 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Canadian Football Network" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(September 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheCanadian Football Network (CFN) was the officialtelevision syndication service of theCanadian Football League from 1987 to 1990.
CFN broadcasts mainly aired on stations via theAtlantic Satellite Network and futureGlobal Television Network affiliates, in addition to at least one station in the United States (ABC affiliateWVNY-TV inBurlington, Vermont, which serves the larger, nearbyMontreal 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 toCTV completely droppingtheir CFL coverage following the1986 season. CFN was conceptualized by thenCFL CommissionerDouglas Mitchell.
In itsfirst year on the air, the CFL experimented with the TVblackout policy as four games (two inHamilton and two inToronto) were televised in theHamilton-Toronto market.
In addition to being shown on the above-mentioned Burlington, Vermont station, from1987-1989, a weekly CFN game telecast, including playoffs and theGrey Cup championship, aired in theUnited States nationally on atape-delay basis onESPN.
CFN's Grey Cup[1] coverage was completely separate fromCBC's coverage (whereas from1971-1986, 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 the1988 Grey Cup game, CFN reported that its telecasts that season were seen in 14 countries, including theU.S.,Great Britain,France,Italy,Spain,West Germany,Norway,Sweden andFinland.
The 1988 Grey Cup was the last game for veteranWinnipeg Blue Bombers offensive linemanNick Bastaja. Thenext season, he joined the CFN crew as a colour commentator. FormerEdmonton Eskimos fullbackNeil Lumsden was CFN's primary colour man, whileDave Hodge andBob Irving, a long-time voice of the Blue Bombers, provided play-by-play.
CFN was critically acclaimed. The production quality of CFL telecasts had noticeably fallen behind the standards of the other North Americanmajor professional sports leagues by the mid- to late-1980s. CFN was widely credited with raising CFL production values to a calibre comparable to contemporaryNational Football League broadcasts.[citation needed] CFN was produced byPaul Graham, who received multiple awards for his football coverage.[2][3]
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 andTSN were diverted to cover CFN expenses.[4] The league discontinued the network after the1990 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.[citation needed]
Play-by-play/pregame hosts
Colour commentators/Pregame analysts
The theme music package for CFN was provided byDonald Quan.
| Teams |
| ||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Awards |
| ||||||||||
| Broadcasting |
| ||||||||||
| Other | |||||||||||
