The Canadian Football Network (CFN) was the official

television syndication Broadcast syndication is the practice of content owners leasing the right to broadcast their content to other television stations or radio stations, without having an official broadcast network to air it on. It is common in the United States whe ...

service of the

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; , LCF) is a Professional gridiron football, professional Canadian football league in Canada. It comprises nine teams divided into two divisions, with four teams in the East Division (CFL), East Division and f ...

from 1987 to 1990.

History

Background

CFN broadcasts mainly aired on stations via the Atlantic Satellite Network and future

Global Television Network The Global Television Network (more commonly called Global, or occasionally Global TV) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English language, English-language terrestrial television, terrestrial television network. It is currently Canada's se ...

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

Burlington, Vermont Burlington, officially the City of Burlington, is the List of municipalities in Vermont, most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the county seat, seat of Chittenden County, Vermont, Chittenden County. It is located south of the Can ...

, which serves the larger, nearby

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

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 Hamilton may refer to: * Alexander Hamilton (1755/1757–1804), first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States * ''Hamilton'' (musical), a 2015 Broadway musical by Lin-Manuel Miranda ** ''Hamilton'' (al ...

and two in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

) were televised in the

market.

CFN in the United States

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

1987 Events January * January 1 – Bolivia reintroduces the Boliviano currency. * January 2 – Chadian–Libyan conflict – Battle of Fada: The Military of Chad, Chadian army destroys a Libyan armoured brigade. * January 3 – Afghan leader ...

1989 1989 was a turning point in political history with the "Revolutions of 1989" which ended communism in Eastern Bloc of Europe, starting in Poland and Hungary, with experiments in power-sharing coming to a head with the opening of the Berlin W ...

, a weekly CFN game telecast, including playoffs and the

Grey Cup The Grey Cup () 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 between the winners ...

championship, aired in the

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nationally on a tape-delay basis on

ESPN ESPN (an initialism of their original name, which was the Entertainment and Sports Programming Network) is an American international basic cable sports channel owned by the Walt Disney Company (80% and operational control) and Hearst Commu ...

Grey Cup coverage

CFN's Grey Cup coverage was completely separate from

CBC CBC may refer to: Media * Cadena Baja California or Grupo Cadena, a radio and television broadcaster in Mexico * Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Canada's radio and television public broadcaster ** CBC Television ** CBC Radio One ** CBC Music ** ...

's coverage (whereas from

1971 * The year 1971 had three partial solar eclipses (Solar eclipse of February 25, 1971, February 25, Solar eclipse of July 22, 1971, July 22 and Solar eclipse of August 20, 1971, August 20) and two total lunar eclipses (February 1971 lunar eclip ...

- 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

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and

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. 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 (CFL), West division. They play thei ...

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 Commonwealth Stadium. The E ...

fullback

Neil Lumsden Neil James Lumsden (born December 19, 1952) is a Canadian politician and retired professional football player. Lumsden was elected to the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in the 2022 provincial election. He serves as Minister of Sport. 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 The National Football League (NFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional American football league in the United States. Composed of 32 teams, it is divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National ...

broadcasts. CFN was produced by Paul Graham, who received multiple awards for his football coverage. 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. 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 * Dave Hodge * Bob Irving Colour commentators/Pregame analysts * Nick Bastaja * Ian Beckstead * Jan Carinci * Joe Faragalli * Dan Kepley *

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

* Tom Larscheid *

* Mike Riley * Mike Clemons The theme music package for CFN was provided by Donald Quan.

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