Everything about The Sports Network totally explained
The Sports Network (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 is owned by CTV Speciality Television Inc; a division of
CTVglobemedia (80%) and
ESPN (20%).
History
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,
Rogers 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 its flagship sports news show,
SportsCenter or other studio shows to TSN, the way
Fox Sports World Canada/
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. Also, TSN airs many ESPN programs in the same form and time-slots (see below).
The Globe and Mail reported that
CTVglobemedia is bid $1.4 billion (CDN) 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, for example, coverage on
CTV, TSN and
RDS. This wouldn't affect regional rights, which are controlled by the teams and held mainly by
Sportsnet. It is expected that CTV wouldn't 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. However in March of 2007, CBC Television retained the rights to Saturday night games and the Stanley Cup Finals in a new contract with the NHL. TSN renewed its national cable rights with expanded Canadian team coverage.
Alternate feed
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, in 1997 TSN was allowed to set up an alternate feed to air in place of the main TSN feed in designated areas. This alternate programming can make up a maximum of 10% of the TSN schedule - an average of 2.4 hours a day.
In fall 2006, TSN 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. In essence this means that for
digital cable and
satellite subscribers, TSN has two channels on which to air programming. The broadcaster's use of the alternate feed has changed significantly since this decision - the alternate feed now airs a much larger number of live events that can be aired nationally when the main feed is carrying another ongoing event.
The alternate feed has sometimes unofficially been referred to in the media as "TSN2". However, due to the 10% limit on alternate programming, it isn't a direct equivalent to a channel like
ESPN2, which carries a completely separate 24-hour schedule from ESPN proper; in fact the ESPN channels occasionally air split-feed programming themselves.
Programming
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 American rights.
The major U.S.-based leagues sell Canadian broadcasting rights separately, hence ESPN-branded coverage is sometimes found on
Sportsnet (baseball) or
The Score (college sports).
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 sub-licensed the English-language rights to selected games, including the playoffs, to CBC through 2007. 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.
In addition to Monday Night Football and the CFL, TSN broadcasts
NBC Sunday Night Football and the
NFL Network's package. Beginning in 2007, it produces a Sunday afternoon telecast for CTV, although the feed is taken from CBS or FOX.
It also shares the Canadian broadcast rights to the
PGA Tour with
The Golf Channel, as well as
NASCAR, the
Toronto Blue Jays, and the
National Basketball Association with Sportsnet and/or The Score. TSN's NBA coverage mostly features the
Toronto Raptors, but it does hold exclusive Canadian broadcast rights to the NBA Finals, using the
ABC feed.
As noted elsewhere, much of TSN's coverage, especially for the NFL, NBA games not involving the Raptors, UEFA Champions League,
Grand Slams, Indy Racing League, and NASCAR, is simulcast with ESPN or
ABC. Any U.S. programming available in high definition (regardless of network) is also broadcast on TSN's HD feed.
TSN often picks up American feeds of NHL games involving American teams if NBC or
Versus is televising the game in the U.S. so they can save production costs and sim-sub on Bell ExpressVu. In almost a reverse fashion, TSN's coverage of the
NHL Entry Draft is simulcast on Versus, 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.
Hockey
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
Wednesday Night Hockey. 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.
Hockey Canada and TSN are in the middle of a 7-year contract 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.
Like the CBC's
Hockey Night in Canada, TSN has attracted criticism from fans of Western Canadian hockey clubs for refusing to split the network to ensure that teams scheduled to receive a local team's game receive the entire game. If the eastern game (most often involving the
Toronto Maple Leafs) runs into overtime or a shootout fans of the western club will miss a portion of their game.
Canadian content
TSN has frequently produced its own coverage of events based in Canada, including NHL, CFL, Blue Jays, and
curling events. The TSN Skins game was an invitational curling tournament sponsored and operated by the network. For major national and international events, including the Tim Hortons 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, 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.
Wrestling
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 addition to limits on the amount of live programming the Score can air in a week.
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 didn't end the relationship between TSN and WWE as the
2007 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony was aired on the network.
Criticism
TSN has been criticized for providing a much more focussed look towards
Toronto teams in its coverage, earning the moniker "
Toronto Sports Network" from some critics. This may be due to the demographics of sports fans in Canada: Toronto is the largest market, the
Maple Leafs are the most popular NHL team, and the city hosts the only
NBA,
MLB, and
MLS teams in Canada. This perception of 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 Boxing or
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.
Other affiliations
TSN's sister
French language sports service is
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.
Personalities
Current
Various ESPN reporters and analysts may also be featured.
Former
David Amber (now a reporter for ESPN)
Lisa Hillary (now an anchor and reporter at Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic)
Dan Shulman (now play-by-play for ESPN, although TSN may simulcast games he calls)
Teresa Kruze (now an anchor and reporter at CTVglobemedia's 24 news channel based in Toronto; CP24.
Original programs
CFL Live- Live coverage of CFL games with Dave Randorf in studio and a panel joining him to analyze the games- Jock Climie, Matt Dunigan and Chris Schultz. Friday broadcasts are known as Friday Night Football.
In this Corner- The latest news and reports from world of Boxing with Darren Dutchyshen and Russ Anber
NHL on TSN- Live coverage of NHL games
Off The Record- talkshow featuring various personalities discussing the latest Sports headlines with Michael Landsberg
SportsCentre- Flagship news show on the network
TSN Profile- Biographical portrait of various sports personalities
TSN The Reporters- Sunday roundtable debate that examines the issues making headlines with Dave Hodge and featuring top Canadian Sports journalists Damien Cox, Michael Farber and Steve Simmons
That's Hockey- All the latest news and reports from the National Hockey League with Gino Reda
TSN Skins Game - Annual curling bonspiel
TSN HD
TSN HD is a high definition simulcast of TSN that launched on August 15, 2003. TSN HD airs widescreen and high-definition feeds of sporting events when available. On September 25, 2006, SportsCentre transitioned to HD, airing high definition highlights of sporting events when possible, adding even more high definition content to the channel.
The "Parking Lot"
Until April 30, 2008, both TSN and its main competitor Rogers Sportsnet were based at 9 Channel Nine Court in the Toronto neighbourhood of Agincourt. Sportsnet, originally controlled by CTV prior to its acquisition of TSN in 2000, has been based there from the start and never moved out. Hence, when on-air hosts, such as Darren Dreger, move from one channel to the other, it has been referred to as "crossing the parking lot" or, less commonly, "crossing the street". Some at Sportsnet had complained about feeling like "poor country cousins" to CTV and TSN at Agincourt .
This peculiarity has been made light of by a couple of notable hosts on Rogers Sportsnet. Bob McCown, a radio host on Rogers-owned The Fan 590, has constantly commented on his show Prime Time Sports (a simulcast of his radio show on The Fan 590) that Sportsnet executives throw bottles across the street at the TSN studios. In addition, Sportsnet Connected anchor Sean McCormick has openly stated on-air that he drives to work with his wife, Jennifer Hedger, who anchors SportsCentre on TSN.
On April 30 2008, Rogers Sportsnet moved broadcast operations from the CTV compound in Agincourt to Downtown Toronto to the Rogers Building, a cluster of buildings in the Mount Pleasant-Jarvis Street area.
Further Information
Get more info on 'The Sports Network'.
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