The Canadian Football Network (CFN) was the official

television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of leasing the right to broadcasting television shows and radio programs to multiple television stations and radio stations, without going through a broadcast network. It is common in the United States wher ...

service of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) 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 c ...

from 1987 to 1990.

History

Background

CFN broadcasts mainly aired on stations via the

Atlantic Satellite Network CTV 2 Atlantic is a Canadian cable television channel serving Atlantic Canada owned by Bell Media, with its studios located in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Owned by the Bell Media subsidiary of BCE Inc., it operates as a ''de facto'' owned-and-operated ...

and future

Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Canadian English-language terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's second most-watched private terrestrial television network after C ...

affiliates, in addition to at least one station in the United States ( ABC affiliate WVNY-TV in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...

, which serves the larger, nearby

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

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 CTV may refer to: Television * Connected TV, or Smart TV, a TV set with integrated internet North America and South America * CTV Television Network, a Canadian television network owned by Bell Media ** CTV 2, a secondary Canadian televisio ...

completely dropping their CFL coverage following the 1986 season. CFN was conceptualized by then CFL Commissioner

Douglas Mitchell Douglas Harding Mitchell, (February 19, 1939 – July 20, 2022) was a Canadian Football player, executive, and commissioner. A graduate of Colorado College and the University of British Columbia (UBC), Mitchell played three games for the BC ...

Hamilton and Toronto

In its first year on the air, the CFL experimented with the TV blackout policy as four games (two in

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilto ...

and two in

Toronto Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the anch ...

) were televised in the

market.

CFN in the United States

In addition to being shown on the above-mentioned Burlington, Vermont station, from

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, ...

1989 File:1989 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The Cypress Street Viaduct, Cypress structure collapses as a result of the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake, killing motorists below; The proposal document for the World Wide Web is submitted; The Exxo ...

, a weekly CFN game telecast, including playoffs and the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup (french: Coupe Grey) is both the championship game of the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the trophy awarded to the victorious team playing in the namesake championship of professional Canadian football. The game is contested be ...

championship, aired in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

nationally on a tape-delay basis on

ESPN ESPN (originally an initialism for Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by ESPN Inc., owned jointly by The Walt Disney Company (80%) and Hearst Communications (20%). The ...

Grey Cup coverage

CFN's Grey Cup coverage was completely separate from CBC's coverage (whereas from

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses ( February 25, July 22 and August 20) and two total lunar eclipses ( February 10, and August 6). The world population increased by 2.1% this year, the highest increase in history. Events J ...

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal en ...

, 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 The 76th Grey Cup was the 1988 Canadian Football League championship game that was played at Lansdowne Park in Ottawa, between the BC Lions and the Winnipeg Blue Bombers. The Blue Bombers defeated the favoured Lions 22–21. This was the first Gre ...

game, CFN reported that its telecasts that season were seen in 14 countries, including the U.S.,

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

and

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

. The 1988 Grey Cup was the last game for veteran

Winnipeg Blue Bombers The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are a professional Canadian football team based in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The Blue Bombers compete in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member club of the league's West division. They play their home games at IG Fie ...

offensive lineman Nick Bastaja. The next season, he joined the CFN crew as a colour commentator. Former

Edmonton Eskimos The Edmonton Elks are a professional Canadian football team based in Edmonton, Alberta. The club competes in the Canadian Football League (CFL) as a member of the league's West Division and plays their home games at the Brick Field at Comm ...

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, credited for raising the production quality of CFL telecasts (which was sorely lacking in the mid- to late-1980s) to near- NFL calibre levels. However, it did not do well financially (most of the rights fees the CFL made from CBC and TSN were diverted to cover the CFN's expenses), and the league discontinued the network after the 1990 season. CFN was also supposed to work like a normal television network in that it was meant to get its money solely from sponsors. After the CFN shut down, all playoff and Grey Cup games would be exclusively broadcast on CBC Television from 1991 to 2007 and TSN from 2008 to the present and into the foreseeable future.

Commentators

Play-by-play/pregame hosts * Dave Hodge * Bob Irving Colour commentators/Pregame analysts * Nick Bastaja * Ian Beckstead * Jan Carinci *

Joe Faragalli Joe Faragalli (April 18, 1929 – April 10, 2006) was a gridiron football player and coach who had most of his success in the Canadian Football League (CFL). Faragalli played guard at Villanova University from 1950 to 1953, and was the team c ...

* Dan Kepley *

Lary Kuharich Joseph Lawrence "Lary" Kuharich Jr. (December 20, 1945 – November 13, 2016) was an American football coach who was most recently the offensive coordinator of the Arena Football League's Columbus Destroyers. He was the son of former Notre Dame F ...

Tom Larscheid Tom Larscheid (born April 6, 1940) is a former Vancouver-based radio sports broadcaster and football player. After a career playing college and CFL football, he was the colour commentator for the CFL's BC Lions and the NHL's Vancouver Canucks for ...

* Neil Lumsden * Mike Riley * Mike Clemons The theme music package for CFN was provided by

Donald Quan Donald Quan (born 1962) is a Canadian composer of film and world music, best known for writing the scores to television shows '' Relic Hunter'' and '' Mutant X''. Career Born in Toronto, Ontario, and schooled at the Berklee College of Music in ...

References

External links

CFL.ca Network

The Sports Arena

rec.sport.football.canadian
{{DEFAULTSORT:Canadian Football Network Canadian Football League on television 1980s Canadian sports television series 1990s Canadian sports television series 1987 Canadian television series debuts 1990 Canadian television series endings Television syndication packages Defunct broadcasting companies of Canada Simulcasts ESPN original programming Television channels and stations established in 1987 Television channels and stations disestablished in 1990