broadcast standards, with
Repeat Broadcasts often more heavily edited.
This has disappointed many
Wrestling fans over the years, and is unusual since the violence of wrestling scenes are not significantly different from other television programs aired on regular Canadian networks. It was expected that in fall
2006 , when TSN started airing the ESPN iteration of ''
Monday Night Football '' (as well as the ''
NBC Sunday Night Football '' games), that ''WWE RAW'' was expected to air on
Tape Delay during the NFL season. However, WWE decided to move the program to
The Score rather than air on
Tape Delay , although ''RAW'' continues to air on tape delay on
The Score by 15 minutes, for editing purposes.
In
2004 , both TSN and
Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) Wrestling, (known then as NWA-TNA), erroneously announced that ''
IMPACT! '' would air on the network, however the deal was never completed and the article on the TSN Wrestling page was taken down shortly after. However, TSN's French-language sister network RDS airs the program.
In past years, TSN also aired shows from the
American Wrestling Association (AWA),
Stampede Wrestling and
World Championship Wrestling (WCW) ''
Monday Night Nitro '', as well as producing a one-hour show called ''Pro Wrestling Plus'', which featured highlights from various promotions and was hosted by Stampede announcer
Ed Whalen ; that program was the Canadian equivalent of the syndicated American program ''Pro Wrestling This Week''.
The final episode of ''WWE RAW'', aired
July 31 ,
2006 , although it did not end the relationship between TSN and WWE as the
2007 WWE Hall Of Fame induction ceremony was aired on the network.
Outside
Ontario , critics jokingly call TSN the ''Toronto'' Sports Network, and charge it with a bias towards
Toronto teams. This is an extension of the general criticism within Canada that government and national networks focus on Central Canada at the expense of the rest of Canada. Some consider this to be justified, being that Toronto is the largest market in
Canada . This perception has been taken advantage of by the network's main rival
Rogers Sportsnet , which operates four different regional feeds so as to air more regional coverage of local teams. The broadcasting of events with limited interest in Canada (such as
NASCAR ) instead of more popular events such as
Canadian Football League games is also a frequent bone of contention. This may be addressed by the recent approval of an alternate feed and broadcasting of all CFL games starting in
2008 . When TSN aired the 2007
Telcel-Motorola 200 , TSN chose to air it at a late night timeslot and abbrieviate its coverage of the events by cutting the period of time between lap 4 and lap 32 in the span of one commercial break. TSN has also at times, aired Bowling and Golf instead of
Formula 1 .
TSN's sister
French Language sports service is ''
Le Réseau Des Sports '' (RDS). Other services managed by TSN include
ESPN Classic Canada ,
NHL Network Canada ,
TSN2 and
OLN .
TSN also hosts much of Canada's supplementary Olympic coverage, being the first pay-TV station in the world to ever broadcast the Olympics with the
1988 Olympic Winter Games in Calgary, and having been part of the CBC's coverage from
1996 to
2008 . The station will be part of
CTV 's coverage from
2010 to
2012 . TSN has a similar agreement with Rogers Sportsnet to share coverage of soccer's World Cup.
Sports news segments on CTV owned-and-operated stations and on
CTV Newsnet are co-branded with TSN.
is a ,
2006 , TSN's SportsCentre began operating in high-definition.
Also see
www.tsn.ca/hd
Presently, both TSN and its main competitor
Rogers Sportsnet are based in the
CTV complex in
Toronto .
Sportsnet , originally controlled by CTV prior to its acquisition of TSN, has been based there from the start and never moved out. When TV personalities, such as
Darren Dreger , move from one channel to the other, it has been referred to as crossing the parking lot, or crossing the street. Some at
Sportsnet have complained about feeling like "poor country cousins" to
CTV and TSN at
Agincourt .
1 Bob McCown , a radio personality for
The Fan 590 , constantly will make comments that executives from
Sportsnet will throw bottles across the street.
Sean McCormick , an anchor for
Rogers Sportsnet , has said on the air that he has driven to work with his wife who works for TSN,
Jennifer Hedger .
In
2007 , Rogers Sportsnet will leave the CTV compound in
Agincourt to downtown
Toronto to the
Rogers Campus , a cluster of buildings in the Mount Pleasant-Jarvis Street area.
